Home Page

If you remember from our last segment, we had transmission problems on Friday, July 13 on the Icefields Parkway about 70 miles south of Jasper, Alberta. We unhooked Pearl and "limped" into Jasper where we spent the night at Whistlers Campground. Saturday, we drove separately to Edmonton, so as not to tax Bubba any more than was necessary. Luckily, the Yellowhead Highway, which stretches 902 miles from Edmonton, AB to Prince Rupert, BC has only minor hills and Bubba handled it like a champ in his only gear, fourth. Strangely, we could not find a campground with a vacancy for Saturday night in Edmonton so we had to store Bubba and get a hotel room. We learned later that all the campgrounds are full because there is a boom going on in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, and the demand for workers has driven wages up significantly. In fact, we saw help wanted signs in front of virtually every business – hotel clerks, wait staff, and other entry level jobs, advertised for $11 an hour up! And, as wages have increased, so has the cost of housing – so much so that there is not enough housing and workers can’t afford to rent or buy what little there is. So, they are staying in their RVs (and many are living in tents) in all the campgrounds. It is so bad that they have set up what the media calls "Tent City" downtown and good things are beginning to turn bad there.

Anyway – to get back to the point of the story, we had to rent an overpriced hotel room on Saturday night then relocated to a campground on Sunday. Monday morning, we were standing on the doorstep of the Allison transmission repair center at 7 a.m. sharp. The workers there were exceptionally nice and helpful – they just couldn’t find the problem. But they persisted (at $120 an hour) and the technician on the night shift finally located the culprit about 9 p.m. Monday – a stuck valve in the valve body. Of course, by then we had had to spend a second night in an overpriced hotel. But, we got a call that Bubba was healed and we appeared bright and early Tuesday morning to pick him up. Finally, we were heading northwest to Alaska. Well, maybe not just yet. The extended warranty company didn’t like the fact that it took the repair guys so long to find the problem so they only approved half the cost. No matter how hard Linesteen argued, the warranty company wouldn’t budge. So $3,400 later, we drove Bubba away with a promise of only half of that amount being reimbursed . . . cha-ching, cha-ching! We were, however, happy to be leaving Edmonton, in spite of the cost. I can truly identify now with Mac Davis when he wrote "Happiness is Lubbock, Texas in the Rearview Mirror." For sure, we feel that way about Edmonton.

We followed the Yellowhead Highway (CA16) back to Jasper and spent the night at the Wapiti Campground. It was late when we got there because we hadn’t left the repair shop until around 1:30. By then, most of the campsites were gone but, luckily, Wapiti had a spot that didn’t have hookups and we grabbed it. Have I mentioned how many rental RVs there are up here? In the Banff and Jasper National Parks, at least 60% of the RVs we saw were rentals – man, do we wish we had started that company!

On Wednesday, July 17, just outside the west entrance to Jasper National Park, one of our first stops was at Overlander Falls on the Fraser River, named for the first group of brave souls who, in 1862, traveled over land to get to the British Columbia gold fields, rather than by sea, which was the norm. The 20-minute hike was beautiful and gave us a great chance to stretch our legs a bit.

We had an uneventful 235-mile trip to Prince George where we stayed at the Sintech RV Park, just outside of town. Prince George is British Columbia’s fourth largest city, with a population of 80,000. It is primarily an industrial centre, fairly dependent on the lumber industry. The happiest part of the day was when we crossed the line into British Columbia . . . we were so happy to finally be out of Alberta! We have been in this province for over three weeks! Even though it is incredibly beautiful, it was time to move on. We were getting a late start on our Alaska adventure, as it was. And the transmission trouble only slowed us down further. Why are we so late? Well, we had agreed to wait for Carl and Cheryl – she had to fly back to California in early July to babysit her grandkids. We were to meet them in Jasper on July 13 and begin our trek north. Unfortunately, after Cheryl broke both her ankles at the Calgary Stampede, they had to cancel. We were so disappointed. But, with over 2,000 miles ahead of us to reach Fairbanks, we were more than ready to get the heck out of Dodge! We had our "Milepost", the mile-by-mile travel log for any and all roads that lead to Alaska. We had our "Traveler’s Guide to Alaskan Camping" and had already picked several of our stops and campgrounds along the way. Our first destination would be 680 miles from Jasper - Hyder, AK, a tiny little town in the southeastern tip of the state that offers great grizzly viewing.

On Thursday, we headed for Telkwa as an overnight destination, a mistake in hindsight. About 9 miles beyond Telkwa was a much larger and nicer town, Smithers, which we drove into that afternoon for a look around. It has a beautiful Alpine-themed downtown and is, obviously, a thriving community. During our visit there, we discovered Twin Falls and Glacier Gulch, a beautiful area that offered the opportunity for great photos and a short hike. We saw many signs of the flooding that the area has been dealing with in recent weeks. The rivers are high and muddy as the winter’s record snows melt and fill the streams. Add the plethora of rain that the area has experienced lately, and rivers have reached 80-year highs. And, to make matters worse, it has rained all day.

On Friday, July 20, we checked out of our campground, traveling through Smithers again as we continued our journey west toward the Cassiar Highway, where we would turn north. We noted that today would have been Jerry’s mom and dad’s 67th wedding anniversary. Wow! How we miss them . . . One of our stops was at historic Moricetown, a First nations reserve and village of the Wet’suwet’en people, and the oldest settlement in British Columbia. Moricetown Canyon, on the Bulkley River, has been a famous First Nations’ fishing spot for centuries. Often the Native people can be seen netting salmon here, where they take advantage of the narrow canyon to trap the fish. Unfortunately, the recent flooding has affected the movement of the fish to their spawning grounds so we missed this photo op. However, we did see our first black bear of the day but he was camera shy and we missed that photo op, too. Soon, we saw two cubs snacking on the verge of the road but we missed them, too. It’s hard to stop Bubba on a dime! We saw our fourth bear of the day just a short distance later.

On this segment of the trip, we noticed many more trees that have been destroyed by beetles. Seven million hectares (there are .404685642 hectares in an acre – you figure it out!) or over 25% of the British Columbia forests have been killed in recent years by beetles that bore into the lodgepole pines’ bark and kill them. Usually, the hard winters in BC kill about 80% of the beetle larvae but mild winters in recent years have killed only 10% of them. The trees can be harvested and used if the beetles are detected early enough and new trees can be planted in their place. It seems that beetles don’t like baby trees but, rather, prefer mature lodgepole pines of 80 or so years. So there is much commercial cutting and replanting in this area but the sheer numbers are overwhelming for the Forest Service to deal with. It looks like a futile effort from our window.

After we passed through the communities of Vanderhoof and Burns Lake, we noticed an increasing number of small lakes and bogs. It looks like prime moose territory, and there are many road signs warning us to be on the lookout, but we haven’t spotted any "meese". We did, however, see an unusual number of RVs heading east, estimating that about 25% of the vehicles on the road were motorhomes or pull-arounds. Many were towing boats so we can only surmise that they are returning from Prince Rupert on the coast.

We continued on the Yellowhead until we reached Kitwanga where we turned north (finally!) on the Cassiar, a 450-mile link between the Yellowhead and the Alaska Highways. We noticed that the forests began to look significantly healthier. The beetle’s wrath had not reached here. The literature promised outstanding scenery and good wildlife viewing on this road and they were right. We had been on the Cassiar for only 30 miles when we saw a black bear and our first fox. We were pumped! It was a narrower road than the Yellowhead and had much, much less traffic. We continued to see many bogs and lakes but, still, no moose.

At mile 98, we turned west again to Hyder and Stewart. The 38-mile drive was spectacular with hanging glaciers, lakes and waterfalls at every turn. We continued to see lots of wildlife all along the road. Hyder, AK and Stewart, BC, only 2 miles apart, are located at the head of the 90-mile long Portland Canal from the Pacific. They are surrounded by the majestic Coastal Range of mountains and the Cambria Ice Fields. These ice fields, with their various glaciers, provide some of North America’s most breathtaking scenery.

When we reached Hyder, we checked into the Run-A-Muck Campground and immediately drove 3 miles to the Fish Creek bear viewing platform. This walkway was built about five years ago to enable tourists to view grizzlies and black bears as they feed on Salmon in Fish Creek without the danger of a close encounter of the painful kind. Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, the area flooding has detained the arrival of the salmon so the bears are sparse. However, I spent the next couple of days frequenting the viewing platform and enjoying visits from a grizzly sow and her triplets. What a thrill it was to see this incredible animal and her young! They are truly beautiful. And, while I was there, I also saw two male grizzlies wander through to assess the number of fish available for their taking. They were disappointed and didn’t stay but the Forest Service workers remembered them from past years – Kim and Dog Bear. It’s interesting – the bears are not at all bothered by the humans on the viewing platform. They just look at us and go about their business.

We awoke Saturday to a rainy, overcast day but decided to brave the elements and drive out to Salmon Glacier, about a 40-mile round trip by dirt road. The glacier is the fifth largest in Canada and is beautiful in its own way. Glaciers are funny creatures. They are formed when snow doesn’t melt and what’s left eventually turns to ice crystals and compacts. After many years of this process, the glaciers begin to move under the sheer weight of the ice. Some of the bigger glaciers, like the Salmon, date back hundreds, even thousands of years. In fact, many of them were once much larger and were responsible for the carving of some of the valleys we see.

Sunday morning, I awoke at 5:30 and went back to the viewing station to try to get another glimpse of the bears. Right on schedule, at 6:30, Mama and her three cubs showed up. They moved upriver until Mama found a fish. She ate the better parts of it then threw the remainder to the babies. By then, they had moved behind some bushes so I couldn’t really see what was going on, but I could sure hear it! The babies were having a brawl over the fish. One of the Forest Service workers, who were staffing the viewing platform, likened it to giving a bowl of ice cream to three 3-year olds to share! You’ve never heard so much growling and fussing. Finally, the fish was gone and they moved on.

I learned that the triplets are one year old. They were born in the spring of 2006 and will stay with the mother until next spring. This is their summer to learn to fish. If they don’t learn this year, they will be in trouble in 2008. The worker said this sow is a very good mother, evidenced by the fact that all three cubs are still alive. It is most unusual for three cubs to survive for a year. Usually by this age, at least one has been attacked by a predator or faced some other challenge that has resulted in death. The sows even have to be wary of male grizzlies while her cubs are young. As long as the cubs are with her, she doesn’t go into heat. The males don’t like that so they will often kill the cubs so the sow will go into heat and be receptive again. Doesn’t that sound just like a male??? This mother is very protective and that’s why her cubs are still alive. Don’t have to worry about ME getting in her way!

Today we would head north on the Cassiar Highway toward Iskut. Little did we know what lay ahead of us!

Until next time, happy trails to you . . . til we meet again!