August 18

We made our day trip to Prince Rupert today. The day began very overcast with low clouds and rain that mostly obscured the view of the mountains but later in the day the weather cleared up and we had some pretty views of the mountains in the fading daylight on the way back to camp. We first stopped at a First Nations store to view their totem poles, crafts and many other items on display. A native lady named Carol added much to our knowledge of the culture and history of native peoples. The highway follows the Skeena River nearly all the way to Prince Rupert. Before going into Prince Rupert we drove to Port Edward and on to the North Pacific Historic Fishing Village where we toured the village and salmon cannery. All buildings and the boardwalk connecting them were set on pilings along the waterfront. Some of the buildings had been made into museums to display fishing artifacts with their associated history as well as the people’s history of that era. Buildings included small huts to house the workers, houses for various fishing operations and cannery officials as well as their offices and a general store. The tour guide explained and demonstrated to a certain extent how the original production line was run totally manually and then repeated this for the mechanized line that replaced all manual operations which was quite interesting. In Prince Rupert we did pretty much a self guided tour and had dinner. We looked through the visitor’s center, visited a small but beautiful sunken garden, the seaplane base, the waterfront area where we watched men unloading live Dungeness crabs and just did a general look-see around town. Prince Rupert is a sizeable seaport city of about fifteen thousand and was quite clean and appealing with decent shopping and amenities. Native peoples’ influence and presence is very prominent all around this area as has been the case over much of our trip. Mom: “You all know me very well and I am ready to get back home. How does it go? Something like, No More Waterfalls!!!!!!!!!!!! I need my grandkids to love. Hugs and kisses are on the way. You boys better run.”

August 17

Mom: “Today is a great day. I took a swim in the lake. There was a couple next to Gene and Lynn named Peter and Ingica from Holland. He said he would swim across to a little island with me. Then we went for a drive and didn’t get back until late. The next morning Peter and Ingica left but I was still thinking of taking a swim. Peter this one was for you. The old lady did it. I was asking about the temperature of the water when my neighbor overheard me and said if you want to swim out to the island I’ll go with you. Her name was Linda. So Linda and I took the swim to the island. The water was very cold but it was also invigorating. Dad made me wear the life jacket just in case I should get an old lady cramp. It felt good to know that I could still do the swim. Linda is from Anchorage and they are headed to Washington state.” The first thing this morning Mom fulfilled a promise she made herself when we arrived at this campground by finding a willing companion and swimming at least a couple hundred yards each way to a small island in the lake at the campground and back. The water was not exactly warm but she did it and had a lot of fun meeting the commitment as well as making another of many friends along the way on this trip. We then drove by recent scenery standards a rather plain one hundred miles to the Cranberry Junction at the small village of Gitwangak located at the intersection with the Yellowhead Highway. This intersection is the official end of the Cassiar Highway. There we visited an old bell tower and church and a row of old but genuine totem poles. Three cute little First Nation (the term use by Canada for native peoples we would call Indians) girls were selling candy in a little stand and we had them tell us some of the stories represented by the figures on the totem poles. We learned that the story reads from the top to the bottom. We then followed the Skeena River about forty miles toward Prince Rupert to the Kleanza Creek Provincial Park campground. Don’t get me wrong about the scenery which was still very nice. It just changed to heavily wooded hills rather than the high rugged mountains, water falls and glaciers of recent days. We then drove the few remaining miles with Gene and Lynn into the city of Terrace, a city of about eleven thousand, for some grocery shopping and to check on phone messages for the first time in several days that we could find service. On the way out from the campground we saw an owl at the side of the road.

August 16

Happy sixtieth birthday, Mom! There is nowhere to go to church but we remember it is Sunday and pray for all of you in our absence daily. Today we drove back through Spencer and Hyder up the Salmon River Road to the Salmon Glacier and beyond. The road was gravel and fairly rough and we drove about thirty miles in but it was worth every pothole and washboard. Scenery continues to be nothing short of spectacular. The road seems to climb endlessly to the primary viewing area but we made numerous stops along the way not only for the glacier but for so many other sights with streams, pools and lakes, water falls, beautiful mountains, vegetation and wildflowers. The view of the glacier was fairly up close and personal but the best part was that it could be seen flowing for miles from high in the mountains down and around into the valley. The only disappointment was that the cloud cover was so low at the summit that we didn’t have as clear a view as we would have liked but I understand that is not unusual. We continued for about three miles beyond the summit and took a couple of narrow, “dune buggy” side roads that went lower into the valley. On the second one we were stopped by a rough creek crossing and Gene and I left the girls in the car and continued on foot for a mile or so of rocky switch-backs into the valley. We got much closer to the glacier but began to worry about being gone too long to keep the domestic peace so we gave up and headed back before reaching glacial ice. Somewhere along the way I need to throw in that Mom has been collecting rocks to bring home the whole trip. At the current rate we will be packing an extra ton so I have been telling her to curtail the collection so today she got caught sneaking another prize for her collection. On the return trip we stopped once again to view the same two bears from yesterday feeding on salmon and watched salmon spawning. We then stopped in Hyder at a small store and Mom got a couple of small raw gold nuggets to be made into earrings for her birthday before heading for the barn. On the way down this morning we saw one black bear and what we later identified through postcard pictures as a timber wolf. On the mountain road we also saw some large, furry rodent-like animal that again we could not identify. On the return trip along the highway we saw another three bears so for the day we saw a total of six bears, two grizzly and four black bears.

August 15

Today we begin our third month on the road. Mom and I started the day by hiking close to a mile up a dirt road near camp to where an old wooden bridge crossed a creek and back. We then drove to the Meziadin Junction. There we camped at the Meziadin Lake Provincial Park. It is yet another campsite on the shore of a beautiful lake. From there we traveled the forty miles to Stewart, British Columbia and then across the border next door to Hyder, Alaska. Along the way we saw what seemed like the most beautiful, the tallest and the most numerous waterfalls and mountains of our trip. The colors and vegetation are almost indescribable. Also included were lakes, streams and glaciers including Bear Glacier which is very near the road. At Hyder we took the Salmon River Road to the Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Area about three miles north of Hyder. There we were enthralled for nearly two hours watching two young male grizzly bears from the elevated boardwalk catch and eat chum salmon that were numerous in the shallow, clear waters. When the bears were not disturbing them the salmon were actively spawning. When the bears weren’t fishing they would play wrestle and cavort around making a most memorable show of nature that has got to be one of the top if not the best highlight of our entire trip. After the bear watching we returned to Hyder to a unique little seafood restaurant located in an old made-over school bus for a delicious dinner of fresh halibut fish and chips before returning home after dark.

August 14

Today we traveled to a beautiful rest stop by Hodder Lake just a mile south of the whistle stop of Bell II. We found and picked another cup of wild raspberries at the rest area. We only made about one-hundred-fifty miles today because we traveled about forty miles per hour to drink in the beauty and stopped often even though the highway has improved considerably. It even started to have yellow and white lines. One stop was for a hike of a little over a half mile in to Natadesleen Lake. People have told us that until these past few days it has been very hot and dry further north but as we travel south it is getting noticeably greener and more lush. The weather continues to be rather cool in the sixties with cloudy skies but no rain. It sounds like a broken record to talk about the beautiful mountains, lakes, steams, lush vegetation, flowers and variety of colors but that’s how it goes. For some excitement today we saw one big black bear and got a couple of pictures but the mother black bear and two cubs that later scurried across the highway in front of us quickly disappeared in the thick undergrowth near the highway before we could get there to take a picture.

August 13

We made the one-hundred-sixty mile round trip from the campground through the town of Dease Lake and down Telegraph Creek Highway to the town of Telegraph Creek today. Nearly the entire distance was on dirt/gravel road that was in fairly decent shape. The road was however unique in that there were many hairpin turns, narrow one lane stretches, steep cliffs both above and below much of the way and a number of 20% grades. The first thirty-five miles was also quite a slalom course with curves and up and down roller-coaster stretches. The road follows and crosses a number of streams and rivers, some of which travel through deep, narrow canyons. At one point we traveled along a stretch of rock one-hundred-fifty feet wide and four hundred feet down sheer cliffs to a river on each side for about a quarter mile just before the two rivers converged. The town itself, the old section, is much as it was in the late 1800’s when it was yet another gold mining town. The only way to describe the beauty and uniqueness is with pictures to come later. We did get to briefly see a Lynx cat that disappeared before we could get pictures but we did get some good pictures of a cute little fox that we saw jump on and devour a small rodent right at the side of the road. All in all this was another wonderful day!

August 12

We traveled to just north of the town of Dease Lake to an RV campground named Water’s Edge. It is a beautiful setting right on the lake shore of Dease Lake. It is dry camping only but they run a generator eleven hours per day to provide wi-fi internet via satellite so we will try to update the blog. The Cassiar Highway continues to provide excellent scenery all along the way. We traveled the first of two or three unpaved stretches of about sixteen miles today that was a little rough and slow going but well worth it. About halfway on our drive today we stopped at Jade City to check out a huge variety of items made from local jade as well as look at all the saws used to cut the raw rocks and old equipment on display.