Amelia woke this morning at 7am and crawled into bed with me for snuggles. "Meemee OUT!" We all woke up around 8:30am for the start of our day. Daddy's specialty: sausages and pancakes were on the menu again for breakfast. We chatted with Anne and Don in the morning while we packed up and snapped a "group photo" using my wonderful phone camera technology. Say Cheeeeeeese! :) We left Bear Creek RV site around 11am and drove back across the "border" to Hyder Alaska to check out the Salmon Glacier. Anne and Don had been already and gave us a copy of the the route information that tells you about all the different things you pass along the way up the long dirt road to the top of the glacier viewing area. When we crossed into Alaska (you would not know it except for the friendly sign hanging above the road, "Welcome to Hyder, Alaska") we saw some young entrepreneurs that we had seen the previous day. They had a super cool chopped up bike with a lemonade stand built into it, and they were also selling baked goods. They were the cutest boys and had HUGE grins and waved as we drove by. They looked like they set up shop every day for the summer (and probably made some good coin!).
We drove past the fish viewing area where we had seen the grizzly yesterday evening and made our way up the VERY DUSTY, bumpy gravel road that was carved out of the mountainside along the river and toe of the glacier. It was a slow drive with the old beast, but she made it up! Pretty amazing views along the way. I read out loud the information as we drove past each posted number sign. I dare say we will not remember any of it, except that it was stunning... and it gave us a new respect for the mining companies that started up around here so many years ago. Brave folks.
We reached the "summit" point around 1:15pm and made lunch which we ate at a picnic table overlooking the STUNNING view of the Salmon Glacier. We were so far up! There were quite a few people up there, and we even saw this very adorable young couple that Jonathan met last night at the RV park. We had a small chat with them, too. There were a few folks with large cameras taking some pretty serious shots of the glacier. One older fellow was stood close to the edge of the main rock area that a steep bank below it followed by more outcropped rocks at the side (large enough for people to go down and walk along for a closer view -- I did not, but Jonathan checked out one of them). The guy was just folding up his tripod and his camera was not fastened to it securely and it fell off the tripod and over the cliff edge and bounced a long ways down. Everyone felt so bad for him. He shrugged it off, "I didn't like that camera anyway", but obviously it was such a bummer to lose the camera, but more so the photos he took on it. Jonathan scooted down to the lower rock ledges and was able to peek with his binoculars to try and get sight of the lost camera. He figured it was possible to pick a path down the other bank very slowly and probably retrieve it, but it would be risky (not of falling off a cliff, but of possibly injuring oneself by accident climbing over rocks). It took a lot of will power not to go get it. Just not worth the risk.
We made our way back down the gravel road around 2:15pm, and on the way down, Amelia started howling and covering her head with her hands. I was in the front seat at this point and turned around to see what happened. Ollie looked guilty, and Amelia quickly finger pointed that her darling brother was the cause of the red mark on her forehead. After "discussion" it came out that Ollie had thrown his wooden "axe" (stick that looked remarkably like a little hatchet) at his sister and managed to hit her. He vaguely admitted to throwing it saying he didn't want it anymore. Jonathan and I agreed that the axe had to be taken away, What followed resulted in a full-on Ollie meltdown/tantrum/rage. And a fair bit of guilt from the parents about throwing the prized axe out the window. We knew the axe incident would come up again over the next few days!
Near the fish viewing area, we saw a little black bear cross the road (just as the posted signs had indicated). We got back through the little border line up (again declaring our weapons - 2 cans of bear spray) and were in Stewart sometime after 4pm. We stopped at the local playground - as you do when you have a 4 year old and a 2 year old as your travel companions - and had a great play in the sunshine. Man, kids love playgrounds. Our kids especially. Especially on this trip. They can spy them from the RV window like hawks can find a field mouse. "Nay-nound!!!!" screams Amelia every time she sees one.
After a couple of hours we managed to drag them off the playground and head up the road to have some food. We found a funky little place on the main drag (there is not much more than a main drag in Stewart! so tiny!) called Dash Bistro. When you opened the doors, you realized it was actually a food truck inside a tented space! so neat. The service was great and the food delicious... they had a selection of homemade organic burgers, and pizzas. Oh, and these yummy little spicy sauteed snap peas... mmmm. The kids were great and enjoyed their food. Amelia sits on the big seats these days... kneeling up to reach the table. Perhaps her high chair at home will be put away? After dinner, we walked up the the icecream/video/candystore/pool table hang out store and got ice cream for dessert.
Jonathan went ahead of us and took the RV to the Gas station to fill up while the kids and I sauntered down main street just a block or so away. Ollie needed to pee and took a discreet "tree pee" by a vacant building, and then we wandered over to the large gravel filled lot across from the gas station. It was there that we saw Anne and Don pass by in their big rig where we waved good bye again! Then we wandered over to see Daddy, and the kids oversaw him replenishing the fluids in the engine and checking the tire pressure, etc. All seemed fine after being topped up. We hit the road sometime around 6:45pm and we were maybe 15-20min down the road when Jonathan grabbed the receipt off the centre console to peek at the number of litres the attendant had put in.
That was when he cursed under his breath. "Diesel!!!!!!!!" he blurted. "Did that kid put Diesel in our RV?!!!!!" oh snap. Sure enough, the receipt read, "92L Diesel"... crap. Jonathan was fuming, and convinced that our RV engine was going to get ruined. We immediately decided that the best thing to do was to turn around and drive back to the gas station and check. Perhaps it was a mistake on the receipt. Fingers crossed it was a mistake on the receipt. It better be a damn mistake on the receipt.
We got back to the gas station and Jonathan checked the pump that he had pulled up to and showed the young attendant the receipt and asked where the diesel pumps were. They were over on the other side of the station, away from the regular pumps. When Jonathan went in to pay, they must have given him the wrong receipt. It was for sure gasoline in the RV. Catastrophe diverted. Whew!!!!!
Back on the road and it was not long past our original turn around point that we saw some skid marks on the road and Jonathan spotted an overturned truck in the opposite ditch. We pulled over right away and Jonathan ran back down the road to see if anyone was in the truck or needing help. There was no one in the vehicle or around the truck. Another car had pulled up when they saw the truck and he had told Jonathan that he'd heard a call come in earlier that afternoon about an overturned vehicle. Seems that the scene had already been taken care of, thank goodness. Hopefully no one was badly injured.
It was 9:30pm when we decided that it was too late to keep pushing onwards and we pulled over at a recreation site off the side of the road. Turned out to be called Bonus Lake. There was a truck and camper trailer already pulled into the small parking area and they were all leveled up and settled for the night. We hoped that they would not mind having company! We parked the RV at the opposite corner of the lot (still only about a 100ft away?) and went for a short walk down an adventurous path that Ollie wanted to check out. I was acutely aware that this was not an ideal time for walk down a forested dirt road... even though I was armed with bear spray, I didn't want the opportunity to use it! Jonathan and Ollie were quite far ahead and turned around and came back to me and Amelia before I got too worried. We got the RV ready for "sleep mode" and tucked the kids into bed. I think we had to kill about a hundred mosquitoes inside the RV before we could even consider sleeping. We had heard fish jumping when we arrived and Jonathan was pretty pumped to try fishing here. Seemed like a great place for pike to hang out. Ollie and I had heard a HUGE splash a little earlier and that got J convinced that the pike must be big. He pumped up the dingy and went out into the dark along the edge of the marshy lake and tried his luck at pike fishing. He was not out there too long before he had to come in. He had a harrowing experience (no boat danger), just surrounded by huge splashes that he imagined were made by GIANT pike. Heck... what the hell was he going to do if he CAUGHT one of these monster pikes? they have rows of razor sharp teeth that slice and sting (seriously). He only had a net made of a mesh laundry bag and a stick, for goodness sake. It was after chasing about half a dozen splashes around the little lake that he realized he had been chasing a beaver. He clued in and recognized the slap of the beaver's tail in the water. That poor beaver was probably wondering what the heck was chasing him around all night.
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