August 13th

THE WEATHER: It was a chilly 39 degree start this morning. By 11:30 it had jumped up 30 degrees and by 2:30 it was a balmy 82!! The sun has been shining all day.

THE DISTANCE: 150 miles from Lake Dease to Hyder, AK

SURPRISE!!! We’re back in Alaska! We had no idea that you could access Alaska this far south! We heard about this place from the campground owner in Skagway. He told us we had to stop there on our way through to watch the bears! It’s the southern most accessible Alaskan town by road and its claim to fame is, “It’s where the bears are!!!”

We covered another 150 miles of the 450 mile Cassiar Highway today. It was a beautifully clear day except the mountains were obscured by smoke from the wild fires. It looked like haze on a hot, humid summer day. The vegetation became thick with large trees on both sides of the road made it feel almost claustrophobic. We’re so use to the open alpine terrain! We’ve also noticed new flowering bushes we haven’t seen before. They are bright red huckleberry bushes. The stark contrast from all the green surrounding it makes it stand out as we pass them by.

When we turned the corner to drive east on Highway 37A towards Hyder, it became like Shangri-la. There were waterfalls all around us, high snow capped peaks, a glacier flowing down to the road, cliffs that we cut through but couldn’t see the tops of, because they rose so sharply. This is a town of 100 people, and the sign that was posted on the general store reads, “Hyder, a place of about 100 happy people”. I can see why. We also caught a glimpse of 3 black bear, 2 cubs and a larger one, all separately along the road. For one reason or another we were unable to photograph them. Oh, did I forget to mention the streams full of salmon, trout and bear that can be watched safely from a boardwalk built above their feeding grounds? We’ll be here a few days while Gary tries to catch a chum salmon.

We spent about an hour at the boardwalk tonight. We got into a conversation with a couple who are staying in the camper next door to us. Nice people from Virginia. We were there chatting for about 30 minutes when a big black bear was spotted under the bridge. Every one, with cameras posed, waiting and watching intently while the bear stood vigilant over the water full of salmon swimming up stream. He was almost motionless for about 20 minutes when all of a sudden he lunged into the water and came up with about a 10 pound salmon. He sauntered over to the shore but just before he got to the bank the fish wiggled just the right way and freed himself from the jaws of the hungry bear! Amazing to watch. Everyone on the boardwalk gave out a simultaneous moan, feeling bad for the bear. It was better than watching a movie… except much, much shorter.

BTW: For those who are interested, I updated a few of the posts now that I have better internet access and added some pictures to Aug. 8, 9 & 11.