Chili, Bears and Salmon Glacier

Day 80 – Saturday, August 31

We got up early and took a trip to the top of the mountain to see Salmon Glacier, the 5th largest glacier in Canada.  To get to the glacier, you travel the road from Stewart, BC to Hyder, AK, and then pass in to BC again by the time you get to the top!  This area is on the panhandle of Alaska…Hyder is the easternmost city in Alaska.

It was foggy and cloudy when we started and when we reached the summit we could hardly see.  It was such a different perspective to be level or above the glacier.  We traveled even further to the place where the glacier split, and hiked over the moraine to see the face of the glacier.  As we came to the crest of the hill, it was an amazing sight!  The side of the glacier was calved, and spilling into pools of water.  You felt like you were at the top of the world!! 

The roads up the hill were constructed and are maintained by the mining companies and there are several active and dormant mines along the way.  We took our time along the roads, which were gravel and full of potholes, but the local miners zipped around in the trucks, and probably get tired of the tourists invading the roads.

On the way back to  the campground, we stopped by Fish Creek and saw a big grizzly sloshing through the stream and munching on salmon.  He seemed to enjoy the spectators as he put on quite a show!

Then, we got a “tip” that lots of bears hang out by the town dump…so we went to find them, and find them we did!  They have obviously been conditioned to expect goodies when the trash is thrown out, because they were waiting for vehicles to come through.  We watched a local honk his horn for them to back off, he threw out the trash, and the bears scurried over, jumped on it, opened the bag and ate away.  It was kind of sad, because they could have been eating salmon in the stream rather than waiting for garbage!  These were black bears, and one of them began to approach our car, so I shut my window quickly and they went on.  They put a big paw print on one of the cars from our group!!  That’s up close and personal!

We took another drive through town…they have some interesting sights, like this car. The Toaster Museum café was closed….darn.  So, we went to get Hyderized one more time…and got another card to prove it…what fun!  We also signed a dollar bill to put on the wall. 

We checked out church, but found there is only a service on the 2nd and 4th Sundays each month.  Also, this happens only during the summer, because in the winter the priest (who is from the Phillipines) doesn’t drive in the snow after he got stuck in a ditch his first year here!

We ended the evening with a chili cookoff.  There were about 10 different chili chefs…one even provided deer venison chili!  The campground manager was the judge, and my chili won second place! Woo hoo!!  (It was pretty good, if I say so myself!)

The caravan is winding down, and we are all beginning to exchange contact information and talk about a possible reunion.  One more stop, and one more night together…never imagined our adventure would include making such wonderful friends from all over the country. 

PS.  Happy Birthday to Kurtis, best ever son-in-law!

PPS. Sorry for the late post…internet went out last night and they couldn’t recover it.  Had to wait for next stop.