Can you name me?Answer at end of today's blog
The time is waning for our Alaska/Canada trip and what a perfect place to begin closing the book. We are camping in Stewart BCbut will travel less than a mile this
morning into Hyder Alaska.
As mentioned earlier, these two sister towns blur the lines when it
comes to borders. Stewart is larger with a whopping 699 residents, while Hyder has a mere 83 people. Despite the fact that Hyder should be on Alaska Time, they ignore the “rules” and follow the Pacific Time Zone, as does BC. The children from Hyder attend Canadian schools (not sure wha
t they do when “Oh, Canada” is sung). Hyder also uniquely has a Canadian phone area code. If you ask the residents of Hyder about being Alaskan, they will make sure you know they are loyal and proud Americans.
Hyder’s other claim to fame is
the largest number of bars per capita in all of Alaska. We didn’t see an Alcoholics Anonymous branch here, but it might be needed. How else would one spend the winters here? Last year they had 35 feet of snow and they still had remnants of the snow on Fourth of July. One of the storeowners showed us a picture she took in her front yard on the 4th. The photo had snow covered ground, a beer can and an American flag. Uncle Sam would be proud.
Stewart appears to h
ave the infrastructure thing down a bit better than Hyder. The streets of Stewart are paved and they have fashioned some curb like designs near their sidewalks. When you approach the border to Hyder however, the primitive roads and unkempt appearance of the storefronts take you back. We didn’t find one unhappy person however and none of them seem ready to move. One thing for certain, there needn
't be any worry about pork barrel projects taking place here. Not a one.
Hyder has a couple motels, a pizza joint, one campground (aptly called, Camp Runamuck) and gorgeous scenery everywhere. Three miles outside of town is Fish Creek. Established as a U.S. Forest Service Recreation Site, it is also the romping ground
of grizzly and black bear. They frequent the area morning, noon and night. There are so many bear making appearances that the government decided to build a railed walkway to protect people. On a given day you will see hundreds of people anxious to see a bear. Since fish creek is a popular spawning area for chum and pink salmon, it is a smorgasbord for the bear. T
he area is surrounded with elderberries, huckleberries, blueberries and raspberries. The salmon add to the tempting location. We not only saw black bear while there, we saw an enormous grizzly on the road, as well as a mother and baby cub black bear. We also saw an animal we had difficulty identifying. Can you? (Answer at the end)
Once we had watched for bear and salmon, we headed up a 23 mile unpaved road to Salmon Glacier. While on this road, you move in and out of the U.S. and Canadian borders. Neither country has the road
crew out taking care of business, but it doesn’t seem to hamper the traffic and number of visitors anxious to get a glimpse of this glacial delight. We were able to photograph what is known as the “toe” o
f the glacier, as well as the summit. Salmon Glacier is the world’s largest glacier accessible by road.
While at the glacier and the cre
ek, we saw a variety of beautiful flowers. Some were alpine type, others boreal.
We still marvel i
n the beauty of Alaska and Canada. How sad that these places are so far from our home.
comes to borders. Stewart is larger with a whopping 699 residents, while Hyder has a mere 83 people. Despite the fact that Hyder should be on Alaska Time, they ignore the “rules” and follow the Pacific Time Zone, as does BC. The children from Hyder attend Canadian schools (not sure wha
t they do when “Oh, Canada” is sung). Hyder also uniquely has a Canadian phone area code. If you ask the residents of Hyder about being Alaskan, they will make sure you know they are loyal and proud Americans.Hyder’s other claim to fame is
the largest number of bars per capita in all of Alaska. We didn’t see an Alcoholics Anonymous branch here, but it might be needed. How else would one spend the winters here? Last year they had 35 feet of snow and they still had remnants of the snow on Fourth of July. One of the storeowners showed us a picture she took in her front yard on the 4th. The photo had snow covered ground, a beer can and an American flag. Uncle Sam would be proud.Stewart appears to h
ave the infrastructure thing down a bit better than Hyder. The streets of Stewart are paved and they have fashioned some curb like designs near their sidewalks. When you approach the border to Hyder however, the primitive roads and unkempt appearance of the storefronts take you back. We didn’t find one unhappy person however and none of them seem ready to move. One thing for certain, there needn
't be any worry about pork barrel projects taking place here. Not a one.Hyder has a couple motels, a pizza joint, one campground (aptly called, Camp Runamuck) and gorgeous scenery everywhere. Three miles outside of town is Fish Creek. Established as a U.S. Forest Service Recreation Site, it is also the romping ground
of grizzly and black bear. They frequent the area morning, noon and night. There are so many bear making appearances that the government decided to build a railed walkway to protect people. On a given day you will see hundreds of people anxious to see a bear. Since fish creek is a popular spawning area for chum and pink salmon, it is a smorgasbord for the bear. T
he area is surrounded with elderberries, huckleberries, blueberries and raspberries. The salmon add to the tempting location. We not only saw black bear while there, we saw an enormous grizzly on the road, as well as a mother and baby cub black bear. We also saw an animal we had difficulty identifying. Can you? (Answer at the end)
Once we had watched for bear and salmon, we headed up a 23 mile unpaved road to Salmon Glacier. While on this road, you move in and out of the U.S. and Canadian borders. Neither country has the road
crew out taking care of business, but it doesn’t seem to hamper the traffic and number of visitors anxious to get a glimpse of this glacial delight. We were able to photograph what is known as the “toe” o
f the glacier, as well as the summit. Salmon Glacier is the world’s largest glacier accessible by road.While at the glacier and the cre
ek, we saw a variety of beautiful flowers. Some were alpine type, others boreal.We still marvel i
n the beauty of Alaska and Canada. How sad that these places are so far from our home.
This cute little critter is a hoary marmot.
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