North is north....day 9

I am only giving you one photo of the road to Whitehorse. That is because I could show you 1,000 of them and each one would look different and yet the same. How can one or even a thousand of them ever convey the day's journey?  Miles upon miles of forest, lakes, mountains and nobody and nothing else. No power lines. Just space. And deafening silence. The odd rusting settlement that gave up long ago despite their "welcome to" signs.  No farms. No ranches. No nuthin' except the magnificent silence of space…no photo can convey this. This is God's country.

About halfway to Whitehorse, we come to a very much living settlement called Teslin. It is the home to some Tlingit First Nations people who have an amazing community centre where they share traditional performances, demonstrations of hand games, carvings and food.  Below is the metal-grated bridge to Teslin that drove Rick crazy as we drunkenly wavered across it length. 

These first nations people have a great sense of humour. The fake RCMP cruiser was positioned at the Trading Post as you leave Teslin. I am sure it was quite effective in slowing down large numbers of unwitting travellers.

After one of most satisfying days of the whole trip, we arrived early at Whitehorse where we intend to spend a couple of days. We are timing our last section of the trip north to the weather. The weather man says there is rain for the weekend in Inuvik so we will stay here and in Dawson City until Sunday when we will start the last trek to the Arctic.

We cruised briefly around Whitehorse before settling into the camp site. I don't know what I had been expecting, but this was a very positive surprise. In many ways, it is a very unremarkable version of any ordinary small Canadian city. The infrastructure is similar. It is clean. The parks along the river are neat, tidy and green. It has all the usual icons like Tim's and Canadian Tire, and the Super Store. But in addition,  it has a certain majesty, buildings that are stately although modern. This is an architecture suitable for the capital of the territory which it is. And yet, you could walk from one end on town to the other given a half hour. Whitehorse is a slightly compressed version of Regina, or Victoria or other small Canadian capital city. Compressed yet stately yet ethnically vibrant (Vietnamese, Chinese, Ukranian etc etc) yet western (paddlewheeler museum), yet modern (box stores, restaurants galore etc)…it is everything in miniature. And despite its casual urbanity, its roots stay planted in the mines and lumbering and rugged wilderness that surrounds it. I love it.

Yet another reminder of its history and cultural heritage.

Now, how Canadian is this, to be buying Okanagan fruit from a fruit stand in the Yukon?  Fresh peaches, and sweet cherries, and apricots and blueberries and and and and…(yes that's me in the brilliant aqua Tshirt).. 

Barbara Rick and Flossie

Hyder the Semi-ghost town

Walking distance from Stewart, we cross into the US at Hyder.

About a dozen homes are still viable and lived in. Some are converted to stores and businesses.

There is a functional community building.

A functional general store

A few miles up the paved road is the bear viewing platform.

A lot of people were there waiting fruitlessly to see the bear. They come here every mid-summer to fall, to dine on the spawing salmon. Unfortunately there were no salmon evident, so no salmon, no bear!

Most of the homes in Hyder are gently rotting back into nature. 

Below are some examples of "old" Hyder.

Barbara RIck and Flossie

Day 7 part 1 trip Stewart to Bell 2

We're headed to Bell 2 today, from Stewart. The name Bell 2 refers to the fact that it is the second crossing over the Bell River. Out here it is all about the basics of transportation: rivers for crossing or canoeing, mountain passes, fjords for shipping. Many of these settlements were isolated, such as Stewart. The bridge over the Nass River that connected it to the rest of continental North America was only  built in 1973. Before then there was only the ocean. More than one cultural geographer has commented on how these early settlements along the rugged west coast were really islands. Something to ponder.

The trip is relatively short. When we get up to the main highway, we stop at the intersection for gas and to walk the dog.

This is our goal for the day.

Self evident: walk dog.

Pit stop for fuel. We have to calculate carefully to make it from gas to gas.

Oh the scourge of the north!  It seems to be the "in" thing to go with one of these bike touring outfits. They set people off in groups of about 6, with the aid of a support vehicle (a van pulling a trailer). These bikers move like flocks of geese, only unlike geese they never look up to see the terrain they are pedaling through.  It's sad really. They miss so much, and not just the incredible scenery. We run into them at the camping spots, like the one where we are at Bell 2. They cluster together in the lobby, do not smile or interact with the rest of us "locals".  Last night they bunked own behind the lodge at Bell 2 in their little pup tents with their support van close by. The sign behind them said "Beware, active bear area".  We shuddered.

More of the gorgeous scenery

Human interest shot.

Barbara Rick and Flossie at Bell 2 Lodge, northern BC, Canada

Hyder the Semi-ghost town

Walking distance from Stewart, we cross into the US at Hyder.

About a dozen homes are still viable and lived in. Some are converted to stores and businesses.

There is a functional community building.

A functional general store

A few miles up the paved road is the bear viewing platform.

A lot of people were there waiting fruitlessly to see the bear. They come here every mid-summer to fall, to dine on the spawing salmon. Unfortunately there were no salmon evident, so no salmon, no bear!

Most of the homes in Hyder are gently rotting back into nature. 

Below are some examples of "old" Hyder.

Barbara RIck and Flossie

Day 8 to the Yukon

The day went as usual: mile after mile of mountains, road, lakes in an endless progression. The highway went from paved with painted lines, to gravel to asvalt and back again. The only change was that we had left farmland and ranchland behind, and replaced it with the wild forest. Very few homes or settements on this stretch of the road. No traffic either. It thinned out right as we left Stewart, and by the time we got halfway up there was nobody on the road except us.

Halfway up the highway to the Yukon, we spied a set of black ears in the ditch alongside the road. Rick slowed right down to a crawl, and I managed just to grab a quick photo of the black bear who had been soaking him or herself in the ditch. It may look small in the photo but it really wasn't. I reckon about the size of one of my donkeys.

Further along we met road work, and Rick was fascinated by the machine they use to cut vegetatyion on the entire bank with on swipe.

Sadly we also went through a very large patch of dead forest, victim to the pine beetle.

Late in the afternoon, we crossed the line into the Yukon. 

We tucked into the first campground we found and here is the route for tomorrow. We're 

aiming for Whitehorse.

Very tired. We are walking the dog, had a bowl of cereal for supper and now am heading for bed. I think we actually get the CBC here on TV so we will check in for the first news in a week. Can't say I felt like I missed anything.

Love to all,

Barbara Rick and Flossie the incredible adventurer

Day 7 part 2 Bell 2 Lodge

Below is Bell Lodge at Bell 2. You can't see what is different about this ski lodge, but if you could gaze around you would notice it right away. There are NO ski runs on the mountain slopes around Bell 2 Lodge. There are NO ski lifts. Nope. Instead there is a helicopter pad just  past the lodge. This is the heart of helicopter skiing up on the tops of mountains, where they drop you off and then pick you up at the bottom again. An amazing world we live in now.

Behind the lodge are the cabins. You can choose a sod roofed traditional like the one below. If you look closely you can see that the fascia boards running around the bottom edge of the roof are covered with birch bark.

Or, you can choose a more conventional kind of cabin.

Or a log cabin for 1 or 2.

And apres ski, you can soak in a nice hot sauna (below).

Out back is where we get to camp. The bikers are even further out back from us. And also behind us are 2 bunkies for workers, plus other campers used by summer workers. They are not working at the lodge, they must be seasonal workers on the roads or something like that. I heard a couple of them driving out at 3AM this morning, so perhaps they are on shifts. One 4-noon, the other noon to 8. This would give maximum use of the daylight at this time of year.

We are off on an early start. Hoping to make it to the Yukon tonight.

Barbara Rick and Flossie

Stewart BC and the Salmon Gacier

Stewart BC is quite a treat. It sits at the head of Portland Canal which is a 60 mile fjord of salt water that flows south into the Pacific Ocean. Although it sits on salt water, it is surrounded by 8-12,000 foot mountains and gets winter snows of up to 30 feet. The main industries are gold mining and logging. The gold mine is still operational and employs a number of men from both Stewart and Hyder. 

This is the visitor centre. It also has a lovely cenotaph in the gardens to the fallen of WW1 and WW2. 

We took our last morning and drove back across the US border at Hyder and followed the road up past the bear watching station another 20 miles to see the Salmon Glacier. We just left Hyder and the pavement disappeared, and shortly after we passed a sign that announced we were back into BC Canada. This time no border guard!  We continued upwards. It took an hour to go the 20 miles and nowhere were there road guards or other instruments of safety. The road was quite washboard on the side going upwards and the truck was bouncing precariously close to the sharp drop off of several thousand feet. But AT LAST, we rounded a corner and looked up and saw a turn out ahead that announced the viewpoint. It was well worth the effort. Three Alaskans were standing there admiring the view, and they admitted they had seen nothing as good as this in Alaska, which surprised me. Photos cannot capture the majesty of it, but we did our best,

The glacier is actually T shaped and also flows to the right, but not as much as the left tongue.

This is the view from the summit. We are really up with the stars here.

I snapped this as we were coming back down. It shows the left tongue.

That's it for our stop at Stewart. This was one of our  favourite highlights so far. 

Barbara, Rick and Flossie