Day 8 July 9, 2025 Stewart British Columbia to Dease Lake British Columbia 282 miles
Our hotel doesn’t serve any breakfast so we heated our leftover Jimmy Dean biscuits in the trailer’s microwave but ate in the room. They had a coffee maker and electric tea kettle so all was good there.
After breakfast Rob unhooked the trailer so we could drive to the Salmon Glacier easier. To get there you must cross into Alaska at Hyder. Then you get a few miles of pavement before the gravel road begins. The road follows the Portland Canal. The road is two lanes all the way we traveled. Most of it is damp from the rains. Luckily its not slippery. We saw very vehicles on the way up but more on the way back. The road has lots and lots of potholes. They are full of water and difficult to know how deep. We had to go very slowly. A road grader is working one stretch. Eventually we came to a portion of a mining company. At about 18 miles we came to the toe of the glacier. This one is very large. We were able to see a long ways up the glacier. A biker yesterday said it was socked in with clouds. We could have driven another five miles along the glacier but since it took us an hour to get this far we elected to return. The bear viewing walkway at fish creek was much busier now. Bears come there to catch fish. When the salmon come we heard it gets really busy with black bears, grizzlies and people.
We stopped at the General Store in Hyder because the Milepost said last year that was an interesting place. Turns out that owner died and now its a take out that also sells shirts and sun glasses. Kind of disappointing.
When we got to the border crossing back into Canada we had to wait a few minutes. The vehicle in front of us had some kind of weapon. They were getting the royal inspection. They even patted down the driver and passenger in front of us. A second agent did finally come out. We didn’t wait long after that.
Back in town we hitched the trailer up again and took off. We left Stewart right at noon. We decided to eat our picnic lunch at the junction. Maybe not the best decision since we had short waits twice for road construction. At one location they were removing dirt and rock from the barrow pit. The second location was putting down asphalt. That will eventually make the road much better. Lots of small pot holes here too. We did see the other glacier in passing but we were following a pilot car so we didn’t stop.
The wind has really picked up intensity. The new side curtains are much tighter so that is terrific.
Back at the junction we filled with fuel again but didn’t eat lunch. Opting instead to go for the next pull out.
A group of about twelve bicyclists are spread out along the road. They must be some kind of tour group. We have seen a few other one or two group riders. They usually have lots of packs.
More construction. This time was a bridge rehabilitation. The current bridge has a wooden floor. Don’t know about the new one.
We came around one corner and saw two vehicles parked along the side of the road. A small red fox was on our side of the road. We didn’t stop but wondered if something was wrong with the fox. It never moved.
The ruts, bumps and dips in this asphalt road are almost as bad as the gravel road. A person could get whiplash just from the ride. We took a few bad hits. We now have new squeaks and rattles.
We have seen several rivers, ponds and lakes. We didn’t see the names and they may have all been connected. Some of the ponds were so still they were like mirrors.
We went up and down several steep grades. Ones of seven and eight percent are common. Sure can’t make good time however. Rob got lots of practice shifting gears.
Then we could see a mountain top that looks to have fresh snow. No wonder it feels cold. We have had the heater on a lot of today. The problem is when you go down hill the heater blows cold air since the engine isn’t working as hard.
Got to a summit that was actually marked. This was Gnat Pass Summit at 1241 meters. Sure seemed higher.
We noticed the sign that said caribou. As usual no caribou but we did see a brown bear in the road. As we got closer it ran into the woods and was gone. This time we got a picture.
We got to our hotel about 7 pm. That makes for nearly 10 hours of driving. A long day in a Model A. No wonder we are tired. The one grocery store in town was closed. We ate some of our soup in the dining area of the hotel. They had tables and a microwave. That all worked well. Now it is bedtime.
Spoffords Travel 