Remnants of Stewart/Hyder.         

While we were in Hyder we decided to visit Glacier Inn for a walk down memory lane and a burger. You may remember that Glacier Inn was the location of my near death experience from drinking EVERCLEAR in order to get Hyderized. It's good to now be a card carrying member who no longer needs to drink the evil liquor!

Last September Stewart had record rainfall that caused flooding along the only road into town. The flooding uprooted trees, ripping out bridges as they went. When the rain was over large chunks of the highway were gone along with two bridges.  At any other time of year this would not have posed such a problem, but this was the height of the tourist, mining and logging  season. The tiny town was packed with people. It wasn’t long before fuel ran out and food shortages occurred. Items like bread and milk were reserved for children.  To make matters worse there was a large RV caravan and a bus load of German tourists caught in town. Within a week the BC government had cut “a goat path” around the damaged parts of the highway. But you could only go through once a day (if you had a  4 wheel drive vehicle.) It would be weeks before a temporary bridge would be built. So the tiny town of Stewart had to hire a barge to haul out the RV’s (they were rentals) but not the tourists driving them.  When the barge landed in Prince Rupert the it was reloaded with food, fuel  and medical supplies. All of the tourists were eventually evacuated by plane. The highway is now repaired, but the temporary one lane bridges are still in place. Work has begun on permanent bridges but it will be some time before they are done. 

If you ever visit here you must stop at Temptations Bakery & Deli! Everything here is delicious and so fresh. Today we stopped for these yummy treats.  The minute I knew we were coming to Stewart/Hyder I vowed this little bakery would be one of my first stops.

I forgot to mention that 81 degrees is a heat wave in this neck of the woods. As we were crossing from Hyder, USA back into Stewart, BC the Canadian Border Guard told us to “stay cool.” We laughed since it was 111 when we left Paradise.  To us the weather was awesome.

 

We are now in Whitehorse, Yukon. Here is a photo of our campground at 11:15 pm.  Thank goodness for blackout shades!

We’re only here for 1 day, then on to Dawson City. We stopped to see the Bald Eagle nest at the entrance to town. Both adults were on the nest, but only one of them was really visible. Love these birds.

Here's a nice bear we saw on the way to Whitehorse. Another vehicle had stopped to take photos and they were really close to the bear.  Bears can run 25 mph which is faster than most of us can run. Of course, Jim believes "you only have to be able to run faster than the person with you! Dumb tourists.


Tomorrow we're off the Dawson City. Won't be long before we drive the Dempster - can't wait!