A Six Bear Day

Today is Thursday, June 2 - the first day of our second week for this trip.  We ended up at the end of one week in Stewart.  So it was time to head back out to Hwy 37 north.  On the way back out of Stewart, we managed to try a bit more moiling, and got a bit more (we hope) gold dust in our pan.  We also saw a black bear on the side of the road - first one in a few days now.  On the main highway, we drove some 350 km. north, and were fortunate enough to see 3 more bears (all black - perhaps the grizzlies are in stealth mode) as well as a moose, a family of geese who crossed their little ones ahead of us on the highway.  A short stop at about halfway to Dease Lake (our next destination) got us some gas, and we arrived at Dease Lake about 1315 - still time to do stuff.

Moiling for Gold - Again

Black Bear

It had rained off and on all the way up the highway, and is forecast to clear for the afternoon and then rain even more later tonight and tomorrow.  So we checked into The Great Divide Inn.  This is a nicely refurbished B&B/motel, just taken over by a young couple.  Dease Lake is on a continental divide, where one river leads to the Pacific Ocean, and another at the north end of town leads to the Arctic Ocean.....hence the name of the Inn.  The town itself is dying - the tourist bureau, gift shop, and only two restaurants, have closed their doors.  There is a small hot-dog stand with ice cream (which I had for lunch), but not much else here.  Several times in recent days, (Evi was first) it had been suggested that we'd like to visit Telegraph Creek which is a 2 hour, 112 km. drive southwest of Dease Lake on a gravel/mud road.  Our new hosts Derek and Sofia reaffirmed this suggestion if we weren't too tired.  So off we went, to see the Grand Canyon of BC, the Stikine Valley, and the settlement at the navigable end of the Stikine River which became the terminus for the early telegraph line for the Yukon Gold Rush.  Our friend Wendy would definitely rate the road a 5 out of 5 for a road not to travel on, but I loved it.  It's very windy, with steep grades, no side rails or shoulders to dropoffs many hundreds of feet down - but extremely picturesque, and with an open cafe at the end of it, in Telegraph Creek.  On this road we saw two more bears to make this a 6 bear day.  By the time we were heading home, I was hoping for a Sow and a cub so I could call this posting a 7-1/2 bear day, but we'll settle for 6.

Steep grades on the road to Telegraph Creek

BC's Grand Canyon - you can see the layers of lava in the sides of the canyon

This is what much of the road looks like

There are some interesting drop-offs

These trees survived a wildfire and grew new limbs

Stikine Riversong Cafe - good place for lunch after an interesting drive

Hopefully this wet weather will soon break into sunshine so we can get back to our plan to camp most of the way - but as you can see, we've still been enjoying this trip.