Stewart (10 June)

Stewart is a small town, surrounded by sweeping terrain, ice capped mountains, glaciers and rivers and is at the head of the Portland Canal. It is on the border into Alaska and right beside the Alaskan town of Hyder.  We travelled here on the Cassiar Highway, a remarkable road, built in the 1960s to give the USA better access to Alaska in the days where they though a Russian invasion was imminent. 

The Cassier Highway runs from Nugget City on the Yukon-British Columbia Border in the north to Kitwanga in the South where it joins the Yellowhead Highway. It is 720 Km long and has two side roads, both of which have no exits. One goes to Glenora (112 km) and other to Stewart (65 km). There is minimal logging, no mining and no agriculture on the road. It is wildness with lots of wildlife. I can’t think of anywhere we’ve been that is more isolated and alone.

Our day began with a red fox in our camp. He was quite bold and got close to people and motorhomes. We think he was a scavenger who had learned that motorhome folk might feed him, or leave scraps.

We tried to buy gasoline in Dease Lake but there was a queue. Someone had been inside the station since 7.30 but it wasn’t scheduled to open until 8.00 so she stayed inside and didn’t open. At 5 past 8 she still hadn’t open so we figured we still had at lkeast 250 km in the tank so left. (Our judgement worked out OK.)

About 40 km on we came across a truck and trailer on its side.

There was no sign of the driver and no blood in the cab. We learned that it had rolled at about midnight and it was carrying 40 tonnes of chilled gutted salmon. By the time we were there the cargo had gone.  Bush telegraph still works.

We saw two bears, one quite big and alone; we think it was probably a male. The second bear was about the same size as the year-old cubs we saw the previous day and, as it was quite close to the bushes, we suspect its mother was nearby.

As we travelled further south the trees became bigger and there were more pines and also some firs. Every corner brought another beautiful view. We took our time and made frequent stops to enjoy it all. 

 Soon after the turn off to Stewart we saw Bear Glacier.

 

These last two photos were taken two days later but I've put them here because it suits me.