Travelblog

My trip made the cover of RVwest Magazine Feb 2011. Article and photographs inside.

Getting Ready

03-17 Taking a match to the idea
03-18 The 2009 Alaska Loop
03-19 mini-schedule
03-24 Ferry $
03-30 A good way to Drown
04-04 Maps and Books and Too Much to do
04-09 Got the BC Maps today
04-25 Bella Coola Detrour
04-28 NEW TRIP
04-29 Animation of "The Hill"
05-29 My Gear
06-17 Fire Arms
06-19 Slow Driving
06-19 Black Bears
06-21 Casita?
06-24 Renaissance Man Renaissance Cats
06-25 The rig ready this afternoon

On the Road

06-26 Kanab UT to Winnemucca NV
06-27 Winnemucca to Ellensburg
06-28 Ellensburg to Williams Lake
06-29 Williams Lake to Terrace
06-30 Terrace
07-01 Terrace to Prince Rupert
07-02 Prince Rupert to Ketchikan
07-03 Ketchikan to Prince of Wales Island
07-04 Prince of wales Island
07-05 Prince of Wales Island
07-06 Prince of Wales Island
07-07 Prince of Wales Island
07-08 Prince of Wales Island to Ketchikan
07-09 Ketchikan to Wrangell
07-10 Wrangell
07-11 Wrangell
07-12 Wrangell to Petersburg
07-13 Petersburg
07-14 Petersburg to Juneau
07-15 Juneau
07-16 Juneau to Haines
07-17 Haines
07-18 Haines to Skagaway
07-19 Skagway
07-20 Skagway
07-21 Skagway to Atlin
07-22 Atlin
07-23 Atlin to Watson Lake
07-24 Watson lake to Telegraph Creek
07-25 Telegraph Creek to Iskut
07-26 Iskut to Steward
07-27 Stewart to Smithers
07-28 Smithers to Prince George
07-29 Prince George to Bella Coola
07-30 Bella Coola
07-31 Bella Coola
08-01 Bella Coola
08-02 Bella Coola
08-03 Bella Coola to Port Hardy
08-04 Port Hardy to Bellingham
08-05 Bellingham to Yakima
08-06 Yakima to Twin Falls
08-07 Twin Falls to Kanab

Yakima WA to Twin Falls ID to Home

08-06 Yakima WA to Twin Falls ID

Got a decent start towards home from Yakima on the 6th and had planned on staying near Salt Lake... perhaps even dropping down to see Sebastian at his campground west of SLC but the weather got real windy with rain and hail and I just pulled over at a rest stop near Twin Falls Idaho in the late afternoon and sat it out.
Parked my little rig between two giant rigs to protect me from the wind! HA!!!

From Yakima to Utah border I was driving on roads with scoop-grooves.
It is as if they allow studded snows for too long and they grind a radial groove in the road of substantial depth and pretty much trucker in width.
When you drive it you are "in the trough" so to speak.
But my track is narrow compared to a Kenworth so I was forever ramping up one side of the groove to the other side.
It makes for an uncomfortable slurr-wiggle and if you are not careful that wiggle can launch you up and out of the trough only to have your trailing wheels get sucked down into the remaining one.
Needless to say this was a lot of work.
Add to this that the wind was a constant non-gusting 30mph AND it was raining and hailing then you can maybe see the struggle I was having.
I disconnected the anti sway bar and that helped a lot.
Anyway these Idaho Highways 83 82 84 are really dangerous for light weight rigs.

Just sayin

08-07 Twin Falls to Kanab

Finally got home today the 7th.

It was maybe two weeks too long... at least one week.
So now friends and relatives and my MOM know I am home safe.

To other followers this blog will be undergoing a great deal of editing... posting videos, maps, audio clips, images, and insipid ramblings.
So if your curiosity doesn't win out then certainly your appetite for laughter will.

Cheers

It's been fun!

Ron Smith

Bella Coola BC to Poart Hardy to Bellingham to Yakima WA

The ferry ride from Bella Coola to Port Hardy was an eternity.
This ferry has to be the slowest boat I've ever been on. It took 13 hours for a ride any other ferry in the fleet could have made in eight. Queen of the Chilliwack is 40 years old, rusty, with buckled floor plates on the auto deck that acted like speed bumps every four feet as you drove in!
She is a double ender (drive in one end and out the other) which means there is no bow and cant go fast.
Personally I thought these kinds of ferries were for short runs to save turnaround time or something.
When she hit the open sea of Queen Charollet Sound she rolles and pitched pretty bad and the captrain had to zig-zag to aline with the rollign seas.
Bella Coola is not a top priority for BC Ferries and it shows.

Anyway she is silly slow.. like 15 knots or something... a Mississippi river paddle wheeler... upstream!
I kept looking for someone out in point of the bow casting a sounding rope of fathom knots to check the depth, "Mark five, mark four, mark ???".
It was that slow.
Even this dolphin thought we were hitchhikers

But like all these slow boats even the most introverted open up to some talk and by the time we reached Port Hardy I had six new friends some of whom I can name and others I forgot.
Wondering: can you have a friend and not remember their name?
That's rude I suppose.
But I am not sure I understand all people anyway, so
08-04 Port Hardy BC to Bellingham WA

Two new friends were Jill and John a couple of Vancouver young people who needed a lift down to the nanaimo Ferry from Port Hardy... they and their two bikes.
We had a fine ride and some insightful discussions and I learned some... for example "Eskimo" is not politically correct. "Inuit" is the proper choice.

See what I mean?
The world belongs to the young.

Get out of their way and learn what you can from them.

So they went their way and I mine and I crossed the border into the Unites States of America at midnight last night,

A strange feeling came over me.

I am at odds with my country over a few things and pretty much everyone knows it but I felt so welcomed home when I came home.
My country of birth.. the country I love.
Just sayin

08-05 Bellingham WA to Yakima WA

Spent the night in a rest area near Bellingham WA and woke up late this morning and drove to an RV park here in Yakima

So here I sit.. time for some beer (SLASH) WINE and a cigar.

Its all about to close soon, this act.

Bella Coola Day Five

Sailing out out of Bella Coola tomorrow morning
The roads are going to be closed up to five more days so I went down to the travel agent and booked the ferry to port hardy where I will...

drive nearly the length of Vancouver Island to Nanaimo (did this five years ago)
where I'll...

pick up another ferry to Tsawwassen

Which gets my back into the United States!
I think I should start looking for my passport... somewhere... it's here somewhere.

So here is what happened and why I'm changing my route:

When I got here it was record heat and when the ocean gets temps like that it produces lots of large thunderheads and they move inland and produce lightening and fires everywhere.
Since there is only one driving route in there is one driving route out and that would be about 250 miles of forest which has multiple fires going on along it.

Anyway the night before last we got hit with the loudest blast of thunder I have ever heard. It rocked my little trailer... just from the sound wave.
This was about 3:0o AM
The next morning everyone was talking about it and come noontime we saw a patch of smoke coming out of a little canyon about 1/2 mile away.... about 500 feet up the mountain.
Withing just 60 minutes there was a helicopter dropping water on it.
He dropped his bucket in a high mountain lake behind us and flew it over the fire and after 30 trips he doused it pretty good and went home (note my use of the adverbish "pretty" here)

Well it popped back up again later in the evening

Borate bombers came today

We got an evacuation alert reading:

Please note the attached information bulletin re the Bella Coola situation.

Be advised that further to this bulletin, residents along hwy 20 between Mack Road and Snootli Creek, including Walker Island, have been issued evacuation alerts as a precautionary move.

Central Coast Regional District

Bella Coola, BC

The Canadian broadcasting system radio was full of the news about this.
They did telephone interviews of residents with the normal media spin, "Bella Coola residents flee Terror of Fire" yadda yadda

Hell, the entire town turned out to watch the show like a forth of July fireworks display (oops.. I mean Canada day fire works show). People were having BBQs on the side of the road and drinking beer and just taking in the sights
Here's picture of a grandma hip-carrying her toddler child down the road to see the show! to her immediate right is the fire and the show... all the cars of the town are lined up as you can see.

The winds began to shift so I thought I should move out.
spent the night at Clayton Falls down near the ferry but last I heard all is well at Eagle Lodge.

The Americans are coming, the Americans are coming....

Ron's leaving today - and we're going to miss him! He's asked me to talk a bit about the history of this place so here it is. Originally a homestead, the property had the Levelton house and barn on it. This is what it looked like about the mid '70's.

When we bought it in 1998,

Bella Coola Day Four

The road is open so off I go.
On the downhill run now
I got some great pictures to post but they will probably have to wait until I get home.
This blog will be under refinement for a month I guess as I get put in all the videos and maps and such.
So keep checking back for old posts with new stuff

OOPS

Or so I thought
The wind came up yesterday afternoon and they closed it down again... it remains closed.
They will probably open it up for a pilot car caravan this AM and close it down again if the wind comes up so I am getting ready...

More bad news

We had thunder storms come in last night and started more fires so now it looks like there are four or five fires on the road out of here
So here I sit... again

Here is a map of BC roads
Click on Bella Coola
It shows which roads are closed and and what areas.
It is 250 miles out of here so any dealy just screws it up big time

So is it a B&B? or a little hotel??

Good question Ron! Maybe this'll help...

The official classification for Eagle Lodge in Bella Coola is "Country Inn". So what's the difference between a Country Inn and a B&B?

A B&B is a private residence (the owners) with a business in it. The business is 2 -3 bedrooms rented by the night. Often shared bath, often seasonal. The owners main income is derived outside the B&B.

A Country Inn is a business with a private residence in it (owner/manager). Anywhere from 4 - 14 rooms with private bathrooms, usually year round. The owner/manager's main income is derived from the business.

Here at the Lodge it get's a bit confusing because we are operating under the classification of B&B. Not because we only have 2-3 rooms, and not because it's our private residence. Though it could be - pretty nice private home! But for a whole host of reasons around the Canada Select Star rating.

So for now we live in a Four Star Country Inn, in this beautiful Valley, working hair straight back for four and a half months of the year, and then take the rest of the year off.

.... so once in a while I have to say .... remind me .... why are we selling?

Addendum:
The fire has been all but put out, and the former Dormitory turned high-end Lodge has survived yet another assault. To give you some sense of this amazing building, let me fill you in on some little known secrets from its past.



The Lodge started out as a Dorm

The lodge was built in the mid 1980's as a dorm for boys attending the Seventh Day Adventist Academy. The school created a mission focus of taking all kids including ones that other SDA schools kicked out - the drug addicts, the alcoholics, the unloved children, everyone was welcome. However, this wasn't very politically correct (a pregnant teen standing under an SDA school sign, smoking). In 1993 the BC Conference gave up trying to force the school board to toe the line, and they closed the dorms and eliminated grades 11 and 12.



A Church, then low-income apartments

The dentist, Wendell Danielson, who had been the principal funder and driving force in building the Church, the School and the dorms, bought the building back from the Conference, intending to open it again. But the spirit had gone out of the staff and they slowly trickled away. The building went through several morphs, housing an open door style church, Wendell's dental clinic for a while, even low income housing. Finally, in 1998, Wendell sold the building to us and moved away.



A Group Home

We weren't sure what we would do with the building so for the first four years we operated a group home (that's like an orphanage only the children's parents are alive, just can't take care of them for one reason or another).



We conducted test marketing, identified that it would make a good tourism accommodation - with a lot of work - renovated including putting bathrooms in all the bedrooms (wouldn't those boys be envious now!) We did not renew the Group Home contract in March of 2003. Towards the end of the years as a group home, it was the only group home in the province where every teenager had their own bathroom!



In the end, a Country Inn

In May, we opened Bella Coola's Eagle Lodge as a Country Inn with a Canada Select rating of four stars. As part of the grand opening, we had the local Nuxalk twins Lance and Chris Nelson come and do a cleansing ceremony, releasing all the painful spirits that had found refuge in this rambling home. The lodge has always provided welcoming shelter in an inviting and warm atmosphere. The most often heard phrase after, “This is so beautiful” is “It feels like home!” We take that as a complement.



We operate from May to late September, and relax for the rest of the year. We have it for sale, as I'm a travel writer and would like to be a little more central to my writing projects. In the meantime, it's a very nice place to live. Oh yes - in the end, we adopted one of the children from the group home. I've attached our most recent family picture taken during our family reunion this winter. Patrick (front and centre) came to us straight from the hospital at birth. He is now nine years old.

Smoked in

I think my sister was snowed in at Big Bear CA once.
Well I am smoked in at Bella Coola.
There is a fire in the mountains east and the highway has been closed.
So I'll stay here until the highway opens.


Here are a few shots I took while out messing around





Clayton Falls




Odegard falls on a smoky evening

Bella Coola Day Two

I have three things I want to get out in this post
1- The Bella Coola Valley
2- the 4x4 trip I took today
3- this place where I am staying

Last first

On top is a picture I took yesterday after setting up.
This is one of my top five camp settings ever.
Awe inspiring
Eagle Lodge
It is primarily a lodge which is a hotel or an upscale B&B... I dunno but click on the link and read about it.
Also read more about the Bella Coola valley later in this post to get a sense of what those mountain peaks do for this valley but I am alone in this RV park with wifi, water, and shore power on a flat spot for $18C... nine toonies is all (I have to write something soon on the monetary system up here).
And of course the hosts are as always BC congenial... the smoothest nicest people on the face of this earth are these Canadians.
And Canadians can be found all over Canada too!
So not to leave this subject too early let's talk about the grounds
Well mowed and clean
They have room for four RVs, four or five tent campers waaay back in the woods and away from the RVers and they have a cute little cabin to tent out... with a microwave.
Toilets are clean and cared for pit-types
No laundry but they offer a laundry service... I got my normal six dollars worth of maytag-quarters laundry done for $5C (two toonies and a loonie).
Showers?
Talk about showers
This is the cutest outside-ish shower I have ever seen... check it out.














That was a thrilling shower... well "thrilling"? ummm hell it was great to stand in the gigantic big room with no worries about getting anything wet... no shower curtains to pull... no skid strips in the bottom of the tub to insure you dont fall.. it was like a wilderness shower and it was sorta thrilling to me (gimme a break).
I wanted to go right back and take another shower but I dont think its part of the deal.
I'm going to watch for when the lights go out in the lodge tonight and sneak back in and do a wilderness shower in the dark!!!

... this is a long glaciated valley similar to so many on the BC coast. When looking at it from above (map) for the first time, and understanding that glaciers are plastic flows squeezed out of the bottom of thick and heavy ices fields, then it's obvious that the caribou plateau (Williams lake to Anahim lake for example) was the ice field that fed all of these grinding arms of movement. In fact this glacier gash extends far beyond the Bella Coola terminus as a salt water canal.



And this explains the heat!
This is sea level and the environmental lapse rate for temperature dictates high temps at sea level and low temps in the mountains. I thought that maybe since I was going to be "on the ocean" that a sea breeze would cool things off like it does along any coast. Well looking at the image you can see that the "sea breeze" is blocked so here we sit in 100 degree F heat with no breeze and lots of humidity!

I took a 4x4 trip of about 16 miles to Blue Jay lake... one of the best I've been on this side of Utah. I was going to launch the Kayak but the flies were awful!!!!
I could have gone further down the road but the going was over very sharp rocks and I didnt want to chance a puncture.
You can see a portion of the road in this image:







Here is the top of the pass

Smithers to Prince George to Bella Coola

07-28 Smithers to Prince George

I went to twin falls this AM and will put some shots here later.
Had oil changed in Houston BC.
Stopped at a roadside rest and spent the night near Hixon BC (which is near Prince George)

07-29 Prince George to Bella Coola

I thought I was going north... like to the great white, eh?
Ok so this is bc and it is 100 degrees F.. no
not a mistake in conversion
It hit 106 with a sea level humidity of 60% HOUSTON TEXAS!
Jeez loooooweeeeze
But the sun went down and it is cooling off
and I am camped in the world's most beautiful RV park
More tomorrow

Telegraph Creek to Iskut

07-25 Telegraph Creek to Iskut

I had some cereal with blueberries and went for a walk down the main street.
Got to wifi some catchup by siting outside of the River Song on a bench... they don't open until 11:00 AM
At the far end of the street, past the church, is a boat ramp with a side dock and on this day the ramp was set up with rows of chairs... like for a lecture or church service.

At first I though this might be the place where I was told the fishing families were gathering to teach the children about the heritage and importance of Salmon fishing on the Stikine river.

I walked down toward the water and introduced myself and asked what was going to happen there. It was here were I met Francis and he told me his granddaughter was being married there today and the wedding party was going to be arriving by boat. Wow! That sounded incredibly cool to me... maybe even culturally significant. So I told Francis that I had a big 400mm lens and a video camera and asked him if he would like to have the wedding documented from a hill just above the ramp. He accepted my offer energetically so I got the equipment set up and waited.

I am still wondering of the cultural significance of this wedding because by looking around it was evident more than 90% of those attending were first-nations peoples. Indeed, most of the land surrounding Telegraph Creek is reserve land and -- I think -- of the Tahltan band.

Correction: The land surrounding Telegraph Creek is properly called Tahltan Territory or the Tahltan Nation

The bride, Trina, was raised in Telegraph Creek by her grandparents. Therefore I assume she, as Tahltan, was drawn to this place for her wedding.

So because of the cultural aspect and the unique setting I was quite excited to attend and document this event. However the excitement was vastly amplified when the program got underway. There were two jetboats carrying the wedding party to the dock. Full throttle up the Stikine they came. It gave me some chills... something like when the fighter planes fly low and fast over a football game. An amazing thing to watch.

After the wedding got started I switched to the 400mm canon and got some decent side shot close-ups. Would have been better straight on but then I would have been too close and it would have interfered with the ceremony. So all the shots are from the same side and up on the hill.

01:22

The wedding party arrives dry!

Trina the bride

A special thank you to Trina's aunt Nancy for getting her permission to post these images.

I know I posted some days ago about the movie "No Country for Old Men"
we oldies should just get out of their way, I said
not to hang on to the past

but

watching youth
like this
is as much of our beautiful past as is Beethoven
so I take a little of that back
they will be fine

Just sayin

After the wedding I got a chance to talk with the owner of the Stikine River Song, Dan Pakula and ask him about the lodge and how he came to own it.

See also http://www.stewartcassiar.com/destinations/telegraph-stikine

Dan's history dates back to the early 70s when he came to Telegraph Creek as a wandering free spirit which, in most instances, we would call a "hippie" in that day. There were quite a few like souls in the area then... living subsistence like.

Correction per Dan: None of the original members were living communally. We all had our own cabins in separate bush locations. At the time people were squatting on crown land trying to get some kind of title to those pieces. Native land claims were not part of the public process (consciousness) at that time and we were trying to homestead on crown land. There s a saying in Canada that its easier to get forgiven than to get permission so that was how folks were trying to gain some kind of title to crown land at the time. We came together because none of us wanted full time jobs but all of us needed some way to earn some income. We did not need a lot of income as we were living simply and only David and his wife Tannis hadkids at the time.

The River Song was their general store and they depended on it for literally everything they needed but in 1977 the owner nailed a sign on the door, "closing in 30 days". Dan and his friend Dave were understandably worried about their survival without the River Song and decided to try and buy the store.

One must visualize this: two subsistence living hippies trying to scrape together enough to buy a money making business. It must have been fun to watch this from some vantage point... the culture of the hippie at odds with reality of capitalism.

Dan and Dave, as you might expect came up short... way short. So they moved about their community trying to find ways for others to join this endeavor. After weeks of activity they ended up with a group of eleven locals investors and they had just enough money to buy the store.

So the new "company" was born.

Each of the eleven investors had equal shares in the company even though the invested amount was not equal. This would have pleased numerous Ginsburg types of the day... not a single thought of greed, eh? But wait... that's not all! The agreement was to run the entire operation by consensus. That meant if there was only one who disagreed with the other ten then you would have complete stagnation. Dan smiles today when mentioning that part. It must have been quite a drama for awhile.

A few of the owners had management ability so they actually ran the organization while at the same time having to "sweet talk" the others into consensual rules and plans. Dan had a few university business classes under his pre-dropout belt so that must have helped some.

This was a true general store. It sold everything and did everything. It was the bank as it had extensive receivables within the community. It was the phone company having the only one in town. It sold kerosene for lamps (no electricity then). It even had a gasoline pump. It was indeed a "general" store.

Dan comes in with: We sold kerosene to those in town who's houses were not wired. Some of the homes in town were wired and used individual generators to provide their electricity. That's what the store had done previously. Electricity was brought to town in 1976 just before we purchased the store. Also the Stewart Cassiar was open at the time we purchased the store. The previous owner was bringing his supplies into town via the Alaska Hwy. Our first
act was to find a grocery supplier based in Vancouver who was shipping product up the coast via boat to Kitimat/Terrace weekly. It was then tranferred to Lindsay's Transport to be shipped north. So our first act was to change transportation routes so we could receive freight weekly instead of every three weeks. Other suppliers were located all over. Edomnton, Prince George, Winnepeg etc. Much of the non grocery product ame via Canada Post.


As time moved on the company bought out the other members one by one until there was just Dan and Dave and in 1998 Dave sold to Dan. Now Dan is the single owner and the Stikine River Song is for sale.

Dan: Our son Ashley living in Vancouver has completed his Geological Engineering degree and is an EIT working for a major company called Golder Associates. We have two daughters living in Whitehorse. One is a social worker. Ali was home for the summer to work and is now back in Whitehorse attending college taking a renewable resource management program.

The company is for sale because we would like more time in the summer plus I would like to be able to spend more time on other interests.

(aside)

During our talk Dan's daughter who was running the cafe came out twice asking him to "we need your help, Dad" and he says, "I'll be right there" ... twice!

It seems nearly everyone attending the wedding that day was in the store ordering lunch!

(/aside)

I waited for the crowd at the River Song to thin out before going in for my lunch. It was there, while I was editing some photos on my lap top, where I met Brooke and Carol, two young ladies who drove up from Smithers for the wedding and to be the bartenders for the reception afterwords. Nice young people who gave me some good info about the wedding history. I believe one of them was related to Trina the bride. Also Brooke (a photographer) talked me into going to Twin Falls when I got to Smithers. Thanks for the input!

I decided not to stay two days and to head back to Dease Lake around 4:00 PM.

02:25

Here is a video of going down a 20% grad to the Tahitan river crossing.

02:10

And this is back up the one I took down yesterday.. same goat path LOL

I don't know what time I got back to Dease Lake but I was tired. Its a long 100+ km road and very rough in parts. I wonder how many tie rods and ball joints get replaced in the town... tire sales have to great!

Was hungry so after a fill up I went over to Mama Z's restaurant and had a great taco salad (something I am usually not in the mood for). I ate here yesterday too before heading down the road. Recommended. Of course I haven't eaten at the other places in Dease so cant rate them all on just this experience.

I just started driving south after my meal and looked for campgrounds and stuff. I ended up at the Bear Paw Resort. Its more of a lodge than an RV park. No hookups. Just a level secluded spot for $10. The millions of mosquitos were free.
I rate it a 7

I like these alert signs in BC... they really get your attention.

Sun going down as I enter Iskut

The Bear Paw Resort... got in about 9:30 PM

07-26 Iskut to Stewart

This was the most beautiful drive of the trip. There were plenty of nice views driving into Iskut last night but the drive from Iskut to Meziadin junction was just fabulous. Kinaskan Lake, Bell II, and the Skeena and Coastal mountain ranges. Drive slow here and enjoy.

Early morning mirror at Kinaskan Lake on the Cassiar Highway

Had breakfast and filled up a the Tatogga lake resort and took a short drive around the RV park and it looks like a winner.

http://www.karo-ent.com/tatogga.htm

Just down the road from here is Bell II (as in 2) and it is quite a nice resort. I have watched TV videos of heliskiing here. Again the drive is beautiful.

I pulled into Stewart late afternoon and and set up at the Bear River RV park. Crisply clean with every spot on a grass cushion. In fact the whole place is grass save the loop road in the center. Highly recommended
$20 US
Rate it 10

Drove over to Hyder for some seafood at the White Bus (aka Seafood Express). The Bus is an icon in Hyder (and probably BC as well and too, it is expanding with google searches on the Internet)... and serves the best fresh fish imaginable. It is pretty well known spot yet still hard to find. Map below.
http://hyderalaska.com/
I had very little chance to talk to Diana the owner as she was real busy. I'll see if I can get back there tomorrow and get part of teh story.
A one sentence overview: Jim Simpson is commercial fisherman and he and his wife Diana operate the Alaska Premier Seafoods fish factory while Diana runs the Seafood Express eatery (the White Bus).

Now a note about "busy" at the Bus. Diana is the lone cook (she had her young nephew taking orders, serving, and busing this year). She has one four burner stove and one small deep fryer and nearly every order is prepared singly and given full attention... all the other orders just have to wait. So if it's busy expect at least a 30 minute wait after ordering and sometimes it is an hour or more. You can probably get two dinners served simultaneously but no more so if you are two couples I suggest you break from tradition and eat while its hot and not wait for others in your group to get theirs.


Additionally Diana is sort of hippie-laid-back and if you complain about the wait she will just smile at you with her pixie eyes and make you feel a better part of the universe for waiting. Bring patience... the food is worth it. Maybe her white board scribble says it better:

I ordered fresh king crabs legs and an Alaska Amber. Of course the wait changed that to three AAs but in the meanwhile I got to talk to Sammy and his wife from 100 Mile House. He is retired from the Canadian Navy and that led to some really fun talk. Just another of my I-love-Canadians experiences.

I went back to the RV park, did some laundry, then headed up toward Salmon Glacier. The road was closed due to a heavy rain taking it out on a river bend. So I turned back and stopped at the Fish Creek Bear Watching Facility for a few minutes. It was wall to wall people... reminded me of Juneau tourism.

This was a different kind of experience than Anan in that the creek runs slow and shallow and is just in afew hundred feet from the Salmon river which is just a few miles in from the salt water of the Portland Canal. So the fish don't have to struggle or swim hard to get here. In fact they spawn right in front of you and the bears will jump on them while they are doing their perpetuation duty or just pick them off the top water while they are expeireng afterward. Quite a bit different from my Anan Creek experience. I tried to get pictures of the salmon but unless you get a female just as she is flashing on her side to entice the male then you get basically nothing. One bear was down the creek some distance but there were at least 60 people trying to get a picture. No thanks.

Stopped in Stewart for pie at the bakery.

07-27 Stewart to Smithers

I got an early start on a hike up the creek then wandered back over to Hyder. Walked around shooting some pics and killing time until Diana came to open the bus.

The white bus (Seafood Express)

Their home next door... I love the houses around here.

While waiting I took pictures of the water bags hanging from the outside patio. They keep the flys away. I know because I had to ask last time I was here LOL. Apparently everyone asks so Dianna, exercising pixie humor, decided to label them all.

I got to drive the bus! I did! Diana invited me in while she prepped for the day and I sat in the bus driver's seat while we talked. The steering wheel is broken and just spins and I couldn't get it the engine started.... but at least I got to be the driver! Wheeeee!

I'll bet your geography or history teacher in grade school taught you about the hudson bay company, right?
Well here in Smithers BC its hard to forget how important they were to the development of the northwest.
Beaver trade
Otter trade
Mineral trade

The HBC is the single most important entity to the anglo history of these parts

Watson Lake to Telgraph Creek

Left watson lake this AM but not before nailing Kanab Utah to a post.
The sign forest was started during the building of the alcan highway
See signpostforest.com
http://www.yukoninfo.com/watson/signpostforest.htm
I feel like I have marked this post... woof woof! mine !woof!

Drove the first leg of the cassiar.
Passed two eggs who were going north: a Casita 17 and a Scamp 13. We exchanged headlights.
Also some bicyclist as show in the video below which also shows a typical stretch of the Cassair.

00:12

The first 20 miles in from the alcan is under construction with chip seal fills where the road buckled last winter.
I have come to the conclusion that most of the hard black dirt roads in BC are smoother than many of the chipseal roads.... especially if they have buckled.
A note about signs. The BC road dept does a good job of monitoring the highway and if they find a bump or pothole of any significance they put a "caution" sign at the spot.... just off the road on the ground. They are not the most visible because they are small and come up on you fast and you have to remember that these cautions are not about something ahead. Instead they mean to tell you that there is something bad gonna happen right there! So slow way down "before" you get tot he warning sign.


The Jade City stop had about 20 RVs parked along a wide spot. look up Jade City, BC
It is an interesting place as they have a jewelry shop and cut stone inside (jade and other rocks) and outside they have large cutting saws which is fun to watch.

Had a lot of wildlife along the way but no keeper photographs.
A moose too far away and a bear out of focus

Very long drive to get to this great place I landed at today...
Telegraph Creek on the Stikine River (steh-KEEN)
Some pretty severe very narrow dirt climbs and descents at 20% grade!

02:40

This is one of about three 20% grades into Telegraph Creek and its the worst one.
The hill is short and very rutted.
I was a little concerned about bouncing so I drove extra slow.

I will stay here for two days and see if I can spot a mountain goat to photograph...
Also the Native Bands are netting sockeye on the Stikine and I want to watch that too

Telegraph Creek is not much. I guess you would say the "town" is down on the river and consists of a boat ramp, a church, an old RCMP house, and the Stikine Riversong Lodge (which has a gas pump and a cafe).
There are many older buildings on the hill above the river.
The surrounding area is an Indian reservation though they don't call it a reservation and I'm still not sure about correct way to describe certain bands of first nations peoples.
Picture and link to the Riversong below.

The Stikine Riversong

I had emailed the owner, Dan Pakula, a month or so ago and knew there was wifi here.
Also Dan agreed to have a sitdown and give me some first hand history of the Song and TC.
So I went in and introduced myself and we decided to get together later.
He told me I could just boondock at the end of the street.
Pictures below.

St Aidans

Camped at the end of the road





A neighboring RV... probably a full timer.