THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE Day 103 August 27, 2009 Terrace to Stewart, BC

It’s another glorious day, the sun is shinning.

We are eager to get going, okay I am eager to get going as I want to get to Hyder, AK as soon as possible. More on why later. So we head out and our first stop was a hot springs that was just down the road from the campsite. Upon arriving we decided not go into as it did not look at that good. Dirty and run down. So we headed back toward Terrace to pick up Hwy 16 again and headed east towards Prince George.

We stopped at a turnout to take a few pictures and met a nice couple from Alberta. Bob and Nicki Middlekoop were on a bike holiday and were returning from the Queen Charlotte Islands. You realize it is a small world when you find out that Nicki is from Powassan, Ontario and Bob is from Emsdale, Ontario. Powassan is 18 miles from my home town and Emsdale about 60 miles.

They were trying to decide whether to carry on to Alberta by the direct route through Prince George or take a detour to Hyder or maybe Laird Hot Springs. I wonder which way they went.

We chatted with Bob and Nicki for awhile and then headed off. They are very nice people and we wish them well in their travels.

We continued on along Hwy 16 and the scenery was quite beautiful and of course we took pictures.

After about 50 miles we came to Hwy 37 which is called the Cassiar Highway. This highway joins the Yellowhead (Hwy 16) and the Alaska Highway just outside of Watson Lake. We will be driving the entire highway but today we are only going as far as the Stewart Hyder Access Road ( Hwy 37A)

The first part of the drive was through Nass Basin and was mostly low lying with lots of trees. We could see mountains in the distance but didn’t come anywhere near them.
We did come across a bear standing at the side of the road and as we got closer it was not running away. This is unusual as any others we have seen scurried away as soon as we got near them. Suddenly her cub darted from the other side of the road and that is why she had not moved. I tried to get pictures but it is hard to drive and takes photos at the same time. This makes Kathy nervous for some reason but I can’t figure out why.

The road was good and we made good time with the occasional stop for pictures.

We reached the cutoff for Stewart (Hwy 37A) around 4PM and we expected to be in Stewart around 5PM as it is only 40 miles. However we didn’t count on the view. The drive into Stewart was spectacular and it necessitated many stops for pictures. It seemed like it was a WOW moment every time we came around a bend. The unfortunate aspect of this landscape is that it is not conducive for picture taking. The vista’s are too broad and the camera really can’t capture the true splendor.

We saw quite a few glaciers with Bear Glacier being the largest. The majority of them have receded but Bear Glacier flows to the bottom of the mountain. It is the only one named that I am aware of.

In my opinion this 40 mile stretch of road is the most spectacular we had seen in our travels. It rivals the flight over the Misty Fjords Monument. Just two of Mother Nature’s Masterpieces we have been fortunate enough to experience.

We completed the marathon drive just before 7PM and quickly found a campsite so we could settle in for the night.

We will be going over to Hyder tomorrow. Weather permitting.

It was a glorious second sun filled day.