May 27, 2016 Travel day to Watson Lake

Friday, May 27, 2016 Travel day to Watson Lake

It rained on and off all day.  I don’t think the sun made it out of the clouds it tried but the clouds won.  We did see a bear in a tree shortly after leaving the campground. The ladies wanted to stop off in Jade City.  This place has been family owned since the 1970’s and the mountains here in BC produce 95% of the jade in the world.  Jade comes in many colors from white to various shades of green to black.  It is also pretty hard stone ranging from a 6-6.5 on a scale of 10.  Jade objects are known to bestows good fortunes and bring peace.  So we had to buy a piece.  We arrived at Baby Nuggett Campground in Watson Lake around 2:30.  There was no internet or phone service here. Again we were one of the first ones to arrive by the end of the night we maybe had 12 RV’s.  After dinner we rode into town just to see the Signpost Forest.  Pictures are not going to do it justice and make you see just how big this place is.  Tomorrow we head to Whitehorse.  On a scale from 1-5 the roads today I would rate them 4.50.  There were some rough patches but going slow helped.  Had some gravel but not bad and then we came to some tar road that was great.  Not as bad as we thought. 

Our bear in a tree along the road

large lake along our route

The road was gravel for about a total of 20 miles today

Sign Post Forest

A sign from home

78,336 signs as of 2013

Totem outside the store at Baby Nuggett RV Park

Our sites

May 26, 2016 Travel day to Iskut, BC

Thursday May 26, 2016 Travel day to Iskut, BC

We are just traveling 195 miles today.  This is just an overnight stop before we get to Watson Lake.  It rained on and off most of the day but we had no plans for any sightseeing so it can rain all it likes.  We did see a momma bear and her 2 cubs on a hillside and a pretty big one all by himself but that was all of the wildlife for today.  When we started out the roads were good until we were about 50 miles from Iskut.  Then the bumpy ride started but it wasn’t too bad.  You just had to slow down and watch for gravel patches and holes.  Most of the time there were little red signs that stated to go slow.  If I had to rate the road on a scale from 1-5 I would rate the end of this trip today as a 3 and the beginning a 5. We arrived at Mountain Shadow Campground just a little after 1. When we arrived there wasn’t another camper in the park of 32 sites.  There was no phone service here but they did have internet. They were all pretty level and nicely maintained.  You can walk down to the lake and have the mountains as a backdrop.  If the weather clears I will venture down there and see what I can find.

Never cleared up for me to venture out and check out the lake.

One last look at Bear Glacier after leaving Stewart, BC

This stop was for fuel after getting back on hwy 37 heading to Iskut

Door at the fuel stop

Another snow capped mountain

Our road sometimes became hard packed gravel

The slow sign marked some rough areas in the road

our sites at Mountain Shadow RV Park

May 23, 2016 Stewart, BC and May 24 and 25, 2016 Trip into Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK and the Salmon Glacier

Monday, May 23, 2016 Stewart, BC 

We had heard that the Cassiar Highway wasn’t such a good road.  We traveled 214 miles today to Stewart and the road was good.  We had some frost heaves, the road did narrow and there was a single lane  over a wooden bridge but it was well worth it.  The views were spectacular.  From the high snow capped mountains to the endless waterfalls.  We even got real close to Bear Glacier.  We saw some totems on a side road.  As we reached our destination Bear River Campground fairly early we took a quick run into Stewart.  It wasn’t that big and we were back at the campground within 30 minutes.  We all decided that after dinner we were going to go back the way we came in and take some pictures that we couldn’t get while riding in the motorhomes.  It was about 730 pm and we were hoping that we would see some wildlife as we only saw 2 squirrels on the drive here.  Luck was on our side we were only into our ride for maybe 15 minutes when Mike spotted a black bear, we saw a cub run into the shrubs (no picture) and on the way back we caught sight of another bear.  It was another black bear.  This one was bigger than the first one.  What a great way to end our day. Let’s hope that the rest of our time on this road will be as good as today was.  We only have 400 more miles to go. Tomorrow we are taking a ride across the border to Hyder Alaska to see another glacier. Hyder’s population is about 60 people.  It is very small.

Tuesday, May 24 and 25, 2016 Trip into Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK and the Salmon Glacier

We started out the morning by going to breakfast in Stewart.  We found a small café called Temptations Bakery and Deli and had a wonderful breakfast of homemade muffins and coffee.  Mike had a big man’s breakfast of egg, sausage and home fries.  I tasted his toast which was delicious that we ended ordering a loaf of bread to go.  The baker wouldn’t share the recipe for this Canadian Harvest Bread, oh well can’t blame us for trying. 

We started our adventure by crossing the border into Hyder, AK stopping at the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site a famous bear watching area.  You can just envision the bears and the salmon running which will be in about three weeks.  We talked with a Forest Service employee and he answered some of our questions about the area.  We then ventured up the mountainside to see the 5^th largest glacier in Canada, Salmon Glacier.  It was a gravel road but well maintained.  It was raining but not very hard and it would stop ever so often.  The clouds were also coming in and out of the canyon.  We stopped just short of the summit as the clouds were so thick that we couldn’t see the road and we didn’t want to drive off of it.  The glacier was huge and the waterfalls that we saw were plentiful and oh so beautiful.  As we reached the top the snow kept getting deeper and deeper and it was getting a little chilly somewhere in the 30 degree range.  We are all amazed at all of the beauty that we are experiencing.  As someone told us the Atlantic coast is beautiful but the Pacific coast is much grander.  

           OUR FIRST LOOK AT BRITISH COLUMBIA FIRST NATIONS TOTEMS POLES

WE HAD TO STOP AND GAZE AT OUR BEAUTIFUL SURROUNDINGS

SINGLE LANE WOODEN BRIDGE

CHECK OUT THE SNOW

BEAR GLACIER THIS GLACIER AT ONE TIME WAS WHERE I WAS TAKING THIS PICTURE ON THE ROAD



A FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH BLACK BEARS

JUST A NICE SHOT OF MOUNTAINS, CLOUDS AND RIVER

SALMON GLACIER



SOME WATERFALLS 

SEE HOW HIGH THE SNOW IS AND THE  SNOW IN SOLID AND LIQUID FORM

May 20, 2016 Heading to Telkwa and Smithers, BC and May 21 and 22, 2016 Twin Falls, Kathlyn Glacier, Moricetown Gorge and Toboggan Creek Fish Hatchery

Friday, May 20, 2016 Heading to Telkwa and Smithers, BC

It was another short day and 200 miles closer to Alaska.  The drive was enjoyable.  As we got closer to our destination the snow capped mountains came into view.  We stopped at Fort Telkwa RV Park.  Our sites are overlooking the Bulkley River and we can see Kathlyn Glacier from the campground.  The river is up and flowing pretty fast as the snow is melting in the mountains.  Terry and I drove into town to see if we could find a quilt shop and the buildings reminded us of an Alpine village.

Saturday May 21 and 22, 2016 Twin Falls, Kathlyn Glacier, Moricetown Gorge and Toboggan Creek Fish Hatchery

Saturday was a day for some minor repairs, washing of the vehicles and laundry.  Fun day.  Chores completed we enjoy dinner and some birthday cake as it was Terry’s birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TERRY.

We started out at about 9 am on Sunday to do a short hike to Twin Falls.  It was on the cool side (50’s) but the girls were fine with that.  We got to the parking area and away we went to the top.  It was about a ¾ mile hike up but not bad.  I would say that it was on the easy side.  One waterfall came into view but the real view was going up a little further and seeing both of the falls.  The mountains still had snow on them and that just added to the true beauty of it all. 

We continued on to the Moricetown Gorge.  This was another interesting place.  At this gorge the Wet’suwet’en tribe of the First Nations have caught salmon as they come up the gorge using baskets, gaffs and large nets.  The water was raging and you could feel the true power of the water.  We climbed around on the rocks on both sides of the gorge taking a few pictures,  hahaha. 

Next stop was the Toboggan Creek Fish Hatchery.  Here the clear cold water is temporarily diverted to the hatchery where they raise Coho and Chinook salmon.  Later they are released into the valley streams to do what they do.  Before they are released they are tagged and their adipose fin is clipped.  This fin is located at the very back of the fish before the tail.  So when these clipped salmon are caught the fisherman cut off their heads it goes to the Salmon Sport Recovery Depot.  They in turn record when the fish was caught, where it was raised and when it was released.  There is a lot of data that is captured when one of these fish are caught.  They had 47,000 Coho salmon ready to be released this year and 50,000 Coho and 50,000 Chinook salmon being prepared for release next year.

LOOKING UP AT OUR SITES FROM THE RIVER

LOOK AT WHAT IS HOLDING THE BRIDGE TOGETHER  HAHA

SOME BEAVER EVIDENCE  DIDN'T SEE ANY

GLACIER FROM OUR CAMPGROUND

BEAUTIFUL SUNSET

A FLOCK OF BUTTERFLIES

TWIN FALLS

GLACIER EVERYWHERE OH MY

PICTURE OF MORICETOWN CANYON

I LOOKED UP TO SEE WHO WAS TAKING MY PICTURE

THEN I LAID BACK DOWN

May 18 and 19, 2016- Prince George, BC

Wednesday, May 18 and 19, 2016- Prince George, BC

The drive to our next campground, Blue Cedar Campground was a very enjoyable ride.  The scenery is just beautiful.  There are plenty of lakes, the mountain ranges are high and the roads were all good.  Jan, we did find a Tim Horton’s.  For those of you that don’t know what it is.  It is a donut shop similar to Dunkin Donuts.  So I got my fix.  Nothing of interest happened here it rained most of the day so it was a day to stay inside.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAN AND ELIZABETH!!!!!

SOME PICTURES OF THE MOUNTAINS AND LAKES

JIM AND TERRY

MIKE AND PAT