Watson Lake YK to Stewart BC and Hyder AK

Another cool morning, sunny and 4C at 8am. The van is very comfortable sleeping in these temps, even with no heat. We use the propane heater sometimes, but almost never leave it on overnight, as it’s not vented to the outside. Anyway, we both had a good sleep, and my ear infection is responding to the antibiotics, not so swollen today. I should be able to hear again soon.

We had a breakfast stop at a nice pullout along the way (south on hwy 37). There’s lots of  evidence along here of various fires, some quite recent. 

It’s a pretty drive, but not one to speed on, with lots of curves and ups and downs.

The loneliest Flagman ever?

By 10:30 it was up to 11C, then 10 minutes later it dropped suddenly to 6C as we descended into a deep valley. Then by 1:45 it was up to 17C. 

Hwy 37 is designated a remote hwy, no surprise there. I had expected more truck traffic, but there was very little until we got quite a bit further south. Up to 21C at 4pm.

It’s a beautiful drive down 37A into Stewart BC.

We looked at all 3 local cgs before settling into the municipal cg right in Stewart. It’s much cheaper than the others, $48 for 2 nights with electric.

Towards evening we drove over to Hyder AK to check out the bear viewing area at Fish Creek. One bear had been there but had left, so we decided to come back earlier the next day. On the way back we saw a man out walking his dog, and carrying a shotgun, likely for bear protection as they are quite common here, both blacks and grizzlies.

When you camp in Stewart, you usually go to Hyder, as that is where the best bear viewing is. There is no US Customs on the way into Hyder, but each time you return you must go through Canadian Customs. You also change from Pacific Daylight Time to Alaska Daylight Time on the way over, and back to PDT on the return. Hyder is not much of a town, but there are some stores there advertising great prices on stuff for tourists, and the Canada Customs always asked us what we were bringing back. “Just pictures and memories”, not taxable yet.

We saw 2 black bears and a fox on our travels today.

When we connected to hydro, we noticed the fridge was not running on the connection, just on the battery. Checking further, it turned out the 110V plug at the rear of the fridge had pulled out, not sure how long ago. Without it we’re always running the fridge on battery power, and hadn’t even noticed.