North to Alaska: Atlin, BC

Approaching town

The drive down to Atlin on Route 7 is just breathtaking.  The road initially is a little rough but is paved almost all the way down.  We picked up a hitchhiker from Quebec on the way down, who needed a ride a few kilometers down the road to bring his boat up to pick up his family.  They were enjoying a day’s outing fishing on the Little Aitlin Lake, which was huge.

We were starving, so stopped at the Pine Tree for a panini lunch.

We bought take out a few times from the Chuck Wagon!

We had read about Gail and Harley’s campground here and decided to pull in and see if it was a fit for us.  Norm, the owner, met us as we pulled in for a look around.    

Norm and Jim

They have a spot called the Penthouse, which backs up to the water, where G and H stayed and looked great, but it was occupied.  We told Norm that we had a picture of him and he seemed pleased.  Norm first said he didn’t really have anything, that maybe some with reservations wouldn’t show up or……Then he said he had a “dry camping” area that might interest us, that there were a couple from Germany camped there and that they wouldn’t mind, if he put us in next to them.  That couple left about two days before we did, so, for much of the time we had it to ourselves.  

Well, this spot was Nirvana!  Who needs electricity and water!  He said with a grin, “ It’s $25 a night for hookups or $25 without”.  We were happy without.  We are on a rock promontory, jutting out into the lake.  The view is absolutely unbelievable.  We are staring at glaciers and islands, watching seaplanes land and take off, as well as kayakers and paddle boarders and motorboats enjoying the lake.  It is not, however, in any way, a busy place!

The kind of light colored (greyish pink?) spot in the mountain range across from us is a rock glacier, a unique geographical phenomenon.  It behaves like an ice glacier, as it flows, deforms and advances into a forest at its toe.  It contains some ice at its core, a buried remnant of an old glacier, where ice has been covered over with rock debris.  Frost shatters the rock fragments and they move against each other.  This is one of the most active rock glaciers in North America.  And it is right in our front yard!

Fascinating to watch the seaplanes come and go right in front of us.

Boo loved it here!

The first day, we decided to get some laundry done at the shower/laundromat building in town.  The next day, we actually took showers!  Wow, did that feel good-an inside shower.  We have one in Maxine but, since we use it for a storage area, it is kind of a pain to shower inside and, usually, it is much more fun to shower outside.  However, lately, it has been a bit nippy for that!  Later that afternoon, since it was a bit cloudy, we took a drive out the Warm Springs area to where most of the Tlingit tribe lives and to see the scenery.  The gold mine is still out here, and working, as our waitress this morning told us that her husband works there. There was a fabulous old pioneer cemetery on the way home.

An original and loved "Gentleman Adventurer"

 The drive up was great-the warm springs not so much!  There were 2 families camped there and it didn't look very inviting.  But, we did drive up a bit later and ran into a fisherman who had just caught a lake trout.

My goodness!  These trout are big ones!

There are several fun things to do here in the campground:  Our favorite is to watch Eddie, the Bald Eagle, fend off the gulls.  We hear that he steals the gulls’ eggs.  The gulls literally scream at him and follow him here and there, whenever he leaves his sitting place.  He hangs out here because Norm feeds him fish heads!  And, he has been here for at least the last ten years, atop the highest lamppost in the campground.  

Another, is to watch Norm negotiate places for incoming campers to park.  Most of the hookups are in a spot, though beautiful, we would not want to stay:  all in a row, facing the water but with no privacy.  When that is full, it is so funny to watch Norm find places for them-in the road, in front of his mobile home, in back of his mobile home, etc.  No one seems to be turned away.  He is a wheeler-dealer, if I ever saw one. (And, aren't we glad not to be in this lineup!)

The following day, I met our neighbors, Karen and Michael Klein while taking a shower at the Laundromat-what a way to meet, huh!?  They are from the coastal area of North Germany on the Baltic.  They were warned to be careful about getting into conversations with Americans (because of the Trumpster!), but once meeting us, were really happy to talk politics with someone from the U.S.  

We had some great conversations that evening and then had coffee together at the coffee wagon downtown the next morning before they took off.  Interestingly, they liked this area so much that this was their second visit.  It was lovely having a chance to apologize for the behavior of our president and letting a European know that we and many, many others are embarrassed at the way he has treated our European friends and treasure our long good ties with Europe.

 

Atlin is known for its great coffee.  It did not disappoint!

Although the famous Tarhne no longer runs, it is home to a grand afternoon
tea aboard.

What a spot we chose for coffee!

The most fun event was on our last day, Canada Day, July 1^st !  There was an old-fashioned real small-town community parade.  This town is reminiscent of a lakeside Gold Hill, CO!

Jim even bought a Canadian flag to fly from our rig!

North to Alaska: Kinaskan to the Alcan and the Yukon

June 24th, after another lovely day at Meziadin, we drove to about the halfway point of the spectacular Cassiar, never disappointed by the views or the highway.  Luckily we filled up with gas at the Meziadin Junction store, but didn’t get water, propane, nor did we dump (Jim didn’t want to pay the $10 fee for dumping-BIG MISTAKE).  

We could get propane and water in Bell II which was about halfway to our destination.  En route we saw our first bear.  Sadly, in the distance, we could see it was roadkill in the middle of the highway and a large bird was feeding on it.  As we got closer, it was clear that the bird was a mature bald eagle with a beautiful white cap and tail feathers.  The poor baby bear was only a cub!  

We made it to Kinaskan Provincial Park and lucked out and got a beautiful site right on the lake and by a wonderful trail along the lake.  We stayed the next three days.

Jim fishing with the Tenaka

We had a great time here relaxing, reading, Jim fishing, me painting a little.  Had some Bloody Marys one day, played some cards and befriended the man next door who was catching rainbows like mad and gave us 3 of them for dinner.  Once I even washed my hair and took an outside shower in 50 degree weather!  Had a nice fire, planned for the next few days ahead and met a nice couple from Edmonton, Jennifer and Les and their dog, Trooper, a 6 month old yellow lab.  Boo had the time of his life chasing and being chased the rest of the night.

Selfies-always feels so ridiculous but, what the heck?  Here we were

We woke up with the auxillary batteries dead and had great difficulty moving the slides in on Maxine.  We decided to head north to get some help.  We got gas at a funky little gas station/resort area which took about a half hour, because the attendant had a lot to do (like sweeping the sidewalk) and was in no hurry.  The guy was no help on the battery question but did say that we should look up Charlie, on Boulder St. in Dease Lake.

We found Charlie but he took a look and said that it was not his area of expertise but that something was using up an inordinate amount of power.  The batteries were fine.  He suggested going to an RV place in Whitehorse (some 300 miles away).  

We were depressed.  We grabbed a quick lunch in Dease Lake from what we would call food trucks -Jim got Asian, I went for the Bannock Taco (a Tlingit version of the Navajo taco.  Bannock is a sweet biscuit.)  We got water and a few very expensive groceries.

So, off we went to the end of the Cassiar with the idea in mind that we would stop near Whitehorse and go to an RV place on Monday morning.  As we drove along, exhausted, we decided to make a quick overnight at a place that Gail and Harley had stayed, called Big Creek.   We missed the turn into the campground  and went to turn around a bit up the highway (its never easy to turn around with the CRV hooked up as a Toad).  It was a nice enough place for the night (except for a regiment of mosquitos), so we stayed put, ate simply, and went to bed early with the slides in and the car attached for an early departure.

So, now we are really on the Alcan Highway, or the Alaska Highway.  Surprised that it is still so remote and not many services.  It also is not in the greatest condition- kind of like it was paved and then someone threw alot of gravel and sand over it while it was wet.  

We decided, as we were driving that we didn’t want to miss Atlin and go hang out in the big city to get things fixed.  We think we can deal with the battery problem.   Jim could always crank in the slides if worse came to worse and if that was a problem, we just wouldn't put them out.  We love the idea of "thinking outside of the box."  It has sort of become our motto.

We stopped in Teslin to see the well-advertised George Johnson Museum ( the museum was a bust but they had a wonderful gift shop of Tlingit arts and crafts). Then we went to the Tlingit Cultural Center which was just lovely.  It sits along a beautiful river   I love the fact that the Canadians call their natives "First Nations"- so respectful!  All that I have learned about their cultures stresses their desire to be able to live simply in their native lands, subsistence fishing and hunting and living according to their beliefs, which usually have to do with an appreciation for the land that they were given.

A great mask collection

This sweet young artist was drawing designs for a button blanket that she was
making for her family.  I loved that she had invited members of clan, the Eagle
Clan, to sew buttons on her blanket so that they could participate in the art also
and that would add to its importance.

An example of a button blanket - a frog clan blanket

And, on to Atlin!

North to Alaska: Meziadin Lake and Stewart/Hyder

The Cassiar Highway continues from Kitwanga and Gitanyow to the Alaska (Alcan) Highway 718 miles north.  There is hardly a gas station or store anywhere along the route.  The road is in good condition and a joy to drive.  

We made it to Meziadin Lake fairly late, but early enough for a spot (though not much privacy) on the lake. This very nice Provincial Park was almost full when we got there which was shocking considering that we hardly saw anyone on the road on the way up here.  Most people seemed (like us) to be preparing for the Stewart/Hyder trip.

There are pink roses everywhere up.  You just can't beat this view, right at our back door.

The lake was calm enough for a kayak trip, but, being wimps in water
this cold, we decided to leave that for another time and place.

We all sat out until about 11 pm, soaking in the beauty.

This is about the darkest it got.

 Funny that it is so light so late up here.  We are going to bed at 11 or 12 and awake at 4, when the first light appears.  We wore our blindfolds, but are pretty tired as we were battling mosquitos all night.

Pretty cool view from our back window

We brought quite a swarm of mosquitoes with us from Fraser Lake and
picked up a few more here.  Jim spent the next morning killing hundreds
of them with his handy dandy bug zapper-an essential tool for camping in
Canada!

Loved the reflection in the water on this morning

We spent the next day on the most spectacular adventure of our trip thus far-37A to Steward, BC and Hyder, AK.  There were rivers, glaciers and waterfalls everywhere.  The drive down is well paved and there were hardly any other vehicles on the road. (We left Maxine back at the campground).  The building of this highway (like most up here) was quite a feat.

Some of the glaciers, like Bear Glacier, reach right down to the river’s edge while others lie on the mountaintops and appear to be peeking out of the peaks.  They are all a light blue color, like crystal.  Our car is covered in what they call Glacier Dust-this is why the rivers here appear so white, gray and light blue.  There are tunnels at the bottom of the glacier that tumble water into Strohn Lake below.

Bear Glacier

Stewart (40 miles down the road)- population 500) is a sleepy little town with a very nice Visitor Center, a few small hotels, a gas station and little else, including people.  It sits on the international boundary of the Portland Canal headwaters, apparently the world’s fourth longest fjord. 

The boardwalk through the beautiful estuary

The waters of the Portland Canal are excellent for fishing of salmon and halibut.

And look who is anxiously awaiting my return from
the Visitor's Center!

Hyder (population 90) is the other half of the international duo.  It is a completely funky little town with great fudge, a very weird hotel/bar where you can get “hyderized” by drinking a 180 proof grain alcohol, an Alaska Miner’s whiskey.  We passed!  

We had lunch at the cutest restaurant in town.  The Bus, which is quite literally a bus that has been transformed into a restaurant kitchen, with “bus tables” outside and indoor seating in a log cabin next door.  Diana, the owner restaurantauer whose husband and son are commercial fishermen who supply her with fresh caught seafood.) fried us up some of the best ever halibut fish and chips, which were just the perfect lunch for today.  

When we saw this sign, we knew this was the place for us!

Can you imagine not stopping when you see this!!?

Sweet Diana

Happy customers!

We decided to take a little walk down the road and, remember we seem to have one problem every day to deal with?  Today’s problem was that Boo was constipated and couldn’t get his poop to drop.  Without going into detail, we had to help him on the side of the road, where we got more than a few strange looks.  I held him while Jim operated.  Both of us were on clean up.  No pictures!

We followed the road through the end of the pavement, up and up through a steep, winding gravel road, past some mining and logging operations to see Salmon Glacier at the end of the road.  It was a little sad to see how much it has receded in recent years, compared to photographs we saw at The Bus. It is the 5th largest glacier in Canada.

The road-a little challenging.  Glad we didn't have Maxine

The Salmon Glacier

The river below in the distance

You could fall right off this cliff!

Boo loves a road that enables him to hang
out the window.

See the light blue in the back-that's another glacier!

Back at camp, we had a second problem of the day, having to do with the toilet, but too disgusting to discuss further.  It was partially resolved, but we did order a new toilet for our arrival in Anchorage.

It was soup and salad for dinner and sitting out by the lake until the sun went down.  Maxine still had about 50 or so mosquitoes when we got back in, so we got our exercise by swatting as many as we could, before turning in.