Stewart, British Columbia and Hyder, Alaska
Trip Start
Aug 02, 1998
1
15
36
Trip End
Sep 06, 1998
Hyder,
Alaska,
United States
Monday, August 17, 1998
So far the Cassiar Hwy does not seem to be as bad as what we had been led to believe. Yes we experienced some long gravel sections but it was compacted gravel, with some small pot holes and some wash board stretches. It was more of a problem for John as he was pulling a trailer and there was no way that he could avoid this rough terrain.
Someone was watching over us because for some reason we stopped at the end of a paved section just before a small bridge as a tank truck was coming down a hill towards us on the gravel section. We thought that we should just wait and let him pass us. Well just before this bridge was a huge hole in the gravel that would have definitely been disastrous for us
Pizza in Stewart
.The weather was really overcast today and you could feel the dampness in the air as we rode through some low misty spots, like riding through a cloud. Too bad that we did not get some pictures of this. We were fortunate that it was not raining as this would have made this portion of our trip very uncomfortable and we would have been covered from head to toe in mud. This also would have made the gravel road quite slippery.
The highway conditions were like silk for the last 50 Km or so before we got to Stewart and the roads were part of bikers paradise with easy turns and very smooth. On the left side of this road leading to Stewart was Bear Glacier. This glacier fed a small lake at the side of the road. It was very beautiful to see with chunks of ice floating in this lake. We saw three bears, one rabbit, one moose and one wild horse on the Cassair today.
Stewart is a small pretty town in British Columbia and is surrounded by mountains. John found us a campground in Stewart called Lions Camp Ground. This was a private camp ground that was very clean with large sites. We set up camp and walked to town to check things out, then decided to check out Hyder Alaska.
Hyder Alaska is about three miles from Stewart. This was like going back in time, as it was like an old western town where you expected to see a gun fight in the middle of the street
Bear Glacier
. It was basically set up for tourists and not much was there. We were told to check out the salmon that were spawning and catch the bears coming out of the bush to fish for a fresh dinner. We drove down another dusty gravel road for about fifteen minutes to where all the activity was. This was well worth it. There were lots of tourists with cameras. John was able to get some excellent pictures of one grizzly bear that was learning how to fish. We headed back to our camp site around 6:30 p.m. and were hoping to hit the local grocery store but it had closed at 6:00 pm. We saw a local pizza shop on the main street and decided to have our dinner here. As we sat outside enjoying our pizza the owner's wife loaned us her binoculars to see an old cabin up in the mountains. After cleaning our bikes and relaxing for a while, we decided to stay an extra night in Stewart. as we were ahead of schedule. We met four Italians at our campground. These people became our friends over the next nine days as we would criss-cross paths with each other as we each went on our separate agendas.
Comments
Summer 1998
Here I am, one of your 4 Italian friends.
Ten years went by but how nice to go back to wonderful old days... and get ready for future trips!
Nice blog, John.
Ciao from Milano, Miriam