The Last Few Days in BC

July 22, 2007

Got going very early this morning with great anticipation, the weather is beautiful. We have both been looking forward to this road. Got to the junction and found out the road is closed about four hours down for about two days. We decided to go to a campground 61 miles down the road, then take the car to where the road is closed. Since we are not in a hurry we can wait it out. Good thing we stocked up on our needs before we left Watson Lake. This just makes our trip more interesting!!!

What a day!! Weather became more cloudy as we traveled, but not bad. We got to Dease Lake and the road is still closed. We decided then to stay a couple of days as there are going to be so many RV’s on the road tomorrow we don’t want to feel like we are in a caravan!!! They say the road will be open tonight, but it is raining again so I don’t think it is going to happen.

Have spoken to several locals and they say it hasn’t rained like this in more than 40 years. Either they have forest fires or road wash outs. Guess every area has it’s problems.

We took a drive out to see where the road was washed out, it is about 40 miles from Dease Lake. The road is not as bad as we thought generally speaking. There are sections that look like they were bombed!! Got almost to the washout and there was a line of RV’s so long we couldn’t even see the blocked area!! The drive was not wasted though, we did see a fox and a moose.

Went out rock hunting after our drive down the road. I got some really nice rocks and am doing a lot of reading about them. Doug says our RV is going to be like Lucy’s trailer!!! I just can’t pass up a nice looking rock! He is just as bad as I am. We stopped to take some pictures of a stream that was flooding and before I knew it Doug was climbing down a bank to get a ‘nice looking rock’!!!

We are at a private campground tonight, but will move to a Lions Club campground tomorrow. It is on a creek and has fire pits, plus the old man that runs this place is not the most pleasant person we have met on our trip!! Doug says the movie “Grumpy Old Men” has nothing on this guy!!!

July 23, 2007

It rained on and off all night. Doug changed his mind about leaving. Seems the road is open with alternate lanes in the washout area. It is still overcast and drizzling. We will take our time and see how far we get. Doug says this section of the road is ‘used scenery’ we saw it last night!! Just found out the road is now closed in the other direction. I know when we came down we saw a section of mountain that looked like it could slide anytime, guess it did last night!!

We just went through the area that had been washed out. It was four miles from the spot we turned around last night. It was amazing how high the water got and the damage it did. Unfortunately I could not get any pictures of the area. This is a VERY slow drive!!!

We have now been driving for two hours on gravel road and were told we have about another 15 miles to go. At 10 to 20 mph it will take us quite a while to get to pavement again. The road worker has told us after that it is ‘smooth sailing’. We have been waiting now for 20 minutes to get through and will probably have another 20 or so to wait. Doug has found someone to talk to, so he won’t mind so much!!!

I am being eaten alive by these mosquitoes!! I have lumps all over my head and neck. They don’t seem to bother Doug so much, they bite him but it doesn’t even itch him! I can hardly stand the itching!

After about 3 ½ hrs. and 50 miles, we are finally out of the gravel/construction area of the highway!! I am a wreck!!! There are no guardrails and sheer drops. Keep insisting Doug is too close to the edge of the road and he keeps telling me to look the other way!!! I told him if I had valium I would be taking it!!!! Hopefully we are on the ‘smooth sailing’ part of the road!

The scenery is lovely and I know we will be glad we took the road, once I calm down!!! The sun has finally come out also, so that will help.

Well after the rough part we have been blessed with wonderful weather and scenery. We also saw five black bear, one with her cub, a brown grizzly, an eagle swoop down and grab a rabbit. I am glad I was looking the other way, that part of nature I don’t like!

Found a really nice provincial park on Meziandin Lake. Our site is right on the lake and we have paid for three nights, so we know where we will be for a while.

Tomorrow we plan on going to Hyder, AK, can’t believe we are going to be crossing the boarder again!!! There is supposed to be great bear viewing and the salmon are supposed to be running near here. Doug has been wanting to see that, so hopefully he won’t be disappointed.

We have taken more than 250 pictures in the last two days!!!

July 24, 2007

It rained a little during the night, but the sun is out this morning. It is really nice here on the lake. The mosquitoes are really bad. Doug got me a hat with a mosquito net on it, he has taken pity on me!!

We went for a drive to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK. They are only two miles apart and Hyder should really be in BC. The drive goes by several hanging glaciers and lots of avalanche areas. The drive over was spectacular. I have never seen such avalanche damage. The mountains are so high and straight, they are just beautiful.

When we got to Hyder it became a dirt road again. Right through town. I could not believe this was really a town. There was no one to check your ID when entering Ak, but there was a border station back into Canada.

There is a drive through the mountain to the top of Salmon Glacier that is all gravel, very rough and is 28 miles long. I could not believe we were driving a dirt road again!!! However, again the scenery was spectacular. The weather was overcast and the higher we got the more hazy it got. They had just plowed the road two days ago, they had 100 feet of snow in the mountain and about 30 feet in the valley. There were so many avalanches and mud slides. I was really getting nervous, but at the same time enjoying the adventure. We got 5 miles short of the summit and decided that the weather made it too difficult to go further. There were so many washouts and the fog was so thick we couldn’t see anything. We turned around and came back. It was a GREAT ride. We also got to see several marmots. They are so cute, the ranger told us that on sunny days there are lots of them all over the hills sunning themselves.

There is also a bear viewing area along a creek where the salmon run. We were going to stop there, but the ranger said there hadn’t been any bear since noon, and it was 3pm so we decided we would go back tomorrow.

We got back to the campsite and it had been just beautiful all day. Those mountains really do make their own weather systems.

Went to check out a fish ladder here, but couldn’t find it. However, we did get to see a beaver in the creek, that made Doug happy. He thinks beavers are so smart and is fascinated with their dams and lodges.

July 25, 2007

Went back to the bear viewing area. Got there about 9:30 and were told that they had just left!!! We waited around for four hours!!! We did see bald eagle, salmon spawning, a wood duck with her ten little chicks, so it was not really wasted time.

We decided to go back up the mountain to the glacier since it was such a gorgeous day. The view was even more spectacular, there were no clouds in the way of the view. Took tons more pictures. Got back down to the viewing area and were told to hurry, the bear and her three cubs was way at the other end!! We got a quick glimpse – we were so disappointed. We waited a little longer and a large male came out of the woods and walked down the middle of the creek. He obviously was not hungry as he walked right over some salmon!!

Shortly after that the mother came back with her three cubs. We watched her catch a salmon and take it and her cubs up the hill to eat it. The ranger told us she probably would not be back as they usually catch it and eat it right by the water so they can get more. He felt they were done for the night.

I has a mosquito zapper and when we were leaving one of the rangers asked me if it was the kind that made the big zap noise. I told him yes and he wanted me to demonstrate it. After I zapped a few mosquitoes he wanted me to go and zap some bees which I wouldn’t do. He then tried to buy the zapper from me!! He as like a little kid.

Tomorrow we will head toward Smithers, BC. Looks like we still have several more days, or a week more in BC before we get to the state of Washington.

July 27, 2007

A bit overcast and sprinkles this morning, but we are told it will be nice this afternoon. Our neighbor fell down the stairs during the night last night and the ambulance took her away. Seems she did something to her shoulder. They are right next to us and neither Doug or I heard a thing during the night and they say the ambulance sat right in front of our RV for about a half hour!!! We both must have been really tired!!!