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 café 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
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
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
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.
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