Sunday June 14, 1998 - Stewart-Cassiar

The Bear Glacier near Stewart

Kinaskan Lake - rainy

The Stewart-Cassiar Highway does not go to Stewart (or Cassiar for that matter) but you have to turn off the highway to go to Stewart. On the way you pass a glacier on the far side of the river. It is the Bear Glacier and it is quite blue. Stewart is on the coast and it is also on the Alaska border, immediately across the border is the town of Hyder. I didn't plan to spend any time there but I did cross the border and drive through Hyder and then back to Stewart again. I think I spent all of 15 minutes between border crossings. There was a rodeo going on in Stewart, I think the horses in the trailer were headed to the rodeo because later in the day I saw their truck in town.

My truck on the muddy Stewart-Cassiar

It was a dismal day. Leaving Stewart the radio in my truck stopped working. I tried to set up my portable CD player but couldn't get it going either. The Stewart-Cassiar highway was only partially paved and I spent most of the day driving on the muddy parts. I stopped at a rest area to make some lunch in the rain. There was a a big RV already there. When I pulled into the rest area a young couple came out of the RV. They were stopped there because a few days ago they got two flat tires on their rig and had to wait for new tires to be delivered, Monday night at the earliest. They were driving from Arizona to Alaska. At least they had all the comforts of a big RV while they waited for their tires, but every time a vehicle pulled into the rest area they came out to socialize.

Shortly after I arrived at the rest area a camper truck that I had passed earlier in the mud stopped in. Ray and Laurena and their little dog Sparky were travelling to Alaska from Victoria. After a short time socializing with the folks from the RV and the camper I headed out down the road. In the photo above I think the camper appears in the distance on the highway, you can just make it out if you expand the photo.

In the evening I pulled into the Kinaskan Lake campground and Ray and Laurena arrived a short time later and pulled into the site next to mine. We chatted about travelling and dogs and so forth and it looked like we were travelling the same direction for awhile. They were talking about taking a side trip to Telegraph Creek. I also was interested in going there. They had talked to a man earlier in the day who had said that the road into Telegraph Creek was very steep and dangerous which kind of worried me, I didn't really want to tackle it on my own.

Kinaskan Lake

The rain finally let up and it was a pleasant clear evening.