Day 32: Thursday, August 4 “Bell
II Lodge lunch, then Stewart & Hyder and connecting with friends”
Another gorgeous morning view.
The kids had cereal and I went for a shower. I was very excited about the
prospect of a good shower and was a little disappointed when I got there. It
was a small plywood room in the “wash building” (which was totally fine!), but
the shower didn’t have a curtain (which could have been fine, if the shower
head wasn’t pointed directly OUT of the shower). When I turned on the water, it
came out in a decent enough spray but basically sprayed right out of the shower
on onto my clothes hanging on the wall, and into my boots. Oh dear. So, I tried
immediately to move the shower head carefully so it aimed inside the basin, at
which point the entire shower head fell off into my hand. This, of course,
resulted in a full garden hose stream of water spurting out of the pipe. The entire plywood floor of the room was
soaked, but I had managed to move my boots and clothes back slightly to avoid
much further water “damage”. I washed my hair under the garden hose (great
pressure!) and then turned the shower off and replaced the cheap showerhead. Finished
with a final rinse (spray still exiting the shower, due to the lack of curtain)
and turned it off. Well, that was not quite how I had hoped things would go…
showers are few and far between… but I was clean and my hair was washed. Call
it good. And, when we were chatting with
the owner later when popping onto the wifi at the office before leaving, I
dared not say anything about possibly getting a curtain for the ladies’ shower,
or the fact that the shower head was cheap and fell off. He just wasn’t the
kind of guy you mention stuff like that to.
After packing up, I had walked up
to the office to see if I could get on wifi and post a few days of the blog. He
came out and chatted a bit. He was kind of a Norman Bates type of guy. The
password he had written down on a scrap of paper last night was not the same
one that he told me this morning. I did manage to get on wifi by the time
Jonathan drove up with the kids and did the sani-dump and water refill. We made
small talk while the kids avoided the dogs (big friendly black dog named Goofy
kept trying to take Ollie’s new stick that looked like an axe). We found out
lots of background on the guy and his hardships. Also his opinions about the
locals. Hmmmm. We kept neutral and congenial. Oh, and I made sure that I paid
him the $3 for the shower I took. After
chatting, we realized he was nice enough… a little odd, but had some tough
times. We wished him well, thanked him for the hospitality, and complimented
him on his beautiful property before we hopped in the ol’ Mobile Traveler and
hit the road again by 11am.
At 12:20pm we saw a Black Bear at
the side of the highway. An hour later we reached Bell II Lodge at 1:30pm and
stopped in to get gas (124L) and decided to go into the nice restaurant for some
good food. The menu had lots of very delicious sounding meals… and not much
pricier than some of the greasy spoon meals we have had in the past. The kids
were great in the restaurant and Amelia insisted on sitting on a grown up chair
beside Ollie (no high chairs). She did very well until near the end of the
meal. She was standing up and not paying attention and she toppled off the
chair to the floor with a thud. The thud was followed by us scooping her up in
our arms and seeing the silent scream that precedes the “that hurt like heck”
scream. Poor bubba. There was only one other couple in the restaurant, but I
took Amelia outside to calm her down and stop the screaming. She answered my
questions with her usual “yell replies”… but managed to calm down with some
snuggles. We left Bell II at 2:50pm and
saw another small Black Bear about 40min later.
4pm we had reached Meziadin
Junction and took the 37A west to Stewart and Hyder. This was a lovely drive
along a gravel road that boasted amazing glacier views. We decided to drive through Stewart (I popped
into the Post Office quickly to buy stamps and mail our postcards!) and go
directly to Hyder Alaska to check out the Fish Viewing Area and see if we could
spot any Grizzlies. The border crossing
into Alaska is just like driving down a road. No stops or border control to get
into the USA. It’s a dead end road. They only have a border patrol on the
Canadian side when you come back. It’s very small.
5:30pm we were at the Fish Viewing
platforms that overlook a river where hundreds of salmon were struggling up
river on their final days of spawning. It was quite a sight. There were lots of
people poised with cameras waiting for bears to meander down the river for a
feast. When we paid our $5 to enter the platform and walkway area, the guide
said that we’d have to wait a bit, but that we would likely see a bear soon…
the evening viewing was fairly predictable.
There were signs in the parking lot advising to walk along the fenced boardwalks
from the parking lot to the viewing area, as bears commonly cross the road to
get to the river. Yikes.
We waited and waited. The Kids
were surprisingly patient. Then just as Amelia got fed up in the Ergo on my
back and started wailing, a grizzly appeared down the river. As I was walking quickly away from the crowd
with a crying toddler, people were whispering and rushing to the opposite end
of the boardwalk preparing their cameras for their photo ops. I got Amelia to the entrance area where it
was away from the crown and quiet and I gave her snuggles and calmed her down.
I was sooooo sad not to have seen the bear. People were still entering the
boardwalk at this time and were excitedly, but quietly, advising that there was
a Grizzly down in the river and pointing in that direction. Luckily, Meemer finally calmed enough that I
could put her in the front of the Ergo carrier and hustle back along the
boardwalk to try and catch a glimpse of the bear. I handed Jonathan the big camera
(he had no idea that I had to abort mission and remove Amelia from the scene).
Luckily the bear was still there and Amelia and I both managed to see it before
it moved on down the river. I even got a few pics snapped on my phone through the
fence. Yay! All was not lost J Just before 7:30pm we were leaving the bear
viewing area and we bumped into our “Muncho Lake Neighbours” Anne and
Don!!!!! So great to see them again!
They advised that they were staying in Stewart at the Bear Creek RV park in
site #26. We decided we would stay there too and catch up with them about each
other’s adventures since we saw them last in Watson Lake when our RV had broken
down.
We cleared the border inspection
(a very nice border patrol woman at the little white patrol station) after
declaring our weapons (2 cans bear spray) and drove back through the mainstreet
of Stewart towards the Bear Creek RV Park. We got stopped at an intersection by
some flaggers. Ahead we saw these huge, long semi trucks with enormous (120ft?)
long white blades on board. I guessed windmill blades and the flagger confirmed
I was right! They were really neat to see. There were three blades and three
huge tubes each on extended and custom flat bed type trailers. We waited until
all were through the intersection. It seemed impossible for them to make the
turn, but they did!
We got to Bear Creek and the site
next to Anne and Don was free, so we parked and got set up. At 8:30pm we were
making tacos and got the kids into bed after having a great little visit with
Anne and Don. They were so happy that our RV got fixed and that we got back
onto the road since we last saw them.
No comments:
Post a Comment