Rocky sagebrush dotted hills roll across the floor of the valley and up the flanks of the surrounding mountains.  Bright green irrigated hay fields are scattered about creating a ruggedly beautiful mosaic.  We are in central British Columbia.

A black bear is plopped in the middle of a ripe hayfield seemingly contemplating whether to keep eating or take a nap.  Mule deer have replaced caribou.

Oh, another black bear along the road.  This one intently preparing for winter never even looked up when we went by.

A stroll through the willow thickets reveals a muskrat, grebes, and a great blue heron (we haven’t seen those guys in months).   Without even glancing at a map one can tell we are moving south

We drove out the Stewart-Hyder Road.  Bear Glacier melt water feeds a roadside lake

Bear Glacier

which then powers the river that has carved this beautiful valley.  We get glimpses of other fingers of ice that reach through the mountain passes along the way and water falls grace the cliffs.

Salmon Glacier

Salmon Glacier was a bit further back a side valley but well worth the trip too.

Salmon fishing grizzly bear watching is a big draw to Hyder so we had to visit their viewing platform.  We got there by 9AM but there were no bears in sight.  The regular watchers informed us that all the action was early today, 6:30 AM.  We settled for a walk around the historic towns and a delicious seafood lunch at the Seafood Express Bus in Hyder.  My choice: grilled scallops with roasted garlic served with homemade pasta salad with smoked salmon.  Magnificent. Kent extended his halibut taste testing with fish and chips.  I believe his totally biased taste test indices that the bus even outdid Homer halibut.  It is a unique little place in a very out of the way location off the already not-so-beaten path to Salmon glacier. The kitchen is actually in a retired bus and the dining room on a little porch/lean-to.  Perfect setting on this bright cool day.  Delicious food.

Did you know that bags of water hanging around the roofline of a porch will keep flies away?  There were no flies at lunch today and the Bus owner/chef/server said that is because of the gallon Ziploc bags of water sealed and stapled along her roofline.  Uncanny.

Within an hour of checking into Meziadin Lake PP campground we met the resident black bear. It is a youngish fellow who the host claims hangs out in camp because there are berries here and there are no grizzly bears here.  Sounds smart to me.  I christened him Roscoe.  It just seemed like he needed a name if he was going to spend time among us.

At Hannah Creek we found where the Grizzly bears are.  From a nice safe perch atop the highway bridge we watched them fish for salmon.  Some are quite practiced at it and caught a fish quickly every time.  Others just got wet, no fish.  They are all impressive creatures.

Blue sky and sunshine, alright!  The Cassiar cuts through thickly forested mountains crisscrossed with creek cut valleys and dotted with lakes.  Fall arrives a little later here but there are a few splashes of color dressing up the hillsides.  So far no wildlife but the drive is beautiful.  200 miles puts us at Waters Edge RV Park on the shore of Dease Lake.  It is full of homey touches like a white picket fence and hanging baskets of flowers at each site.  The host/owner is friendly and helpful. I’d definitely recommend it.  No sewer or dump station though.

It was a bad rock day; two new windshield cracks.  One in the motorhome and one in the car.  Both are outside of the drivers main line of sight so repairs will wait until we are back in the lower 48.

200 miles on the Alaska Highway and it rained nearly all of it.  Tomorrow we start down a road not yet traveled, the Cassiar Highway, so we are hoping weather will be better.

We hoped to kayak through steep walled Miles Canyon on our way back through Whitehorse but the Yukon River is a bit too high and the current too strong for us to brave.  We will settle for a quiet stay. A campfire including s’mores made from a new bag of Jetpuffed marshmallows.  Perfect.  Some picked-fresh-this-morning baby spinach and snow peas from the farmers market.  Tickets to ride the White Pass and Yukon narrow gage railroad out of Skagway tomorrow.

Our timing seems to be about right.  Brilliant swatches of yellow and deep red splash across the mountain slopes in stark contrast with the deep green of black spruce.  It is beautiful.  It is nearing time for fall bird migration too.  Swans are supposed to be congregating in preparation for heading south.  No luck yet but I hope they will catch up to us along the way.

We checked out Pine Lake in the kayaks.  It was a quiet float except for the show down between a bald eagle and another hawk.  Seems they both have young in nests along the shore so they don’t play well with others right now.  The hawk was a 4^th the size of the eagle.  She was determined though and ultimately ran the eagle off her end of the lake but only after a talon to talon midair barrel roll and a lot of racket.