Bell II to Prince George
(Photos later)
Today was a five bear day. I have not invented a rating system using bears instead of stars. We saw five bears. Count ‘em.
Within ten minutes of leaving Bell II, with very nice coffee from their coffee shop in our travel mugs, a small black bear lolloped over the road in front of us. One bear. A couple of minutes later, a moose did much the same.
The Stewart-Cassiar Highway is smooth and easy from here all the way south, incidentally.
We took the side road to Stewart. It’s not on our way, but every source insists it’s unmissable. They’re right. The scenery on this road has everything: snow capped mountains, waterfalls, lakes, trees, white water, a glacier, the year-round snow mound from an avalanche area. As we approached Bear Glacier (which melts into Bear Lake, which empties into Bear River), a wet black bear similar in size to the last one trotted over the road. It had probably been in the river. Two bears.
We stopped to admire the glacier. It’s not as big as the one we hiked on (at least, not the visible part), but the way it comes down the mountain steeply, ending at the lake with a torrent of melt, is very dramatic indeed.
We carried on into Stewart. Here, the slightly surly lady at the visitor information centre advised me that Iskut Hot Springs Provincial Park, that we tried to reach yesterday, simply does not exist. Two guidebooks and the official British Columbia Parks map agree. So, MapArt Publishing’s BC road atlas contains at least one complete fabrication. Bad show.
It was not quite lunchtime, and we killed time by walking out onto the boardwalks that the people of Stewart have kindly built into their estuary. It was pretty. Birdwatchers and botanists would have especially loved it. I liked the nurse logs scattered around.
We bought sandwiches at a bakery/deli, and drove into adjoining Hyder in search of a scenic overview at which to eat. Hyder is an interesting place: it’s in Alaska, but it’s completely cut off from any other part of Alaska. The residents of Stewart go there for tax-free shopping. It has a US Post Office, a campsite, and lots of souvenir shops. As soon as you cross the (unmanned - on the way into the US) border, the smooth Canadian road is replaced by a bumpy gravel surface more suited to a farm driveway.
We headed towards the Salmon Glacier, some 20 miles up the road - but the road condition was against us. We did the sums: 20 miles each way, 20mph, that’s two hours out of our schedule — and we were a long way from Vancouver, where we need to be on Wednesday morning. So, we turned back. Heading back through Hyder — where people were around, chatting, riding bikes, manning their shops, generally doing people things — another bear ambled over the road. Three bears.
It was at this point that I decided to blog about the three bears we’d seen, and note that we’d named the moose Goldilocks. This was not to be. Unless you count that just now.
We went back into Stewart through Canadian customs — no issues except that we had to back up to avoid their awning, since our vehicle was too tall. We returned to Bear Glacier, and ate our sandwiches at a picnic table in Bear Glacier Provincial Park Picnic Area. Many people might be a little disappointed to find that this picnic area does not have a view of the glacier. What did we care? We’d already seen the glacier. It had a great view of the lake, the mountain, and some waterfalls.
While we were eating, a large group of people arrived and started setting up an elaborate picnic, with tablecloths and everything. The women were dressed similarly to Amish women. The men were dressed smartly, but not outlandishly. We speculated that it’s the men that make the rules.
Returning to the main route South, we stopped to admire a bridge. What’s wrong with that? I like bridges. Don’t you?
Debbie joked that we should be careful getting out of the van, as there are bears in these parts. As we pottered around on the other side of the road, getting photos, Debbie pointed over the bridge and said “John, there’s a bear over the bridge. It’s coming right at us!”. Now, Debbie is the girl who cried “bear”, and I did not actually believe her until I looked, but there it was. It wasn’t coming right at us. mind you. It sloped into the undergrowth without crossing the bridge.
Returning to the van, we found an occupied car in the layby. He was about the drive over the bridge, so I told him to look left, and if he was lucky, he might see the bear. He replied “Oh, I live on Vancouver Island. They come and poke around our back yard all the time.” So much for our excitement.
Four bears.
After that, it was solid driving. There was a nervous period during which the fuel warning light came on, and all we could do was keep driving and hope to find somewhere. During that time, we passed a bear on the verge. We didn’t stop, because the fuel issue was a priority, and anyway, it was only a bear. We were sick to the back teeth of bears by now.
Five bears.
Once we’d fueled up, it was just driving. We’d set a target of Prince George, and we stuck to it. For the first time, we were driving south and late enough that it got dark. I had to work out where the headlight switch was. Debbie saw a deer. One deer.
We arrived in Prince George at 9:15 — 15 minutes earlier than I’d predicted. We’d used up another tank of petrol, so we filled up. There was a Shell station and another station next to each other. Still angry with Shell about their user-unfriendly pump in Whitehorse, I opted for the other one. It was no self-service, and a nice man washed our windscreen very thoroughly while the pump did its thing. I tipped him handsomely, because we’d run out of screenwash some miles back, and the windscreen was caked with flies.
We drove through Prince George, and are camped in a large, well-kept RV park on the Southern outskirts. It was too late to spend time cooking, so we had kimchi flavour bowl noodles (always a treat) and we’re sharing some wine.