IT looks like I cannot download any pictures tonight , but I will keep trying ("Slow" Wi-Fi). I may have to try again in the morning when there is little traffic. I will place the three days here in Hyder all in one blog as it will be bears, a huge glacier, and a bit about the bears on the highway coming down here. Weather has been great with a 77 F today as we neared the coast. It stayed in the 70's until about 9:00 Pm. Stay tuned.
Day 66 Tuesday Aug 09, 2011 A side trip to Telegraph Creek BC
There is only one way to describe driving to Telegraph Creek, BC, on that road of the same name. Difficult! The 63 miles are filled with up and down hills, twists and turns at every curve (does that sound redundant?), switchbacks in both directions to the right and to the left so the steep mountainsides might be on the driver’s side or the passenger’s side. (Ruth did NOT like the “drop off”side.) The switchbacks that were most severe, (and there were many) were of 20% incline and 18% incline. All of this on an “improved” gravel road, so slippage is not to be tolerated on the gravel. I found that using the “Super low” gear on the Tundra and then using the 6 levels it offers saved a lot of braking. Usually #2 gear was slow enough to keep the car from speeding up going downhill, but a few times even that was not enough. Then I would put it into the lowest gear (#1) and let the engine do the braking. On uphills where it was the steepest I started slowly and accelerated after the wheels had good traction. Again the gravel , especially on uphill, and a 20% grade, will not stay in place easily. The key was focus and making sure you were in the right gear for the right circumstances. No admiring the scenery on that trip. There were a few turnouts where we did that.
I thought you would like to know all this before we started out on the day. A strange phenomena happened when I asked Ruth what she remembered about our trip here in 1996. She said until we got to the actual village she remembered nothing of it. How’s that for selective memory?
The forests that surround the first 40 miles of the drive are right to the edge of the road so there is not much else to see, but we did pick up a few birds along the way including some Spruce Grouse and Juncos. This portion of the road in all honesty is good packed gravel and although quite level, it has some curves. We moved right along at 35 mph except for the curves. One item there were a lot of was “bear scat” along the road all the way in to the end. There must have been hundreds of them and most of them as fresh as a day or two. Are there bears around, well I guess so.
Then came a series of switchbacks that allow the traveler to descend the canyons of three rivers that feed the Stikine River which runs to the ocean at Wrangell AK. I can picture the gold rush participants along trails here and in the 1940’s the trucks that moved equipment from Telegraph Creek to Watson Lake , via boat at Dease Lake when the Alcan Highway was being built. I am sure many an Army vet has stories to tell of those days. The road has awesome views if you are the passenger. The canyon views, the mountains in the distance especially Mt Edziza at 10,000 feet plus which is still encased in snow. There is a huge recreation area there for hikers and backpackers. Men were working on the bridge at the Tuya River, so there was a 20 minute delay (see pic). I got to talk to an Aussie there who was going around the world , working as he went. His job for BC Hydro (tech equipment) was a two year commitment although he had seen most of Asia already. We did not see bear or wolf but did watch a young Golden Eagle fly right over. We finally arrived at Telegraph Creek and got pictures and had an ice cream cone at the new restaurant that has taken the place of the general store that was there in that building. The store (now a restaurant) had changed a lot and was serving 10-12 people that noon. It was a short stop but worth seeing while touching a bit of North American History. (See previous days blog).
We settled for eating out after we got back, but were disappointed with the hamburger that was served Ruth. The management made some allowances for that in the bill. My fish was very good on the other hand. We caught the restaurant at a bad time as they have an interim cook until the new one arrives next week. We don't eat out often so it was disappointing to get a poor meal. The day was sunny and dry, and the temperature by the Stikine River was in the low 70’s (F). tomorrow we head fro Hyder, the bears, and three days of viewing. Should have some more great pictures of bears on the river salmon fishing. Wednesday AM it was 37 F.
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