The main street consisted of a gravel road with old run down shops that had once radiated with life. Now most had signs that read, “Moved”, “Closed” or “Be Back Soon” written in the dust of an old truck still parked at a rundown gas station. The dollar value of the gas at the time of closure was covered, but it could clearly be seen to have been less then $1.
Hyder is not only a must-see for anyone visiting Stewart but it also is home to the best wildlife viewing boardwalk. Our tourist books stated that at this world famous place we could see; Grizzly Bears, Black Bears, Bald Eagles and even Wolves join together for the high paced hunt for the spawning salmon in the river. With high hopes we walked the boardwalk which was patrolled by locals equipped with CB radios and large cans of Bear Spray to stop any bears from trying to climb the railing onto the boardwalk.
Since we have had such amazing luck with wildlife it should have been no surprise that when we showed up there would be no animals around. The excitement at this viewing area was the single salmon laying its eggs in the river bed. While the view was fantastic we were discouraged and headed along the logging roads in search of a wandering bear… we again came up empty handed. Heading back into Canada, we had to cross the border, after a discussion about the bear spray we were easily waved through, and the single border guard has been the friendliest ever encountered to date.
Heading north towards Inkut we read about some old flooded telegraph cabins in Echo Lake on the side of the highway. After passing the viewpoint we turned around and decided to hike in…. big mistake. The hill was steep and slipping through bushes buzzing with bees, we ended up in a sea of spider webs with not a trail in site. Armed with our bear spray and air horn we decided to call it a day since we still could not see the cabins and meeting a bear here would not have been favorable…We are terrible explorers.
Driving the highway beside British Columbia’s largest huckleberry patch we finally saw what we have been in search of for the last 5 days. Flying past (what appeared to be a stuffed animal) at 110km/h (not speeding) we saw a brown four legged creature on the side of the road. As I was trying to get the 6,000 lb beast of a truck to a stop in the shortest amount of time, Ricki yelled “Its fake!”… Idiot. Backing up we saw a young grizzly munching on some grass on the side of the road. After taking numerous pictures of the curious cub a semi flew by and caused him to go darting into the bushes out of sight so he could resume his lunchtime snack. Finally seeing a Grizzly bear not only put us in a fantastic mood, it also allowed us to check off a “viewed animal” on our wildlife viewing check list…(unfortunately crows and seagulls and foxes pooping in parks were not on it so this was the first thing to really check off).
Our next stop was not planned at all, while driving past the Kanaskin Lake Campground I recalled spending the night at this beautiful site 5 years ago on my previous trip through BC. Cruising through the campground we came across a little problem. A VERY large motorhome had driven into the ditch blocking the road.
They were towing a small jeep which they were going to use to pull the camper. When I got out to take a better look I noticed that they were trying to tow it with a very thin safety wire strapped to the small loop on the side of the rear hitch. We decided we should help since we were so well equipped with straps and a winch. After talking to the couple driving the rig, it turned out that they were from New Zealand and had been on the road 6 days and were not quite used to driving on the wrong side of the road yet, better yet a humongous house on wheels. So I hooked up my strap the rear tow hitch and fired up the winch. While the motor home was spinning its tires I slowly winched him backwards (the winch didn’t even bog down). Finally he was free so we helped him get into his spot without hitting the ditch. After some talking and joking around they offered us a bottle of red wine, we graciously declined but said a free night of camping would be nice too. They quickly agreed and gave us $20 to pay for our night. We picked out our spot which is 5 feet from the lake, and with the sun beating down and the wind blowing we did some laundry, cleaned out the car, aired the tent, and finally had everything 100% dry. After dinner we tried our hand at fishing, while our neighbor was also wading into the water with a rod I felt a little competition was necessary.
Since no fish were biting it turned out into a casting contest.. he didn’t know it was a contest.. but I clearly won. At the site we also made a new friend who loved to eat anything we dropped and even sat on Ricki’s camera that was atop the table we were sitting at.
We also decided today I could open my birthday present since it was taking up a lot of room packed up in the car. Ricki bought me a water bottle with a built in water filter, and some emergency chocolate which I will try to keep out of my rapidly growing moustache.
As the sun is finally setting over the mountains we can see ducks on the calm lake just outside out tent window. With a quiet campground we are hoping for a good night’s sleep and an early wake up tomorrow for our long drive into the Yukon, hopefully reaching Whitehorse.
