On to Stewart!

We drove 305 miles to Northern Beaver Post--nice drive.  Canadian customs stop--The officer says "Oh, you're a small one.  I know where you've been and I know where you're going.  We've had your caravan going through here all day."  Very polite but lots of questions about firearms.  Do you have any with you, any ammo, do you own any firearms, do you keep them loaded?  One lady in our group made the mistake of getting annoyed with all the questions and said, "why don't you just get on with it and let us through!"  The officer said, "pull over there." and three hours later after a RV and car search...they did let them through!  Don't mess with the customs officers!

Next day was 208 miles to Dease Lake, BC.  It was beautiful but the roads are two lane, curvy and we are happy when there are lane markings!  You can only go about 40 mph and have to stay alert!

Tratogga Lake Resort was a new park for the company and we were met at the entrance by Dan who told us it was not up to par and the rest of the group opted to drive 5 more hours to Stewart.  Four of us were tired and decided  it was fine for our 4 smaller rigs so we stayed and had a nice pot luck.  Very nice restaurant there so I asked them if they had salad..."oh yes we do...but today we are out of lettuce and most everything else so just go ahead a eat up what you have in your RVs!"

Glad we stayed because the next day drive to Stewart was one of the most beautiful on a sunny day and we were well rested!  Loads of glaciers, fire weed,  water falls, pine trees and aspen trees--amazing!  

Glacier

Tailgunners Joe and Jewel taking a break with us

Bear River Park is a great place!  One of our group was sick for 10 days so Dan asked me to check on her.  Sent her to little urgent care here and spent the afternoon in there with her.  She had a bowel obstruction and had to leave their RV here go on to see a surgeon 6 hours away.  Very nice people and hope she will be ok.

We drove from the Visitor Center in Stewart up to the top of Salmon Glacier and it was spectacular scenery. We stopped at the "bear viewing platform" which was along a salmon stream and lucked out seeing a brown grisly bear trying to catch salmon.  He needs more practice as the fish kept getting away from him--really fun to watch.  The bear want to eat the eggs and will try to catch only females if they can.

The road became continually worse with potholes as the view got better.  It was a beautiful glacier even on a misty day!  The drive down was too thrilling as there was little berm and straight
down from there!  Definitely worth the 6 hour adventure!

Salmon Glacier

Salmon Glacier dividing and going two directions

Fireweed

This little guy showed no fear of us at all!  We're not sure what he is.

Pica?

We had a baked potato dinner with all the fixins tonight with our group and got the scoop on what to do tomorrow.  We only have three more days left and can hardly believe it.  This trip has gone so fast!
It is getting colder ( 54 day 34 night) and dark by 9pm.  One of the RV's had so much ice on their slide-outs they couldn't shut it!  We are glad for our electric heater!  The Fireweed flowers are gone and they are going to seed--looks like cotton on the plants! Time for us to head south!

Smithers was the next stop at the Fort Telkwa RV park which was on a river with a nice view and a nice nature trail.  The drive was lovely.

We stopped at Moricetown to watch the native fisherman use 15 ft long poles with nets three feet across to try and scoop up salmon--illegal to do except for first nation people.  Some they eat and some are caught, tagged and released to spawn.  They are trying to increase the yield next year.
Salmon fishing very poor this year.  Pete took Bailey down to get a closer look and all of a sudden they started catching fish after 40 minutes of failure.  "White man bring good luck"!

There is lots of logging in this area and logging trucks are frequently on the road. 

Prince George--the 220 mile drive there was in the area of recent forest fires and there was a smokey gray haze everywhere with the smell of leaves burning.  Signs all around thanking the fire fighters.  Fires out before we arrived!

Haze due to smoke

Gradually we are losing the wilderness and farms with cows and horses, electric lines and road signs replacing the Alaskan wildness.  Sad to leave Alaska--what an amazing state!  We'd advise renting an RV to see Alaska instead of driving your own.  The bumpy roads are hard on the vehicles and almost everyone in our group had several repairs needed.  One vehicle actually hit a bear on the road which damaged their front end but the bear got up and loped away.

We are now back in Canada.   This is the only police car we saw the entire trip and there were only two of them.  Canadians must be more law abiding than Americans if this wooden cutout works!
     

Our last night was at the Northern Experience RV park where we were all taken out to a prime rib buffet good-bye dinner.  Lots of laughs, thank yous, and hopes that we will see each other again.
This was a wonderful adventure and we are so lucky to have this experience to remember!