Day Thirty-Two - Stewart, BC

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Today was a pretty relaxed day. We didn't have a schedule to adhere to so we decided to explore Stewart. We drove into town and stopped first at the Visitor Center. It was a very small room with a counter for making purchases and a bank of flyers and booklets of what to do in Stewart, BC and its sister city Hyder, AK, the surrounding communities, and the province of British Columbia.

Next to the Visitor Center is a boardwalk that goes out over and across an estuary. There wasn't a lot of animal activity save for a few birds and a lone caterpillar. It was a nice walk out and back and even though today was cloudy and overcast, the views were beautiful. It just all seemed to fit well together.

Stewart, British Columbia is a very small town. Scenic BC Highway 37A zigzags through it before crossing the Canada/US border and continuing into Hyder, Alaska. It's surrounded by mountains and a fjord, and the main street through "downtown" reminded me a lot of the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska. I expected a moose to wander across the road at any minute. Instead, I got a rooster. He hung out among the town's historic-buildings-turned-rustic-vacation-rentals and crowed whenever the mood struck him. He didn't mind strangers taking his picture, but let us know we were finished by simply strutting away.

We walked up and down Stewart's main street and bought a few souvenirs. To the left of the Visitor Center, tucked back from the road was the original settlement. We wandered in and around the old, preserved buildings. Many had mature trees surrounding them, creating a sense the town was on the verge of being reclaimed by nature and becoming yet another ghost town. Part of that feeling was influenced by the many antique pieces of machinery and daily life from a bygone era nestled amid the foliage.

Making a stop in Stewart was Dave's suggestion when we were initially planning this trip. There were two things he suggested for our time here: Drive to Hyder, Alaska; and drive to Salmon Glacier that lies beyond Hyder. I don't remember if Dave knew about this ahead of time or not, but there is also a platform in Hyder where you can watch bears feed on the salmon swimming upstream to spawn. Signs around town said tickets for the viewing platform ware available online only, however Natalie, the owner of the RV park, told Dave we could get paper tickets from Caroline at the gift shop in Hyder. That sounded like a good plan to us.

We took a dry run to Hyder and the viewing platform to see for ourselves the road condition and get an idea of how long it would take to get there. I had my driver's license with me today so there would be no problem crossing the border in either direction. Right away we noticed there was no border crossing station going into Hyder. Hmmm ... curious.

Five minutes after leaving Stewart, we rolled into the thriving metropolis of Hyder, Alaska, U.S.A. Driving into "town" there appeared to be only a couple of businesses open - The Glacier Inn and Caroline's Boundary Gallery and Gifts. We stopped at Caroline's for tickets to the bear viewing platform. Caroline greeted us as we entered and Dave announced that Natalie had sent us. Caroline responded with "Don't believe a word she says!" I told her, "She said you'd say that." And that began a 20-plus minute banter with Caroline. When asked what the best time was to see bears at the viewing platform up the road, she replied by explaining that they weren't union bears so there was no way to know when or if they'd show up next, or even if they'd be sober when they did get there! It was clear to me she had been asked that same question many times over the years and had polished her witty response in that span. She was hilarious to talk with. We told her we were curious about the lack of a border control agent crossing into the US. She said, "What is anybody going to smuggle in? Whatever it is, I probably already have three of them! Besides, they can't go anywhere, it's a dead-end road!" She had a very valid point. Looking on a map the road does in fact end, but not in Hyder or just past it. It crosses back into Canada farther north, forks and both forks eventually end. We were there to buy our viewing platform tickets so she told us to grab 16 postcards from the rack on the wall, give her $40 and the tickets were ours. It didn't take long for me to figure out that getting paper tickets through her instead of digital tickets online was more expensive, even with the postcards. Even though it cost more, I'm happy to have paid scalper prices to support a local business.

With tickets in hand, we set out in search of the viewing platform. Driving through the rest of the townsite of Hyder we passed several houses, some occupied, others vacant, the remains of a large, old, wooden cabin cruiser, the Post Office (a single wide under a timber framed carport), the Volunteer Fire Department and Camp Run-A-Muck, a campground and RV park. As we drove through we also passed a few of Hyder's residents. According to Caroline, the population is "40 old people." I believe it because of the three people we passed, none was under the age of 60, maybe even 70.

The road paralleled Fish Creek part of the way and I spotted a few eagles out on a sand bar, one of which was dining on what I could only guess was one of the many salmon on their return trip to the place of their birth. We stopped for a few minutes to get some grainy, zoomed-in pictures of the birds before proceeding on to the platform.

It didn't take long to get to the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site. The parking lot was pretty small. Hopefully when we come back tomorrow we'll luck into an available spot. A sign at the entrance warned visitors that bears frequently crossed the road and wandering aimlessly was not a good idea. Another sign said that food, pets, fishing and hunting were not permitted. I suppose you have to state what should be the obvious because there's always that one person. The observation platform itself was a wooden walkway raised high above the creek, tucked into the trees and bushes on the far side of the creek. To access the footpath you had to pass through a gated entry patrolled by a couple of Forest Service Rangers. One of the rangers carried a rifle just in case the four-legged and two-legged animals got too close to each other.

Recon concluded, we headed back to camp. Apparently Canada is concerned about smuggling some of Caroline's surplus back in. We stopped at the border crossing, gave the agent our identification and waited for her to scan each one. We answered her questions about where we were from, where we were staying and told her we'd see her again tomorrow. She didn't appear to be a chatty agent. Bummer. She handed us our licenses and we continued back to the campground.

On our way back through Stewart we did some grocery shopping. Looking at the prices in the stores, I wonder, especially in a tiny town like this, how anyone can afford to shop in their own town. The tourism must be a lot bigger than what I can see or the few businesses there are must pay really well.

Another destination tomorrow will be to continue toward the end of the road, through an active mining operation to the Salmon Glacier Scenic Viewpoint. Now all we have to do is decide which we do first and what time we have to get up to do it all. We'll talk again soon.

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