Before leaving Smithers picked up a quart of oil just in case the head gasket leak worsens.
The route today was BC-16 to BC-37 (Cassier Highway) to BC-37A at Meziaden Junction to Stewart, BC (and Hyder, AK just across the border)
Just out of town there was a great view of a glacier high up in a nearby mountain. After that the clouds lowered and obscured the mountain tops.
A misting rain began that sometimes turned to drizzle. Temperature dropped which was nice as I've been sweating for most of the last week. Stopped to close the air vents in my jacket and over pants. Stopped again to put the liner into my jacket. Fortuitously, the turnoff overlooked a narrow gorge with rapids where salmon were being caught and released. This was an odd operation. Two men with nets were scooping salmon out of the water. Some they released immediately. Others were dropped into a sort of sling that an assistant used to carry the fish to a station at the head of the rapids. Here another man did something with the fish in a trough before dropping it into a large tube that carried it back into the water. Another bystander speculated that they were harvesting the eggs from females. I can't come up with a better explanation.
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| Some colorful roadside plants. |
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| And some really skinny aspen trees. |
The road from Meziaden Junction to Stewart is extraordinary. It follows a fast moving river that flows down to Portland Channel. At times the walls of the mountains on both sides close in so that you are in a narrow, dark green gorge. At others the walls recede and you can look up to see blue glaciers hanging high up or, at one place, extend down almost to the water's edge.
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| On 37A toward Stewart and Hyder. |
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| Bear Glacier on 37A.. I spoke with someone who remembers when this glacier extended all the way into the revier. |
Checked into an RV-type campground and then went across the border to Hyder to eat at the Bus Restaurant. Got there at a busy time so had a lot of time to chat with other customers, all of us waiting for our food. There were people from all over the U.S. and Canada. There was a universal opinion that this area is exceptionally beautiful. There were several comments about how the glaciers are shrinking. One man wondered if his children would get to see this. Without the glaciers this area will still be beautiful but won't be magical.
At the Bus a young man who lives in Stewart told me that you can catch Halibut in the waters right outside town. That answered a longstanding question I had about this restaurant. I knew that the husband and son of the proprietress were fishermen who supplied the daily fresh fish. But I didn't understand how they could sail back and forth to open water some 60 or 80 miles to the south west each day. Turns out, they don't have to.
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| This year's Bus Restaurant picture. |