NORTH TO ALASKA - PART 2

We were on the road a little after 6:00 the next morning continuing northwest on Hwy 16 and stopping for a couple geocaches along the way. Most of the BC roadside is thick woods but this road wasn’t quite so much to the extent as most others and had a bit more traffic. Hwy 16 eventually turns southwest toward Terrace and at about that point we continued northwest on Hwy 37.

After traveling on Hwy 37 for quite a while we made a gas stop, where a man riding a Suzuki VStrom the same as Sam approached him. He was a retired school teacher and writer who had been hired by Suzuki to travel all over the area for the summer writing about his experience. Not only that, they were furnishing the bike and paying all expenses. We thought that was a pretty sweet deal.

The cache

The falls

At one point we stopped and hiked in the woods and climbed down the mountain to a geocache at a beautiful little waterfall. It was by far the neatest cache I got on the trip. I like ones that require a lot of effort but offer a good reward at the end.

Sam ropes back up

Hwy 37 comes to a tee and we took the left one which is 37A. The 30 mile stretch of Hwy 37A undoubtedly has the most eye popping scenery I’ve ever seen. The river was swollen and almost over the road, and to the north were sheer cliffs with trees clinging to them in places and what looked like granite in other places with numerous waterfalls dropping hundreds of feet. I’m really bummed that I didn’t get pictures. I had intended to do so on the way back out but it was raining and so foggy I couldn’t even see the cliffs.

This road terminates at Hyder, AK, which is nothing except a bar and a small store just a mile or two beyond Stewart, BC. We stayed in Stewart after a 384 mile day. Stewart is a very interesting little town. All the buildings are very old and from the outside look like nothing has been done to them. The businesses are serviceable inside but still old. Our hotel (the Ripley) has each room furnished differently in an antique theme. After getting checked in we wandered around taking in the little town. We had dinner at a restaurant just across the street from the Ripley and it was good.

As predicted, it rained most of the night and was foggy and raining off and on the next morning. More rain was predicted as well. Sam had particularly wanted to go into Alaska and travel the 30 mile gravel road up to the Salmon Glacier but the road would likely have been muddy and it would have been impossible to see anything with the fog. So we settled with just crossing into Alaska at Hyder so I could log an Alaska geocache which was located in the store there. I’m sure a lot of folks do that because the paved road ends at Hyder – just a quick out and back from Stewart. Of course, this was another border crossing but this time it was very low key and friendly.

So instead of spending another day and night in Stewart we headed back to where we had stayed in Vanderhoff. We were in quite a bit of traffic in places but I thought it was a fun challenge getting around it. We got into Vanderhoff later in the afternoon having logged 379 miles. We lubed our chains, got cleaned up and went to dinner. (I also got my hat back.) To be continued.  M/W