August 15th

“And on the seventh day God rested“…. and so did we! There was a little Baptist church across the street from us who were having services this morning at 11 am, so we thought we’d go. Tim, it was the quintessential LL Bean kinda’ church that we’ve talked about! It was a little log cabin about ¾ the size of our house with little wooden pews lining both sides of a middle aisle. The windows framed a perfect forest setting and there were only about 20 people including us! Unfortunately the sermon was a little monotone and the music a bit stale…. but it was fun to have coffee, home made chili and apple pie after the service in the basement and meet some of the local people. Why is that we are always the last ones to leave church even when we don’t attend there!! After the service we walked around “downtown”. Oh my, if you can call it that. There were as many shops closed for business as there were open, one general store and a bar. A Tee-shirt that we saw said it best, “Hyder, the friendliest little ghost town in America”. Everywhere we went though, people were very nice and willing to share their stories with you. It was fun to hear how these people ended up in Hyder. Most of them came through on vacation and never left. They returned home only to sell what they had and move here. Though it is beautiful, the town and houses are not well kept and it’s almost a bit depressing. So I am ready to move on tomorrow.

We did go to the bear boardwalk once again tonight. We had to park way down the street, a short walk to get onto the safety of the boardwalk. Gary had already locked his door and gotten out of the car with camera, coat, binoculars, etc. when I noticed a medium sized black bear walk out of the woods behind him.
I quickly, but quietly, said, “Gary, black bear behind you!!” Thankfully the bear continued across the street and headed for the stream rather than up the road towards us. As Gary went to film that bear, I got out of the car and wanted to get to the boardwalk but as I turned to walk up the road, a female grizzly and her cub (probably the ones we filmed last night) came out of the woods right in front of me. I was relieved when she also headed straight for the stream. I was never so glad to be on the boardwalk. As we approached the end of the walkway there was a big male grizzly feeding up stream. He put on quite a show as he gradually made his way down towards us. He waded into the pools and fished, though he was much quicker than the female last night at catching his dinner. One time he caught the fish right in front of where we were standing and began eating it in the bushes below us. For some reason my camera is not focusing so I’m having trouble getting really good shots… unfortunately!! To add to the delight of the evening a Bald eagle showed up at dusk to forage his dinner on river carcasses and then a Golden eagle showed up right afterward. We felt like we were in a zoo at feeding time.

August 14th

THE WEATHER: Beautiful, 80 degrees and clear skies

THE DISTANCE: 0

There goes more wall space! I don’t know where all these fish are going to be hung, but this chum salmon is being sent to Paul, Gary’s taxidermist. It was 33 inches long, 15 pounds and caught on a pink everglo tied by Gary’s own hands! We were told that the chum were in the river that runs behind our campground but the best fishing is up a mile and then you have to hike up river a little bit. Well, we didn’t like the idea of hiking too far from the RV so we opted to fish in back of the campground. Gary fished and I stood guard with my bear spray ready and waiting for any trouble. We were also told that a mother wolf and 3 pups have been seen along the river. I don’t know which would be worse to run into! After 2 hours and only a few hits Gary decided he was going to try the hike-in option. I gave him the bear spray and offered Bruno but he declined. When we arrived at the spot and parked, there were 2 guys just coming off of the river. They told Gary where to fish and then added, “Be careful, there‘s a big black bear out there fishing in the same pool”. Gary took a hand radio so I could talk to him while he walked, and off he went. I stayed in the RV …. and prayed! After about an hour he told me he had a 10 pounder and if he didn’t get anything bigger he’d be happy with that. About another hour later I got the call, “I got my trophy and I’m headed back in“. He was a very happy man on the return. He hasn’t stopped smiling since he got back.

There’s a local woman, Diane, who’s husband is a commercial fisherman so they have a huge walk in freezer. She also runs a restaurant out of a bus… yeah, you heard that right. She cooks inside the bus and we sat outside waiting to be served some of the freshest fish we have ever eaten. She was willing to let us freeze the fish until Monday. Mail here in Hyder only goes out twice a week…. Monday & Thursday. It is flown over to Ketchikan and then taken down to Washington. And that all depends on the weather! I’m not sure if this fish is going to make it, but here’s hopin’!!

Once we had the fish all taken care of and we had some halibut fingers at Diane’s restaurant, we headed up to see the bear show! And OHHH what a show it was. We arrived around 8:30 and waited about 30 minutes. Talking to those on the boardwalk they said there had been a huge grizzly down river, which we caught a glimpse of. Also spotted were a mother with a cub. So we waited….. And sure enough the grizzly sow with her black cub showed up walking along a trail beside the boardwalk. They sauntered underneath the walkway and then into the river full of salmon. The cub mostly stayed on the opposite shore from us while mom went fishing. What a difference between watching a black bear fish last night (remember, he stood motionless over the water for about 20 minutes before jumping in.) and “mom” fish tonight. It took her no time at all to bolt straight into a pool of fish and then ran up and down the river chasing fish until she grabbed about a 10 pounder to bring back for her & her cub for dinner. We watched them devour the whole thing and then she went back in again. This time she splashed around for a little longer but came up with about a 15 pound salmon! The power and sheer strength of these animals is amazing! She got spooked around dusk by something and stood up on her 2 hind legs. All I could think of is how much Bruno would be smitten by this beautiful beast! Good thing we left him in the car. Finally she decided to leave because of something she was hearing or smelling. On our way out we noticed a black bear had appeared under the bridge. Maybe that’s what spooked her? Over all it’s been an incredible day. We’ll stay one more day here in Run-a-Muck campground before leaving on Monday (due to the mailing of the fish).