Day 76 of Our RV Journey to Canada & Alaska 7/27/14 - A Day in Stewart, BC & Hyder, AK

Early this morning at 5:20 the alarm wakes me.   I look out the window, see that it is still raining, turn off my alarm, cover up even more and go back to la la land...I made a executive decision that I wasn't getting up with the chickens to go watch for bears.  (They probably won't see any anyway.)

Well, it turns out that Ginger did go, as well as Jesse & Bob.....they pulled into the parking lot at 5:50 am and waited until close to 6:00 am and walked up to the entry gate.   As they walked in the gate to the Fish Creek boardwalk they saw a black bear .  The bear was on the bridge , and then it walked down to the stream.  It walked & ran in the stream and on to the bank, and did that back & forth for awhile until it went down the stream and wasn't visible any longer.  While the bear was running and splashing in the water, it was trying to catch salmon.  The bear would run and dive into the stream trying to catch the salmon.  Bob got a great picture of that.

They stayed until 7:20, in the rain, watching for more bears along the boardwalk but did not see any more. There was more salmon today in the stream, so that is good news for viewing bear.  They decided to leave and not long after leaving the parking lot, they saw a grizzly bear walking along the stream next to the highway.

They stopped at Glacier Hyder Inn and ate a hearty breakfast before coming back to the campground.

When Bob got home, I was still snoozing away in bed.  I must of felt him get back in bed cause I asked him if they saw any bear and he told me they did.  I really didn't believe him, until later when I saw the pictures.  I figured he was just wanting to make me feel bad because I didn't go and missed out on the bear sighting.

It rained on and off all day long.  Bob went to the office and paid for another night here, which will make us leaving out Tuesday morning.  That will give us tomorrow to watch for bears again and get ready for our next two travel days.

We went to Ginger & Jesse's for dinner at 5:30.  After eating, we all got our rain gear on and Jesse drove us all to Fish Creek to watch for bear again.  It was misting and/or lightly raining the entire time we watched; we continued to watch, and watch, and about the time I thought we were going to be getting ready to leave, we could hear and see a commotion down at the far end of the boardwalk.  I could tell that the group of people down there had a bear in sight.   I looked down that way and was heading down , stretching over the railing when there was a empty spot and finally I could see it.  It was a black bear....it came walking across the stream quite a ways past the boardwalk.  It was walking from one bank to the other bank.  Soon, out from the leafy area on the far bank, came out a little black cub.  It walked over to momma bear and then they both crossed the stream, and moved back and forth from one bank to the other side's bank.  They finally made it on up the stream where the people in the middle and the start of the boardwalk could see.  The baby went into the bushes on the opposite side and it wasn't long she climbed up in a tree.  For a while they appeared to have left, but later made their appearance again for quite awhile.  The momma seemed more interested in eating leaves and foilage.  She must have been eating her salad before the entree.  She never did act to interested in the fish...maybe she is a vegetarian.

After the momma bear and baby bear left, we stuck around for awhile in the rain and then headed to the truck and left.

Seeing the bears was very exciting for me...I think out of all the animals that we have seen on this trip, the bears are my favorite.  They are such interesting creatures.

The low lying clouds in Hyder this evening...an eerie sight.

That's about it for our day.

Hope you have a great day!!

RV Park $38.31 Cap/

jl

Day 75 of Our RV Journey to Canada & Alaska 7/26/14 Saw Bear on Today's Travel Day to Stewart, BC & a Wolf in Hyder, Alaska

This morning we left our boondocking spot at 8:30 for another day of travel.  The first part of our travel was slow due to the condition of the highway so we didn't make very good time.  It was also rather boring.  But, the last third of our trip today went faster due to good highways and animal sightings.

We saw a total of 5 black bears on the last third of our travel today and they were all seen as a single bear in different sides of the highway along the route.  I got real good pictures of the first black bear alongside of the road on the right side.

In this picture below, the bear coudn't have been 2 feet outside my window (that I had to put down to take a good pic); OR better yet, it was just one lunge away from being on my lap...EEKS!!! Then, I tell Bob to close my window quickly after I snapped the picture cause it was spooking me out to be SO CLOSE

to the bear.  He, then, proceeds to tell me this story about a video he saw years ago of a bear that was in the back of a truck in a live bear trap that the Forestry Dept. was taking somewhere else to release.  The driver of the truck gets to a good natural wildlife area and opens his window. He has a rope contraption above his door on the outside of his truck so he can pull the rope from inside the cab to open the trap door.  Sounds safe enough!!!  The bear gets out and within a wink of an eye, the bear had jumped in the opened window before the guy had gotten it back up and was with him in his truck attacking him.  In the meantime, his partner next to him jumped out the front passenger door, and 'luckily' the driver was able to slide over and get out the door. The driver escaped with injuries but lived.  Don't you know that he had to change his briefs after that encounter!!  ANYWAY, enjoy this up close picture, because after that story my window will be UP taking the pic if a bear us that close!!!

After that bear sighting, which was the first, we were traveling and unable to stop to get pics due to the traffic behind us and not being able to stop since we were pulling our RV but would let Jesse & Ginger know location & what we saw just in case they could slow down &/or pull over, so check their blog for more bears if they were able to get pics.

We arrived at our destination of Stewart, BC, at approx. 2:40 p.m. and quickly found the campground we plan to stay at, Bear River RV Park. ($38.30 x 2 nights = $76.60 Cap).  It is full hook-up, WI FI slow, but works, Cable TV, includes Good Sam Discount.  We got parked and set up.

After a while, we got together to go to the reason for us being in this neck of the woods….bear viewing at Fish Creek in Hyder, Alaska.  Hyder is approx. 1 mile from Stewart, Canada.  The bear viewing area is a national parks place as Jesse is able to use his America The Beautiful pass that gets the rest of us in for free.  So, we are glad he is “old”; well, at least he’s older that the rest of us.

There is a wooden boardwalk with high railings that extends beside the Fish Creek.  This is the viewing area for black bear & grizzly bears that might come down to the rocky stream, as well as other animals.   This time of year, just starting about now, Grizzlies and black bear are seen often in the stream catching salmon that are going upstream.  Today, there are not many salmon that could be seen but heard they are coming this way.  Every day there will probably be more and more salmon seen here as the salmon run is just starting at this location.

It was raining so we were all clad in our rain gear.  We  stood around watching for about an hour or so and decided to go somewhere to eat dinner and return to watch some more.

We went to “Glacier Hyder Inn” that a ranger recommended.  It was in an old building and inside the walls  & much of the trim were covered with real paper money with people’s names, etc. written on the bills.  It was a large open room so there was a lot of money hanging on those walls…probably a nice little hefty amount of money.  I would be afraid the old building would burn to the ground.  The food was good and the waitresses were friendly.

After dinner, we went back to Fish Creek viewing area.  It was still pouring down rain.  We watched for quite a while  with no bear or anything sighted so we decided leave and head back to the campground.

This area averages 16 feet of rain per year so we are all glad that we have rain gear.

Going back to Stewart, we had to go through Canadian Customs.  (Going to Hyder there is not a US Customs to go through.)  There is about a mile between the two towns…but one is in Canada and the other is in Alaska.

When we got back, I started working on the blog, but ran into a problem getting into my blog.  I had to enter my Google username and password, which I did with no problem.  Then, it wanted to do a 2^nd Verification, in which Google sends a text message with a code that you enter at the 2^nd Verification page.  Well, we have a problem, there is no cell service here….closest is 200 miles we were told.  Other ways to get a code would take 2-3 days for Google to do a verification before I can get back on my blog.  Well, I threw my arms up in disgust, and gave up.  Bob gets aggravated with me cause I’m not trying to do something about it, so he starts working on the situation.  He, somehow, was able to get me to my blog.  By then, he is tired and goes to bed, but I stay up to work on my blog. First, I had to go through it seemed like hundreds of pics we took today to determine what pics I wanted to put on the blog.  Now, it is getting real late, and I decided to download all the pictures on our cards to the computer so we could start out fresh for the upcoming bear sightings.  That took quite a long time because I had several days of pictures on both cards.  I got that finished, while doing dishes and straightening up the LR & kitchen some,  and decided I better get to bed or I won’t want to get out of bed.  I will get 4 ½ hours as it is IF I can get to sleep right away.  Well, I never get to sleep right away…it usually takes me a long time to finally get to sleep.  I listened to the hard pounding of rain and already thought that if it is raining in the morning that I’m not going.  I really didn’t think Ginger would go either, so the guys could go together.  I guess, we will see what happens when my alarm goes off at 5:20….to go OR not to go.  I am NOT a morning person!!

Have a good day or good night, whichever it might be!!

Fd $23.00 Cap/

jl

Day 74 of Our RV Journey to Canada & Alaska 7/25/14 A Slow, Long Travel Day

This morning  Bob & I got ready to leave and hooked up to the truck early so that we had time to dump the tanks and wash our very filthy rig after yesterday’s travel.  The campground we stayed in had a pretty nice RV wash.  We waited in line for one rig to finish getting washed and then we used it.  It looked so much better after washing it….hard to believe how dirty our rig  can get in a day’s travel.    But then again, considering the roads yesterday that we were on, it’s completely understandable.

Jesse & Ginger was soon behind us waiting to use the RV wash.  We pulled up to let our’s dry when we were done, while Jesse washed their’s.  When Jesse got finished, he took the lead in today’s travel.  We were on the road right at 11:00 a.m. as planned.

Today, while traveling we saw a mule deer and 2 fawns.  They crossed the highway in front of Jesse.  We also saw a pine squirrel, a goat, a duck and some ducklings, black rabbit, wolf & red fox.

It was cloudy and rainy for the first part of the trip, raining hard for a while.

As we traveled on Hwy 37 we saw evidence of  a huge forest fire at some time.  There were acres and acres of trees  burnt.  On down the road at a rest stop, there was information on a bulletin board about the fire.  It happened in 2010 & 2011.

Bob got to drive on the bridge with the steel grated floor again.  He isn’t too fond of that type of bridge floor as he says it feels like his wheels are pulling from side to side. I took a picture of the Haman’s crossing that bridge with their rig.

We found a place to park our rig for the night near Dease Lake, Canada and was set up at 7:00 p.m.

Not long after setting up, we got a fire started and later roasted hot dogs & marshmallows over the fire.  We visited by the fire until the mosquitos drove us inside.

Jesse likes marshmallows about as much

as he likes his ice cream.

We travel again tomorrow, and hopefully will reach our destination …Stewart, Canada.  We will find a campground there to stay in.

Total Miles Traveled Today = 398 miles

Misc. $9.00 Csh/

jl

Day 73 of Our RV Journey to Canada & Alaska 7/24/14 - Another Long, Slow Travel Day in Alaska & into Canada

This morning we left our boondocking spot at 8:30 for a day of traveling.  We went  through Customs approx. 20 minutes after leaving.  They just asked us several questions and looked at our passports, but someone ahead of us was pulled over and they were checking out the contents in the covered bed of the truck.

We are now in the "YUKON" territory of Canada! 

We literally crept for approx. 100 miles on  Hwy #1 (Alaskan Highway) on the Canadian Side of the border between the Canadian Border and Haines Junction.  The highway was wavy, wash board, dirt, rock, pot holes , highway construction, wet, dusty, bumpy…you name it, it had it.

At one highway construction stop, Bob and I traded seats and I drove.  I have been wanting to drive the rig so knowing it was going to be slow  with not a lot of oncoming traffic, we thought it would be a good time to do it.  I drove for maybe an hour or so and never did get anxious or anything so I did good missing bumps, dodging potholes, and slowing down for the wavy conditions, loose rocky sections, etc.

Some pictures I took on the boring, bumpy trip.

These little pipe looking things are something

to help against damage to highways

from perma-frost.

This was at the intersection at Haines Junction..

 a church in Haines Junction

We drove a total of  315 miles today, getting to our destination of Whitehorse,Canada at 5:30 pm (Pacific Time).  We are staying overnight at Pioneer RV Park in Whitehorse. (1 night 30 amp/water/cable/300mg WIFI/ = $31.19 w/ Good Sams Disc. Cap1).

Bob washed the truck after we got set up and filled up with diesel.

Diesel ($4.99/gal x 37.92 gal= $189.25 Cap1)

jl