Sunday, August 31, 2014

Post 8-31-2014 Barkerville

Post 8-31-2014  Barkerville, BC

We left Hyder and started heading South on hwy 37 toward Prince George knowing we weren’t going to get that far, and we didn’t. We stopped in Smithers, BC  and had dinner at a place that  Shirley Rosichuk at the  Stewart Museum  in Stewart recommended. Hudson Bay Lodge was a rather large place with a couple bar/restaurants that had several TV’s for sports watching.  Their special for the day was Schnitzel’s so we shared a Cordon Bleu Schnitzel   that was out of this world delicious along with a Caesar Salad  and coffee. Thank you Shirley for the recommendation.

Getting back on the road in darkness , something sorta new to us again,  we stopped  the first place where we could call it a day. I really don’t want to drive at night anymore. My eyes aren’t as clear as they used to be. My cataracts are growing and my Ophthalmologist said he would remove them after my next office call. We got as far as Telkwa, BC. It was after nine PM and we were very lucky to get the last spot in an RV park. There was a baseball tournament going on in Talkwa and the RV Park was fully booked but someone didn’t show before nine so he gave it to us. Thank you LORD. Arising and away fairly early, we drove to Prince George and stopped at Wally World for some needed groceries.

While driving we saw a roadside sign advertising  a  historic Gold Rush Town called “Barkerville” that had restored everything and was now a tourist attraction.  Looked great so away we went. It was 50 miles off the main highway through the mountains that has several 6, 7, 8 and a 10 degree downgrades hills to contend with. Took a while to get there and find the campground where we would park. No services but that’s OK, we don’t need them. Later we went out and had fish (cod) and chips with calamari for dinner. Loved them.

Barkerville Park

Turns out that the town is a theme park, much like Busch Gardens, except it is strictly a historic  gold rush setting with  educational themes. Stories are told and presentations are given on the history of the place. When gold was discovered by Billy Barker at Williams Creek in 1862, the British Columbia gold rush town was born.  The extraordinary town named in  Billy‘s honor, is now the largest authentic heritage attraction in western North America.  There are still five active gold mines in the area.

                      Need a ride?


                                        Nita's basket


Main Street

Angelican Church


Masonic Lodge


Stone crusher/pulverizer

Stove of the times


Our first venture was a vaudeville  style comedy musical of the heyday of the 1860’ies and later  at the Theatre Royal. The theatre was started in 1865 and this replica continues the tradition.


Piano player, Comedian/singer, Multi talented gal, tap dancer and opera singer.

The show  was the funniest one we’ve seen yet. One of the cast, a woman , was very multi talented and played the guitar, mandolin, accordion, and a kazoo, a flute,  and a base fiddle as she sang.  One of the men was a tall, lanky comical actor who portrayed a dog during part of the performance and as a dancer ( comical motion type) as well as play guitar and sing during the rest. One guy sang an operatic rendition and the other older woman tap danced. A good laugh all the way through. Regrettably, they wouldn’t allow photos during the performance.

Since the Chinese is always a part of any gold rush, there was plenty of their presence including a restaurant.(ever met a china man who didn’t own a restaurant? Ha!) “Lung Duck Tong” had very good  food for the crowd it had. Sweet and Sour pork  with Wonton Soup really hit the spot. We watched the swinging doors leading into/out of the kitchen. They seemed to have  a mind of their own. They kept swinging all the time-never stopped, even when no one was going through them. Ghostly!
                             Chinese Restaurant


                         Watch the door move on it's on

We listened to a story teller who told the story, “ The spirit of Cariboo Cameron”,The fascinating story of John Angus” Cariboo Cameron” who’s fortune in gold came at a terrible cost. He had found his fortune three times and made millions  but along the way he lost his wife and daughter. After remarrying and relocating back to America is was accused of killing them for the gold . He died in his sleep. Can’t take it with you. Life is life.

                                      Story teller
Another interesting performance was a school teacher, Ms Bowton, portrayed by   “Corrie” (or Cory), who gave an exceptional performance of how a school teacher of that era might have been . Her strictness with children was evidenced by her actions. I’m sure  she was mostly correct in her methods and it’s a shame we don’t have that sort of discipline in our schools today. Bravo, young lady, you were wonderful.

                         Inside schoolhouse


                     Jesse  and Ms Bowton (Corry)





Wells

Wells was founded in 1934 by Fred Wells as the company  town for his Cariboo Gold Quartz Mine and is distinguished by its historic 1930’s buildings and architecture.  It’s only about 6 miles from Barkerville,  is not a theme park, just a touristy town, with a lot of local artist displays and tours of the mines as well as hiking, etc. No photos taken

Tomorrow we leave for home.




















Thursday, August 28, 2014

Post 8-28-2014 Hyder, Alaska

Post 8-28-2014 Hyder

Driving into Hyder from the rte 37/ 37A  Meziadin Junction, a distance of  about 87 Kilometers (30 miles), we passed by a gorgeous glacier. It must have been a receding type since we couldn’t see any “calves” (ice bergs) in the water. It was breath taking. But, we had not yet seen the one we talk about below.

Along the road was a black bear, just ambling along eating grass and berries. We approached slowly and it virtually ignored us. They know they aren’t in harms way. We are taught to respect them and their distance. Being in the RV provided plenty of protection. Eventually, it just made a sharp right turn and disappeared in the brush.


To get to Hyder, you have to drive through Stewart, BC. The border is in between them. Customs is only for entering Canada from Hyder. Why?, who knows. The road in Hyder is a dead end and there’s no way you can get from Hyder to Canada without having driven from Canada to Hyder first. Apparently, they do have foreign ships that dock in Stewart and they visit the bear boardwalk and perhaps the glacier which you can’t get to without going through Hyder.

Hyder

We drove many miles to get there because we heard that we could watch bears.

Unbelievable!   What we were able to see while in Hyder we’ll never see anywhere else.  Hyder is a very small community located just across the border from Stewart, British Columbia (BC). It is so small they don’t have a customs office, and really only has a few businesses still operating.  The post office is a mobile home with a roof and deck added.  The best cafĂ© in town has an old bus for a kitchen, bus seats at the outdoor tables and the dining room has old newspaper clippings on the wall and photo albums of the history of the town.  It is called the “Ghost City” since most of the businesses  have  closed down and the people left. There’s only 50 or 60 who live there. Strictly a tourist accommodating community and virtually everyone there is on welfare, or is there working for the Summer.  Like the rest of  Alaska, almost everyone is from somewhere else and just works there in the Summer months.


                                                                                       A wood carving of bear, fish and eagle
Run-a-Muck RV Park does have sites with electricity and running water and a few even had sewer hook-ups. We selected one next to the street so we could see  everyone who drove by and close to the office so we could get better Wifi. Mine wouldn’t work until I changed my settings.
"Sully" from Maine                                    Run-a-Muk Office.

 As it turned out, the person running the late shift at the RV Park was from Maine. “Sully” said he was from the Camden region near Bar harbor. Told him I had been stationed at Brunswick in the early 60‘ies . Turned out he is a retired Navy Captain, 30 year type, and he spends his Summers in Hyder and his Winters in Maine. No difference except there aren’t any mountains in that region of Maine but it‘s really a great place and beautiful there.  Amazing who you meet and where you meet them.

  We immediately went to the “Bus” Kitchen (Seafood Express) and ordered a serving of Haddock with two extra pieces. Talk about delicious, UUUMMM! The “bus” is actually a bus that was converted into a kitchen for deep frying fish, fries and seafood. It has apparently been there many, many years. We looked at old photos and letters from an album dating back into the early  nineties. Didn’t get to meet the owner until the morning we left.

Best seafood "cafe" in town

The owner and cook

                                                        Buy your seafood in quantity

Fish Creek Bear Observation Boardwalk, Tongass National Forest

The Tongass National Forest encompasses the rainforest from Juneau to the BC border and includes many islands.  It is the largest National Forest in the USA and the Bear Boardwalk is at the southern tip.  The park rangers are familiar with all the bears that feed there and are happy to answer your questions.

We made two trips to the boardwalk where you can watch the bears walk in the stream, (loaded with spawning salmon, mostly chum but some pink) eat their share and amble away. They are only a few (25-100) feet from you, but protected from us (& us-them) by the boardwalk.  We saw two black bears on the first visit and two brown (grizzlies) on the second.  We watched the first large female black bear for some time and she caught and ate a fish just below us.  They are used to the people and their normal noise, but someone dropped something on the boardwalk and she was startled.  She looked up immediately and picked up her fish and crossed the stream to continue her feast.  The second black bear came from the forest under the road bridge (upstream) as the first bear was leaving walking down the creek.  It was almost dark and it’s impossible to get a photo of a black bear that late.

 Actually, we only watched one on the second visit because when the second bear appeared, it saw the first one, and immediately left. Guess it didn’t want a confrontation with him. They have a pecking order and it is respected.  We saw the first brown bear swimming in a small pond beyond the boardwalk.  Someone said it was a beaver, but as he came closer, it was obviously a bear.  He left the pond and crossed under the boardwalk just below us.  He was a huge boar, around 900 lb, we asked if he was typical in size and the ranger said that he was an especially large male.  What a thrill, to be so near such a magnificent animal in his world.  We watched him catch a fish and throw it down, the ranger told us that the fish was a male and the bear wanted a female with eggs.  Sure enough, he then caught a large female and you could hear her bone’s crunch as he bit into her and sucked the eggs from her, then threw her down and went for another.  We could hear him breathe and grunt as he was eating.





Male salmon  "milting" the eggs

The pond was littered with dead fish as they die just after they spawn but they add to the environment. Their nutrients add to the stream and the forest. As normal in nature, everything eatable is consumed by something else. We watched the gulls peck away and someone said they saw some Eagles just upstream feeding on salmon as well.



Tom and Kay Johnson

As we were watching the big grizzly, and taking photos, we met Tom and Kay Johnson, again. Tom was talking to the ranger about going up to the Salmon Glacier and Kay was watching the bear and Tom. I talked to her about how great going to the glacier was and that they would enjoy it.  A bit later,  Tom asked Nita if she would send them some pictures since Kay had left her camera in their car. She had thought it would be too dark to take any. I gave Nita a card and told her to give it to Tom. He looked at the card and said ”hey, I know a Jesse James“. “We met him and you in Haines Junction at the meat store“.  Small world. We did meet them there after I left the hospital in Fairbanks. Was great seeing them again. I thought he looked familiar but just passed it off thinking I had maybe seen him  somewhere in passing.

After a good conversation, we decided on coffee the next morning and would up  inviting  them to breakfast at the “Glacier Restaurant”  We went and had a good one. They are from Marquette in upper Michigan. . Perhaps we will meet again some day. My brother Dave want’s us to come to Lake Michigan and spend the Summer in our RV. He says the upper Western side is just the place to spend the Summer. They go up and stay on their 65 ft yacht. We’ll have to work on that. Plus we are going up that way on our way back to VA in Sept


                      Tom and Kay Johnson

Glacier Inn

The restaurant’s decor was dollar bills of every country you can think of stapled and glued to every inch of the walls and support beams in the entire building. There were some 50’s and 100’s on the wall behind the bar. Each and every one had been written on with the donor’s name,  city of origin  and date presented. YEP, we, and Tom & Kay, added to the collection. We  later saw a newspaper article posted in the Stewart museum about the collection dating  back to the 70’ies.

All $1.00 bills


 
fishing and mining regalia,  Post  is $1.00 bills




Our waitress                          Look close--several $50's and $100's 

Salmon River  and Salmon Glacier

Getting up to a beautiful morning and having a late breakfast, we drove the 20 miles to the summit of the Salmon Glacier. The drive is virtually uphill all the way on a narrow, winding dirt road that was full of pot  holes.  No speeding on this road.  As we gained altitude the scenery got more picturesque.  Waterfalls and other glaciers, sheer cliffs and avalanche rock piles.

               Salmon River                                                  Toe of the glacier, where it melts into the river
 We could see the river running downstream  in a valley carved out by the glacier thousands of years ago and where it had receded over the past 100 years. It was amazing how much had melted and how far up river the toe of it was.  The higher we climbed the better we could see the glacier until we reached the summit of the mountain where we could look down at it,  We could see 15 miles up the valley where it was coming from and had driven alongside it for five miles.  Absolutely stunning!  Even after seeing all those in Thule, Greenland way back in the early sixties, I was totally enthralled with this one.  GOD really blessed us with the clear skies and somewhat warm day.


A stop along the way to the summit to inspect a tiny glacier beside the road.

The Salmon Glacier is actually located in British Columbia, but you must go through  the Tongus National Forest to get to it.  You cross the border on the way up the mountain, but  no customs to worry about. The road stops 7 miles beyond the summit and the only way down is back through Hyder.

We met Keith Scott, the acclaimed “Bear Man’ at the summit. Keith has been coming to Hyder for the past 20 years and he lives in his car and a tent at the summit for four months.  He said he goes down the mountain once a week for groceries. He hails from New Brunswick.  He has produced a video of his discoveries at the glacier to include having gone under it after all the water runs out. It also includes some footage of the wildlife there. Naturally, we had to buy one.

                  The Bear Man, Keith Scott 
He acted as tour guide and took a few photos for us and he told about a lake on the other side (toe) of the glacier, to the north, that is created each year as the winter snow melts in that area.  It is a large lake with hugh ice bergy’s floating around until the lake empties under the glacier as it melts underneath each year.  It takes about four days to empty the lake and all that is left are the “bergy-bits” on the lake bed. Some are 50-75 feet tall.  As all this thawing and melting is going on at the bottom of the glacier, not to worry, the top gets an annual snowfall of about 40 to 50 feet, and had a record of  70 ft one year.  This snow doesn't melt but it does condense and over time the weight eventually forces the air out and it packs into solid clear ice, which, due to it’s weight slides down the glacier valley below.


Here it curves around a mountain

Salmon Glacier in the background. You can see 15 miles of it.

         Reminents of the lake adjacent to the glacier. this was /is the bottom after the water disappeared under the glacier

 
He's in the lower RH corner, where the shadow changes, under the berg. Just shows how large the lake bottom is.



Beautiful Salmon Glacier.

On the way back down we saw a small animal running across the road.  We think it was a wolverine or a marmot.  Nope, no photo. Wasn't fast enough getting the camera. Wasn't expecting it. Got back to our Bus and had some more of  Andy’s delicious Salmon Vegetable Soup with his homemade bread from Jade City.  Cheers!