July 8, continued
We arrived in Teslin with hazy skies from the forest fires that were burning to the north. It seems that there are 20 fires currently burning and only two are being fought. After supper we visited the wildlife museum that we missed at the beginning of the trip and it was very nice. That was the first animals that we have seen for awhile even though they were stuffed. The mosquitoes were quite thick here just like Destruction Bay. Guess we have been very lucky since we have not had lots of those critters.
July 9-10, DAY 59 and 60
Arrived Watson Lake again and several folks returned to Sign Post Forest. The mosquitoes were very bad here too. We went out to check the older couple’s tires and put air in them, and got attacked. She came out the Bounce and stuffed them around our necks to help. It also started to train before we finished, just putting a little icing on the cake. In the morning we were about to leave and notice one of the campers was collecting a bunch of on-lookers. Seems there slide would not go in so I went to help and we finally did get it back in so they could join the rest of us going down the road. Forgot to mention that on the way to Watson Lake we saw moose, black bear and grizzlies.
July 11, DAY 61
On the way to Dease Lake we saw an RV burning. About 6 of our caravaners stopped at a rest area and noticed that a camper just pulling out was on fire. After hollering and waving he did stop and folks ran with their fire extinguishers. He did not have one and if it hadn’t been for us he would have lost everything. The refrigerator had caught fire it really damaged the side of the motorhome and roof where the flames were shooting out before it was put out. Members of the road crew just happened by and stopped so we all left figuring he was in good hands with them.
July 11-14, DAY 61-64
Arrived at Stewart/Hyder BC/AK and more mosquitoes. But when we went to Salmon River to see the bears there were no bears and hardly any salmon. We drove the hour and a half to get to the summit overlooking Salmon Glacier and it was a scary drive with narrow dirt roads going up the side of the cliff. The views were spectacular for those that could look or at least that is what I was told. We met the Bear Man that lives in a small tent at the summit. He has many impressive pictures. We got lunch at the “Bus” in Hyder. Hyder has no paved roads and is a flashback in time. They only have 100 residents. They have a popular bar were folks got to get Hyderized. They have a couple stores with interesting stuff so we dropped some coins there. We had a real nice dinner at a quaint little restaurant in Stewart. We didn’t see any bears during out visit so I purchased a video and got it autographed by the person hat took the pictures. Hyder was our last visit to Alaska and now we are headed to Smithers and the end of the caravan.
July 15, DAY 65
We arrived at Smithers for our final day and our farewell dinner. It was a tearful farewell to say the least. Lots of stories about things that happened allow the way and many memories were shared.
July 16, DAY 66
We all went back to the same place for breakfast and more goodbye tears before packing up to go our separate ways. It just happened that 4 of us ended up at the same campground in Vanderhoof so we eat supper together.
July 17, DAY 67
Two of our friends left but the other couple joined us to go to Fort St. James for a nice day and unwind a little more before going our separate ways. They live in Washington and are going to baby sit Tobey when we visit Victoria. We will be going to Jasper Alberta tomorrow. Just in case you had not noticed, I turned of comments because someone is spamming my blog and filling my email with junk adds. I will work on trying to filter out the unwanted so I can open comments again. The wifi options are few in some of these places over the next few days since we are headed back into less populated areas.