August 15th - 17th

Had a nice evening and night at Smart Creek and then headed to Dease Lake where we stayed at a small campground (Waters Edge RV Park) run by Chuck and his wife Grace. What a neat place! There also happened to be a "fishing contest" going on there at the same time. All the local road maintenance people and their families come to the park and they have a contest for lake trout. The winner was 17 pounds with second place weighing in at 13 pounds. Both fish were caught by a man and his wife.

On Saturday we went to Telegraph Creek which is at the end of a 70 mile gravel road. It was a very interesting drive through the mountains with grades up to 20% which is the largest we've seen in our journeys. Telegraph Creek is a very old town that in part, owes it fame to the telegraph companies. In 1866 Western Union was in a race with the Anglo-American Telegraph Company to establish a line between North America and Europe. Anglo-American won the race but not before Western Union's line had reached Telegraph Creek before they stopped. Gold rushes helped contribute to TC's growth which today is around 300 full-time residents. We had a great meal (clam chowder & home-made brown bread) at the local grocery store, restaurant, clothing, and tourist center.

Sunday we headed for the Stewart BC/Hyder AK area. We did see a crossing the road in the early morning and a cub later in the day... we didn't stop to find Momma bear! We are staying at the Run-a-muk RV park in Hyder. Sunday when we arrived we went to a bear watching area. It is a great facility as one can watch the bears feed, play, etc. without fear of them or them of us. As you can see by the number of pictures, we had a great time. People actually come here every year just to photograph the bears. One couple had been here 19 years in a row.

Monday to decided to get up early and head to the bear watching station. As we came near the station, the same 2 bears from the night before came wondering down the road. When they were just about to the truck, they turned and went up a steep embankment. Since they had already been to the river, we decided to head up to the Salmon Glacier. It was a beautiful drive once again as we climbed about 3000 feet to a point where we could look down on the glacier. Only one problem... it was cloudy so all we could see were the clouds. We did get a glimpse of the glacier but it would have been spectacular if the sun was out... oh well, something to look forward to on our next trip this way.

On the way back from the glacier we stopped at the bear viewing station. Today we saw 2 more grizzlies although they did not play together or interact in any way. These bears were huge and were only interested in eating fish as opposed to the 4-years olds we saw the day before who were more interested in fishing and playing than actually eating what they caught.

Monday wouldn't be complete without doing some washing... one of Biker Arda's favorite activities.

Tomorrow we head south again towards Squamish BC where we hope to visit my nephew Aaron and his better half.

There are a lot of pictures (sorry it was really hard to delete a lot of the bear pictures) at  Dease Lake-Hyder

Not sure when we will have internet again (we still don't have phone service) but until then, be safe and keep the loops open.