Not so cold last night, so woke up early to toddle across the campsite (!), and then back to bed and dozed till about 7.30. Lovely views of mountains on two sides, right outside of town, and a weak sunshine while I slowly packed up camping gear into the car, and had my breakfast. Linda, the camp host lady came over to look at the car and have a chat. She gave me some good tips about Stewart and the road in, as well as recommending strongly that I try to get to Newfoundland on this trip as she reckons it is gorgeous. She also remembered the electric Radical race car coming through here in 2010 on its way from Fairbanks to Tierra del Fuego, and said they also stayed at this camp site !! (See here
http://www.racinggreenendurance.com/the-route.php) After a nice hot shower to warm everything up properly, I jumped into the car, roof off, and headed into town to find a bank and get some fuel before setting off to Stewart.
As I pulled up outside the bank, a local car pulled up right behind me and the guy jumped out and said "I've got to have a look at this !" !! Nice guy, actually driving a Pontiac which was made in Australia as a Holden and exported to the US badged as a Pontiac ! He took a few pics, and a crowd gathered as usual, so it was 20 minutes or more before I got over to the gas station ! Then over to the 7 Eleven to get some lunch for the day, and more people wanting to chat over there, so another 20 minutes went by before I hit the road !!
It was beautiful leaving Smithers, with the snow covered mountains over on the left, and a sunny morning. About 10 Harleys left town just behind me, and as soon as we got out on the open road they swept past and disappeared into the distance. Soon after, it started to drizzle a little bit, and I persevered with the roof off hoping it would clear up, but it just got steadily worse so after about half an hour I had to put the roof up. And after that, weather wise, it just got steadily worse. Stewart was only about 280 kms up the road, so it wasn't going to be a particularly long day, which was fortunate as the cold of the last night or two has prevented me from getting a good sleep, and currently I am very tired when driving. It is hard to concentrate day after day after day, and I am very aware that one small mistake would possibly spell the end of my journey, so I try very hard to limit the miles covered, or to break the day up every hour or two with hikes to interesting spots along the way. But when it is raining like today, there isn't much you can do except just sit inside the car and drive. The other difficulty of tent camping when it is cold is that you just cannot do a lot of things - Sitting around outside is not really an option, and it is very hard from me to sit up and do things in the tent when there is nothing to lean against. So it is definitely a case of going to a motel every 3rd night or so just so you can sit in a chair, get a square meal, or just catch up on blog, bills and paperwork on the computer. So that is the plan for Stewart.
Hwy 16 west from Smithers was basically much like yesterday - pretty boring. But at the turn off onto Hwy 37 there was a sign that really brought it home to me that the trip was starting to get serious - And of course, this turning onto Hwy 37 marks the start of the Cassiar Hwy, which is the alternative route I have chosen to take to Alaska (instead of the more usual Alaska Hwy / Alcan), so the name is very familiar to me now, but to see it in writing brought a bit of a lump to my throat - I am really getting there now !!!!
From then on, the scenery changed gradually as I headed north, and although the cloud was low and it was raining quite heavily, residual snow on the ground gradually increased, while the scenery changed to a kind of tundra type - with lots of water, trees in marshland, and so on. Still forrested beside the road, there were glimpses of high mountains behind when the cloud cover cleared momentarily. Then, after about 150 kms on the Cassiar, I turned left on Hwy 37a down to Stewart. I have been told by many people that this is spectacular, and also that there are lots of bears and glaciers here. Effectively Stewart is only 4 kms from the US / Alaska border, and Stewart is actually north of Ketchikan, the southern most Alaskan city.
As soon as I turned onto Hwy 37a, everything changed dramatically, and for the first time on this trip I realised the kind of country I am going to be heading into. Definitely moose and bear country, with lakes and forest and swamp-type land everywhere, and mountains very close on both sides, all snow covered, although of course the low cloud and rain prevented it being any more impressive. Saw one rock fall which had obviously happened right in front of a car which had then run straight into it, and another one later which was half way across the road and obviously very recent. Also a couple of areas where they were repairing the road because half of it had just slipped into an adjacent river ! Mini glaciers on the left and right - They had obviously had a lot of snow here quite recently. Then the large Bear Glacier off to the left - But no stopping allowed as it is still a high risk avalanche area from the mountains on the other side !!
The mountains on each side seem to get closer and closer to the road - Such a shame it was not a fine day to be able to see everything in all its majesty - But even so, it was pretty impressive, and I was not having any trouble staying awake by this stage !! Outside temperature was about 4 - 6 deg C all day, so combined with the rain made it best to stay inside the car !! As I neared Stewart, I went over a temporary bridge across river bed which was covered in tree debris, and a lot of trees along the banks of the river just snapped off at their bases. When I reached Stewart, ad asked about it, there was apparently a big flood last year that washed away the bridge and a lot of the road in to Stewart, and in addition there was a massive avalanche which, although it stopped just short of the river, created winds of over 400 kmh which just blew the trees over and snapped them off like matchsticks !! Wild and unpredictable country round here !
Pulled into Stewart and every hotel (ie all 3 !!) have signs up saying "Report to the King Edward hotel". Apparently 2 weeks ago there was so much snow that some buldings in town were still buried, so the town hasn't got organised yet for the summer. I also spoke to a couple who had been over in Hyder today, (which is across the US border 4 miles away) and they said everything was closed there as well. Glacier tours don't start for another week or two, and anyway, with it raining so hard at the moment (and predicted to continue for the next 3-4 days), it isn't much fun around here. Not a good time to be traipsing about by yourself either, as the bears and their cubs are all just coming out !!
As for wildlife today - Well, not a lot - those dam Roo Shoos on my car are so effective they scare everything away. I did see a coyote run across the road about 50 yards ahead of me, and I really thought I spotted a bear down by a river, but when I turned around and went back, it was a tree trunk !!! Lots of signs for moose and bear, but apart from the coyote, I only saw one enormous and VERY dangerous wild animal run across the road right in front of my car, so I had to brake heavily to avoid it - I even got the bear spray ready just in case it turn on me........Did I say what it was ? A bloody mouse !! Must have been at least 3 inches long, including tail !!! But at least now I have seen
something !!! Someone drove in at dusk last night on the same road and saw 13 bears - perhaps if it stops raining I will go out spotlighting at dusk !!!
But right now I am in the hotel and it is bucketing down outside, and I am thinking it will be better to get back on the Cassiar in the morning and head north towards Dease Lake and then on to Whitehorse. While I am a little sorry that Stewart is so wet, miserable, and closed, I have realised all along that in these southern areas I was pushing my luck weather wise by being here so early. It was true in Colorado and Wyoming where I lucked out with the weather, but here has not worked out so well. But the primary purpose of my trip has always been to be in Alaska by mid to late May, and to do that, some of these other areas had to run the risk of being unsuitable. So now I am up to date with my blog, and I have done my laundry down in the laundrette in the meantime, I shall catch up on a couple more emails, then go down to the bar and have a beer or two, and a bar meal !!
Oh, walked into the hotel and the first guy who sees my car walks up and asks where I was from - He is off down to Mt Hotham in Victoria shortly - He works there every year in the Australian winter !! Small world !
Photo of the day are here :-
https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/SmithersToStewartHyder?authkey=Gv1sRgCKPAlYSXvLGGbA#
