Stewart, BC

Today we set out with blue skies and bright sunshine. It has rained only one day so far. Our campground host from last night gave us some advice about native sights we should visit on our way up the Cassiar Highway. His advice was spot on. We found a couple places with totem poles dating back many, many years. The drive up the Cassiar was very scenic. Snow topped mountains in the windshield most of the way made the trip fly by. We covered another 200 miles today and arrived in the Bear River Campground in Stewart in a cloud of dust and a hoard of mosquitoes. This looked like a bad choice for an overnight stay. Stewart is a small Canadian town located on the Portland Canal. It is so small they have no bank or even an ATM. For major shopping or banking they need to drive 180 miles each way south to Terrace. They have a hospital but we are told it is nothing more than a first aid station! 

We picked our spot and then decided to drive across the border to Hyder, Alaska. This small section of Alaska can only be reached by boat, airplane or a drive in through Canada. The US government does not even waste the money on a border custom and inspection area. The drive was a bit of a waste of our time but at least we didn’t miss it. We did find a viewing area for bears fishing in a small river but viewing is best Mid-July to September. We forgot to inform the bears we were arriving earlier. The Fish and Wild life area was closed and empty. Good news: we had no problem find parking for the RV. We returned through Canadian Customs and arrived back at the campground, expecting to hide inside the RV from the bugs. To our surprise we found almost no mosquitoes or other bugs.  We enjoyed a great BBQ and evening in Stewart.

    Update: It’s 7:45 and I just took Charlie for his evening walk. It’s dinner time for the mosquitoes. Charlie has a love/hate relationship with them. They love Charlie and he hates them. Now we are locked inside killing off the last of the bugs that snuck in when the door was opened.

    News Break:  We had our first run-in with black bears today. While making the 38-mile drive from the Cassiar Highway to Stewart we spotted a bear on the roadside staring at us as we passed. They are a bit shy and he didn’t stick around to let me slide to a stop and get a picture. The second bear was in some low bushes next to the road with only his head showing. He also disappeared in a hurry. We are still hoping to get pictures to include in this blog.

St. Paul Anglican Church

Gitanyow Totem Poles

Bear Glacier

Salmon River

View from Bear River RV Resort