Thursday, September 23, 2010

Last Leg – Hyder bears, Jasper/Banff/Kamloops

Hyder is known for the bears who come to feast on the spawning salmon. The state has actually built a platform for viewing and safety. Since the bears are independent, working for no union nor Disney, sometimes they show up, many times they don’t.  They say they have had as many as 30 bears show up at one time and as few as none. We didn’t get to see 30 but we saw an awesome mom and cub.

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I’m not even sure what was going on here.  Was this a love bite, a scolding, some form of teaching – I don’t know.  Below is a zoomed in shot.

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There was no growling or snarling and soon both went about their business.

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Near by an eagle was getting his fair share also.

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And a little salad to go with the salmon sushi.

 

 

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O.K. kid, here is how you do it!

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Just FYI, this is a grizzly.  She looks sweet and cuddly but capable of huge harm. Sure is pretty though.

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So it was good by to Hyder and on to other adventures.  This was our last touch with Alaska – kind of sad but oh so many great adventures.

Kind of to wrap up the trip back to the U.S., we stopped at a British Columbia Provincial park on a Lake called Meziadin, how can there be so many pretty places?

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Near by river we fished and just soaked in the beauty.

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We stopped at a place called Burns Lake along the way.  Nice shot of 4 Hitchhikers along the water.

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Then it was on to Jasper and Banff.  Sad to say that for us, as marvelous and beautiful, and magnificent as these parks are they were a slight dssapointment to us.  Perhaps we had seen so much raw, unspoiled magnificence, perhaps we had lived with so little population and traffic, perhaps we were just spoiled.  Both parks were pretty crowded and pretty touristy, especially Banff.  Certainly gorgeous so we partook, enjoyed, and then left the crowds.

Here a sampling of Jasper.

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We were able to watch this magnificent bull elk scratch his antlers.  I mean if you ever, ever had an itch, you would so much appreciate this poor guys malady.  The velvet on the antlers starts to itch and they find a tree to scratch on, the poor tree may actually end up dyeing from this process, but it just has to be done.  We watched for almost an hour – very fascinating – and what a beautiful specimen this big guy was.

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Next stop was Banff.  On the way we drove through snow, that white stuff that happens in the cold in winter!

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One of the highlights for us was Lake Louise, great spot for sure.

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And also near by Lake Moraine.

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(Stacy, and others interested, this is a vertical stitched panorama) 

Our next stop of note was almost our last stop in British Columbia and in the Kamloops area.  The area was partly chosen since my parents took me up to Kamloops fishing as a little kid, probably when I was 10 or less.  Kamloops is a fantastic area, within 1 hour drive of Kamloops there are over 100 lakes. We chose Roche Lake, just south of Kamloops and thought we might try Horseshoe Lake, just before Roche.  Issue being a) it was labor day week end, b) no reservations accepted and c) Horseshoe Lake only has 4 camp spots.  We trudged on, driving south of Kamloops, then 7 miles of rough dirt road and then 1.5 miles of awful, terrible, pot holy, muddy road – no place for a decent sized trailer at all.  We somehow made it (at this point it was Walters and McDoles only) and low and behold there were two spots (out of 4) available.  Next challenge to get in, but we did. After a day or so the other two left and we had the camp site and the entire lake all to our selves.  Wow, what a way to end our trip!

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Some of the road, it doesn’t photograph any where as near as it was bad.

 

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And from the other side of the lake.

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the little white dots are our rigs!

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We did manage to catch the elusive Kamloops Trout, a local species variation of the rainbow trout.  Great fighter, wonderful trout.  And the meat was nice and pink, almost like a salmon and so very wonderful barbequed in the great outdoors!

We traveled over 11,000 miles, pulled the trailer over 8,000 miles, set up and broke camp over 60 times. It was literally a trip of a lifetime. Thanks for sharing part of it with us.  We loved it phenomenally and are starting to plan for a return trip, hopefully, in the near future.  What a great land we live in!

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Leg 12 To and down the Cassiar Highway

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After Dawson it was off to Stewart Crossing.  We had decided on another Yukon Government Camp.  We were really starting to love these Yukon camps and this one was no disappointment.  Beautiful, wooded and private camp sites and near a creek, Moose Creek for which the CG was named. It was plenty warm so we wore short shirts and shorts – and no mosquito repellent.  Huge mistake!  The creek was picture perfect, but not fishing perfect.  Very difficult to get water access and then still difficult to get casting room.

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Here is Rich trying to find access to the water to try to catch a nice grayling.

 

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I managed to pull a few grayling out but the next day waded the creek and found very much better success. Mostly catch and release but kept a few decent guys for supper.  Shelle and I also walked down where Moose Creek fed into the Stewart River.

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Here is a shot of camp (unfortunately when it was sunny we were busy fishing so the shot is the next day in overcast).

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Lots of aspen and fir, great spot.

Traveling down the road to White Horse we spotted this sign, second time we had seen such a sign.

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We later discovered this was just before a predominately First Nation (native Indian) town and was an attempt to squelch crazy drunkenness.  The Royal Canadian Mountie  said it was kind of fun to try to enforce same.  From Whitehorse we motored to Carcross (deriving its name from a shortening of “caribou crossing”).  Neat little place with lots of lakes. Here are a couple of pics.

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This is the lake across the street from our CG (Tagich Lake).

 

 

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Mike trying his luck.

 

 

 

 

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And Rich had brought some gold mine dirt from Dawson and was trying his luck.  We didn’t get enough gold to buy the fish that Mike didn’t catch!

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The local Catholic church.

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The local First Nation meeting place had these really cool totems or symbols.

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Drove to Skagway as a day trip from Carcross. Very interesting drive, including some fog and rain.  Skagway is, maybe was, a cool little town except it has been ruined, in our opinion, by all the tourist boats. So tons of jewelers and other merchants almost exclusively catering to the cruise ship traveler.

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Here are two ships that were in while we were there.  Still a pretty port.

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Downtown site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Stick house.

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Museum and court house.

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And the train that Rich and Joan took.

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And we had to have lunch.

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Back at Carcross, just outside of town is the so claimed smallest desert in the world.  Actually it isn’t an official desert but looks a little like one, the sand coming from an ancient lake bed.

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We stopped in Johnson’s crossing, caught a few fish, Roxy had a run in with a porcupine – fortunately she escaped with only 3 quills which I was able to pull out!

Our next adventure of choice was to go down the beautiful Cassiar Highway but we had been told it was closed due to forest fires.  We just decided to go and were lucky enough to find the road open, albeit with escorts.  We drove right through the fire area, mostly controlled, but very eerie.  Shots from the cockpit below.

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Here is the start, it also gives you an idea of the highway (eventually it did get a little better).  We meet a truck puling a fire bull dozer.

 

 

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All the above right out the window, and, boy, could we smell the smoke.

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But finally we get to Boya Lake, a British Columbia Provincial CG.

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And here is the view we had that evening – wow!

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This camp site was definitely in everyone’s top 10, guess you can see why.  More pics follow.

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And here is a shot of Jeff’s rig and view.

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And early morning campfire smoke drifting diaphanously over the still morning lake.

DSC_2530a sm  On our way into close by Jade City we happened upon these handsome mountain goats.

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Jade City is a great stop, lots of Jade mining and cutting going on.  We continued on down the Cassiar, finally to Iskut. Another great stop, very pretty, nice setting, and – guess what – fishing.  It was about a 25 minute hike to the lake but wonderful Rainbow trout fishing – I think we all limited out, along with many more catch and releases. Here is the view from our coaches (note at the far middle, the end of the lake).

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And below trying our luck once more.

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If you look close you will notice that Sally doesn’t need no stinkin’ waders!

 

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Beauty, outdoors, great and mighty rainbows – pretty cool life!  And then on to another great BC CG.  This one on Kinaskan Lake, another drop dead, beautiful, actually unbelievable place. Of course you will never guess what denizens habituated this water land – think colors of the rainbow!

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Shelle caught a nice fly fishing sequence (lighting was poor and effected some of the quality, but I love this sequence!) Below is where we fished – this lake actually required a boat to fish properly and successfully, but we did pretty well from shore.  We fished in a passage, sort of like a river, between the main lake and a smaller lake.  Looked like this.

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And here is the fly presentation.

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No creel nor net so fish had to be worked to shore and “beached”.

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And almost there. Nice fish too (well since it wasn’t photo’ed it was a huge, monster fish! :-) ) Egad, can’t tell you how much fun this is!!!

 

Back on the Cassiar, couple shots from the cockpit as we head for Stewart and Hyder.

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Stewart is at the end of the Cassiar Highway (actually the “Stewart – Cassiar Highway”) in British Columbia whereas Hyder, which adjoins Stewart, is in Alaska.  At one time both towns were hopping places but today due to little mining activity both towns are struggling. Lumber is a big business and mining is coming back so the locals are hopeful.

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Above is actually the main drag of Hyder, most buildings are currently shut down.

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Above is the Glacier bar.  One can get “Hyderized” here, which means you chug a martini of pure grain alcohol and get a certificate – I guess you have to live to get the certificate.  We actually went there to get “Hyderized” but fortunately they were closed (odd, a bar that closes at 9:00 p.m.).

Below is the general store, kind of a neat place.  They have pictures inside of snow well past the stairs!

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The Walters and McDoles decided to brave a dinner in Hyder and had been tipped that the “Bus” was a great place, and so it was.  A little out of the ordinary, certainly in the category of funky, but awesome.  Several movies have been shot in Hyder, one was “Insomnia” with Robin Williams.  Robin loved hanging out at the “Bus”.

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As maybe you can tell, the kitchen is a converted small school bus and the co-owner Diane does everything from growing vegetables to cooking to serving and busing and whatever else. Her husband is a professional fisherman and supplies her with fresh fish.  Diane made a “mermaid” chowder with scallops, shrimp and halibut which was out of this world. The salad was onions, peas, and lettuce, all fresh from her garden.  The main course was a halibut burger with special sauce – yep made by Diane – and was huge and so, so very excellent.  Shoot fire, I’m hungry just writing about it.  One could eat outside or inside in a little dining room, since it was late – after 8 – Diane came in and ate with us (she got pizza from down the street!).

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Here is Diane in the kitchen.

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You never know when a little side adventure might turn out to be a highlight.

We were eventual able to see some bears – one of the main draws of Hyder – which I will post in the next post (this one is getting big enough.)