Blogs from Stewart, British Columbia, Canada, North America

Hyder, Alaska We have arrived in Stewart, BC which is just outside the very southern tip of Alaska. This is the area of the Hyder Grizzly bears and the boardwalk where you can see the bears when they come to eat. Mom and Jake were here 6 years ago and it was great fun. We are going to be here for 4 days. I can’t see the bears because ”No food” is allowed on the boardwalk. We have been traveling for several days on a daily basis since we left Fairbanks. Some nights have been in pretty primitive RVSites with limited WiFi access. But aMom continues with picture taking. One site was last night at Watson Lake area where we were in a dry campground on the side of a pretty lake. They stayed there last ... read more

Es ist heute regnerisch, trotzdem fuhren wir um 9.30 los zum Salmon Glacier, der wieder in Alaska liegt. Schotterstraße, vorbei an einem Goldbergwerk (es lag nichts auf der Straße), bis hin zum Gletscher, der dann sogar teilweise unter uns lag. Man sieht deutlich an den Mittelmoränen, dass er aus mindestens 4 Gletschern zusammengesetzt ist. Auch er ist im Abschmelzen... Fotosession. Dann wieder zurück. Glück: sowohl bei der Hin- als auch bei der Rückfahrt regnetge es, aber nicht beim Gletscher oben selbst.... Nachmittag mit Berta putzen verbracht, Blog schreiben, mich ärgern, weil ich den geschriebenen Text immer wieder mal verliere.... der Rest des Tages war ein fauler Tag. Am Abend, nach dem Meetin um 19.00 fuhr ich nochmal zum Lachs und Baerenbach, eigentlich nur aus Trotz, denn inzwischen hatten alloe einen Baeren gesehen, ausser mir. Schon beim ... read more

I decided that it might be possible to get to the Arctic and Inuvik for the summer solstice. I wasn't really sure about that, but I thought it might be possible. I am going to have to boot it though in order to make it in time. I got up and headed out from the campground and up the highway. My first stop was the local Gitwangak Battle Hill. A couple hundred years ago, there was a local native band. They were quite successful raiding other bands and at times had to defend themselves. It happened that in their territory was a marvelously defensible hill that was right beside a river. The made their homes on top and got logs ready with spikes that could be rolled down up on their enemies. The leader of the ... read more

Tuesday August 16, 2011 Watson Lake A mostly uneventful day. I spent the better part of the day updating the blog. I woke up to rain and it rained on and off today. I was in no rush to leave my tent after such a long day yesterday. The campground is basically the only place in town that has free WI-FI. The Information Center does not because it is government run unlike most Information Centers; the library has free internet but not WI-FI. Anywhere else there is WI-FI they charge for it. So I updated my blog in the laundry room of the campground. They have no lounge and the tent is a little cramped. It is very cool today as it has been all week. Wednesday August 17, 2011 Trapped In Watson Lake I woke ... read more

July 27, 2011 Wednesday. 55 degrees and raining. Starting mileage 13226. Left out of camp with Jim and Diane’s rig leading the way. Left camp at 9:30 to drive down route 37A to Stewart and Hyder. These two communities sit six miles apart, on the 90 mile long Portland Canal that leads directly to the Pacific Ocean. Stewart in BC and Hyder in Alaska. You have to drive through Stewart and then around a rocky point to get to Hyder. The US has no customs/border agent here, but Canada does. So residents go through customs to get into town to do any business or shop as most everything is in Stewart. Almost immediately, from the junction off the Cassiar Highway we started down a deep canyon with very steep mountain walls. Glaciers hang on the mountain ... read more