Stewart, BC, and Hyder, AK, are two very unusual places to visit. They adjoin each other across the US/Canada border near the extreme southeastern end of Alaska. Hyder is reachable only by water via a 90 mile long fjord or through Stewart. Stewart offers little to the tourist. Their only bank closed a couple of years ago, neither of the two ATMs were working, and many of the small businesses are shuttered. The west end of town shows the remains of an abandoned Canadian town also named Hyder, which collapsed with the end of the gold and silver rush. We did find one excellent restaurant in Stewart, the Bitter Creek Cafe. The town also has the "Kate Ryan Building", once home to the real Klondike Kate. It is next door to the interesting, but closed, "Cafe and Toaster Museum".

As you cross the border to enter Hyder, Alaska, it is as if you are entering a third world country. It is quaint and "rustic", but also jumbled and has no paved streets. Appropriately, the best place to eat in Hyder is partly composed of an old school bus painted blue, plus some attached structure. Excellent food, with most of the vegetables grown by the owner at her adjacent home. Other oddities about Hyder are that while the rest of Alaska and the Hyder Post Office observes Alaska time, the rest of Hyder doesn't, and uses Pacific time instead. Hyder is the only place in Alaska where the road signs are in metric. A popular activity is to "get Hyderized" at a local bar. This involves downing a mysterious concoction, apparently mostly grain alcohol, to obtain a certificate and dubious benefits. I guess it might protect against freezing up the following winter!

But the main attraction of Hyder is a few miles further up a dirt road; the Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Area, run by the U. S. Forest Service. On the first night, we drove there and watched a female grizzly bear for 45 minutes close up as she walked up and down the creek beside the viewing platform. She was apparently well fed, as she made only casual efforts to catch any of the hundreds of migrating salmon in the creek. She did catch two for our entertainment. I almost filled my camera's 14GB card with photos and videos.

While in the RV park in Stewart, I did finally change the large air filter on the RV. I believe I should have panned all the dust in the old filter for gold. We now notice that much of the fireweed has completely topped out, meaning that the time to leave Alaska and northern Canada is near.

Smithers, BC, was our next overnight stop, and the road to there from Stewart had many attractions. There was less smoke than the previous day, and the view of Bear glacier was excellent. Further on, we were in the area of the Gitanyow Huwilp tribe. These natives are excellent totem pole builders, and we visited their cultural center at the town of Gitanyow. Several very tall impressive totem poles stand beside the road, and several other smaller but older ones are behind and inside the museum. As in other native museums we were able to have personal conversations with the staff, and learned here that the totems and homes are supposed to face either toward the river or to the east. However, the Canadian government seized many totem poles in about 1950, claiming they were part of "idol worship", and returned them years later, placing them so that they faced the road, for the benefit of tourists. New homes have been constructed without regard to which way they face. The tribal elders believe that such violations of tribal customs are the reason the tribe has not flourished recently. In the museum is also an unusual and beautiful chief's headdress and ceremonial robe. The headdress is red with ermine pelts hanging from it. It is topped by sea lion whiskers. The ermine pelts are presented to a new chief when he receives his new "hereditary name" and completes certain duties, such as hosting the feast upon receiving the name and having a totem pole carved to commemorate the past chief. Annette purchased a nice necklace handmade by the person who sold it to her.

Just before Smithers at Moricetown, we parked and walked over to the Skeena river where native fishermen were catching salmon by unusual methods. Here the river forms a rushing steep cataract between rock walls. Native people, many of whom are roped to the rock for safety, lean over the rushing water to net salmon, or use 25 foot poles with gaffing hooks on the end to snag fish. They were quite successful as we watched, with many of the fish appearing to be 20 pounds or more. Again I got lots of photos and movie clips of this fascinating activity.

After Smithers we traveled to Prince George, BC, the place we had joined the caravan 50 days prior, and where the caravan portion of this trip was to end. The caravan staff took the whole group to a dinner at a hotel where memories were shared and friendships confirmed. The following morning the staff provided coffee and bagels at the park so that we could exchange goodbyes.

We set off east and south, traversing the Icefield Parkway connecting Jasper and Banff national parks in Alberta. This is arguably the most beautiful drive in North America, and we wish we had more time to explore the area, but were trying to get to Great Falls Montana in two days, so that we could attend the Sunday service by our former pastor who now has a church in Great Falls. Every curve presented wonderful scenes, and we finally arrived in Calgary to spend the night at a Walmart, as we often do when "making miles".