18 May 2016: The road to Hyder

T – It rained a lot last night. So much so that we even ended up with water seeping in through the floor of the tent. Our fault though. We have a large blue tarp for a ground sheet and it sticks out past the tent on the sides. Making for a nice little funnel to channel the water into the space directly beneath the sleeping mats.

We packed up slowly to give the tent some time to dry out. While we were having our cups of tea one of the camp site caretakers came over for a chat. It seems that a young Black bear was harassing another young couple in their tent just a few nights earlier. Gulp!

Finally we put the tent away slightly wet and rode out. We had to ride a short section of unmaintained dirt road this morning which would bring us out onto the highway heading north. This would mean we wouldn’t need to backtrack for another 200 odd km’s. We were hoping the road would be open! Déjà vu?

The dirt road was a blast. It started out wide and potholed to the wahzoo then became narrow and graded although terribly muddy and rocky. It was an awesome ride and we both really enjoyed it.

C – Wow, what a road. We had an absolute blast on the back road from Lava Lake to Cranberry Junction. It started out with us both laughing as we watched each other bounce from crater to crater. Poor Rosie and Mabel. After the potholes ended, the slimy mud began.. What joy! Rosie and I LOVE playing in the mud and we were soon sliding around, giggling along, even getting some sideways action along the way. I even spied Mabel enjoying herself, sliding sideways around a corner!!!!!

T – We came out onto the highway and headed north for a short while before stopping for our lunch break. There was some dark clouds coming in fast and after a few spots of rain we donned our wet weather gear before heading onwards.

Then it started to rain…. hard little lumps of rain. It was bloody hailing on us! Mabel decided she didn’t like this, at all, and cut out dead in protest. Mabel you bloody so and so! (Replace so and so for some nasty swear words). I figured her electrics were sopping wet and gave her a squirt with some WD40. Except the can had run out of pressure. It was full of liquid but no way to get it out.

Fudge…..

Nothing for it but to kick the little red cow in the guts and try to get her to start. Which she did on the first kick….Anyways, we started rolling and Mabel immediately cut out again. This went on for the next 30 km before we eventually pulled into Meziadin where we took shelter from the rain and cold.

C – After Mabel's little  tantrum, we dripped into Meziadin Junction as we were in need of warming up. I opted for coffee whilst Todd opted for, yep you guessed it, chocolate!! As we were enjoying our warming treats, a guy walked in wearing the unmistakable high viz wet weather gear of a fellow biker. We chatted to him for a while about all things bikes, camping and travel and learned that he was on his way from Pennsylvania to Anchorage to see his son. After comparing notes, we decided it was time to hit the road again.

T – We emerged around half an hour later to sunny skies and drying roads. The road from here to Stewart and Hyder is called The Glacier Highway so we had high hopes for the scenery. And wow. It was spectacular. Big glaciers hanging from the mountain tops, lakes and smooth tarmac. It was a blast of a ride!

C – Talk about spit in your face, kick you in the crotch fantastic! What a ride!! The scenery was beautiful and we stopped (illegally, whoops) at the Bear Glacier for some photos. It looked as though there had been a recent rockfall on the side of the road here and there was a very large no stopping sign!!

T – We finally pulled into Stewart and followed the signs to the border crossing into Hyder and Alaska. We really wanted to go to the Salmon glacier as the pictures of it looked incredible! We followed the dirt road to the glacier for about 15 km’s before finally being pulled up by a security guard. The road from this point onwards was closed until Friday due to blasting works for a new transmission line for a mine. Damn it. We had no choice but to turn around and head back the way we had come. Feeling a little cheated we headed back to the border with Canada.

C – As we were stopped at the border, chatting with the border guard, we saw a mumma black bear crossing the road with her three little cubs! Right in the middle of main street Hyder!!! The cubs playfully danced across the road, it was very cute. We are really lucky to have seen three sets of triplets so far on this trip!!!

T – We started heading back towards Meziadin and just out of Stewart we found a little Recreation site and decided to camp there. What a camp spot! We pitched our tent right on the lakes edge and just sat and stared at the mountain across from us. Shame about not seeing Salmon glacier, but this camp made up for it!

C – We had a mug of red wine each as we just sat and stared across the lake, up the majestic snow covered peak in front of us. We were just starting to think about getting organised for bedtime, when we heard wolves calling. What a perfectly Canadian moment! We were thankful to Grahame again for showing us the different calls so we could recognise the wolf call.

T – Tomorrow we shall strike out towards Dease Lake some 450 km’s to the north.  There's some hot springs along the way where maybe we will have a bath.