A short driving day of only 109km and we reached Boya Lake.
Thanks to Jeff and also Kathy and Phil that recommended this place. One Canadian even asked us “How did you guys hear about this place?”. The lake was turquoise blue and during a little mountain bike explore and a kayak trip we saw quite a few beaver dams and homes dotted around the network of lakes.
We had lovely camping neighbours, Sue and Larry, from Whitehorse in The Yukon. They had travelled a lot of also loved cycling, kayaking and exploring. We had a great time chatting to them over a glass of wine and kettle chips.
The next morning we took a leisurely to pack up Rubber Duckie and have some brunch. We stopped at Jade City where they mine and carve some beautiful jade. A quick lunch stop at Dease Lake and then onto Meziadin Junction. We saw two black bears at the roadside and one curious fox with the bushiest tail I’ve ever seen.
We drove 494km today – most of it in the rain, so a good day to travel. The campsite was in the edge of a huge lake where salmon spawn so bears often come to feed, but not today.
We set off on an additional side trip which would see us cross into Alaska. We set off East in drizzly weather. We passed Bear Glacier and then onto the small town of Stewart.
Then we crossed the border into the USA into a tiny town of Hyder.
We drove North up to Fish Creek to view salmon spawning. It was amazing how many thousands of salmon there were, dead and alive.
We continued North East, back into B.C., 30ish km on gravel road to Salmon Glacier (sorry Fred). The glacier was amazing and the clouds cleared to allow the sun to shine on the blue, vast glacier.
We stopped once more at Fish Creek in the hope of seeing a bear feeding. After bumping into Sue and Larry we were just leaving and noticed a crowd of people on the boardwalk – it could only be a bear! We reversed as quickly as we could, I jumped out of Fred with camera in hand and Pete hurried to park and dash after me.
We watched a grizzly bear find fish eggs to eat and then took a live fish for her eggs.
He had huge paws and looked so cute but not quite so cute as he ripped the fish apart.
Happy we had seen what we’d hoped to see, we set off back through Hyder and through customs back into Canada once more. In answer to his questions of “Did you buy anything such as firearms, cannabis or liquor?” we we honestly able to say, “The only thing we bought was this sticker”. Bear Glacier looked lovely with blue skies on our way back past. Our little side trip had been 210km so we didn’t fancy going much further.
We stopped at the Meziadin fish ladder to watch The First Nations people catching the salmon in nets, just as they’ve always done. They dropped them into a side channel and another guy whacked them on the head and chucked them in crates for them to be smoked and then the tribe to share.
We saw a couple of bears at the roadside on the way but one poor young bear cub who had been run over – ahh so sad. After 80km we found a recreation site called Bonus Lake and pulled in. Just us and three other vans – bliss. We chatted to a lovely Dutch couple by their camp fire before calling it a night.
Our last day on the road to Prince Rupert saw us stop at Gitanyow to see their traditional totem poles.
then onto The Gitwangak Battle Hill where they would roll spiked trees down the hillside to see off any enemies.
Next we stopped at the Kitwanga RV park for a shower. It was icy cold water but still felt lovely to be squeaky clean with washed hair. With a quick stock up on beer in Terrace we then headed off. We drove into Port Edward to see the Northern Pacific Cannery museum but unfortunately it was closed already for the day so we could only look at the buildings from outside.
And finally we drove into Prince Rupert. It is a beautiful place and with the sun setting over glassy water, it looked magical.
I hope it’s still like that tomorrow morning for our ferry journey.
Our loop added a total of 2,687km to our trip but was absolutely worth it. We saw some amazing wildlife, saw beautiful scenery and met some lovely people.
