We took the recommendation of our campground host and headed down the Glacier Highway to Stewart. It would have been an easy drive, but I pushed the limit of the car and it's gas tank to the limit. I had decided not to stop at a very expensive gas station thinking that there would be another along the way.
There was none!
It was beautiful country with tall trees all around and lakes/rivers along the way, but no gas. My quick calculations from a road sign was that we would arrive on fumes. When I purchased the car a few years back, the salesman told me that E does not mean E. E means one more gallon. Hmmm. One Gallon left and we had an average of 26 at the time. Stewart was 25 miles away. Eek!
We passed by some amazing glaciers along the way, close enough that if we wanted to stop we could reach them, but there was no gas to waste. My eyes constantly darted between the E and the mileage left to go, calculating, calculating. I was pleased to find us heading down towards the sea so there were no grades to ascend and waste any more gas.
Let's just say that we coasted into the town of Stewart, BC. Found some expensive gas and filled up. BIG sigh of relief from me and tight lips from Tom (meaning, I'm not going to say a word but I told you we should have stopped for gas...).
The town looked old and the sort of town that I expected to see in Alaska. Run down buildings with facades above the one story buildings. There was a hotel and a few shops in the downtown area. One of them offered free wi-fi, but I could never get a connection nor could the other people sitting around the outside patio. Oh well.
We stopped in the above store and once I got past the strong mildew smell in the building, I began to poke around. The store had a few locals in it with one small child really making an impression on me. He was buying something for his mother. On layaway. Too cute. I ended up purchasing a t-shirt with the RCMP on it. It stayed in the bag until we got home due to that musty smell.
One of the more interesting facts about Stewart is that you can drive into Alaska from there. I had always heard in all of my research and books that all roads lead to Tok. I just had to visit the Last Frontier again so we headed out of the city after a quick walk with the dogs into Hyder, Alaska.
Hyder has a Beer Viewing Platform a few miles through town that we had wanted to check out. The road to get there was the worst we had seen during the entire trip. Mind you, we still had almost bare tires still. The road was gravel with a capital G!
We finally arrived after a 2 mile, 15 minute drive, passing a mobile home area and a few buildings that looked empty and falling apart. We paid our $2 fee and walked the boardwalk. We did see some of the salmon running up the river to spawn. There must have been hundreds of them thrashing about in the shallow rocky water. Many of them had been beaten up bad from the rocks although they were still jumping and occasionally flushing with a potential mate.
There were many barely eaten fish along the banks. I guess the bears had so much to go after, they only ate what they wanted and left the rest for the scavengers of the forest. There were no bears though. Some people in the know mentioned that they come in at 6 AM and 6 PM. We were duped!
We had picked up some postcards along the way, but never got Canadian stamps. Tom was quite happy that on the way back to Stewart, we saw a post office in Hyder. We stopped and Tom mailed his postcards and then proceeded to another border crossing.
I was surprised on the way in to Hyder that we were just allowed to drive into the US without the border guards and Homeland Security. I felt much more secure passing through into Canada this time. The Border Guard was a lovely woman and, as always, welcomed ME home. Then she looked at Tom and specifically asked him all of the questions about guns, reason, how long he plans on staying, almost with a chuckle in her voice but yet stern. It was funny.
We got through the crossing without any problems. We were off towards Victoria towards the ferry which will take us back to the contiguous US with a full tank of gas. We stopped along the way to check out the glaciers which we sped by on the way into town. They were so close and many had that blue sheen to them that we had seen days back.
It was all coming to an end. A great trip through Canada and Alaska. When it gets close to coming home, I get a bit amped up and start to race home. It has always been the case and this was no different. We still had many miles to go and a lot of them we had driven before.
Our first stop was to go to Hope, BC. We stayed there last year when we traveled along the Trans Canada to Quebec. We found our old campsite and settled in for the night. We had a busy day the following day. Ferries and the US. Home again.
We woke up early, had some breakfast and headed towards the coast again. I picked up some wifi the night before in town and found the info for the ferries. We raced down to Vancouver and landed at the terminal along with many other cars.
We missed one ferry, but the next was just an hour away. Another walk for the dogs at the terminal and then we were off headed across the sound to Victoria, BC, it's capital. This is where it got a bit crazy for us, or rather me.
We arrived near the capital about 40 minutes before a ferry left to Washington. I really wanted to catch that ferry. I also wanted to take a picture of the capital. I needed to get a picture of the dogs in front of the capital.
Fortunately, we found a parking spot on the side of the capital. "OK! Let's go!"
We are practically running towards the front of the building. Dogs are manic, I'm manic, Tom's putting up with it. We get there. Click! Click! Click! Click! "OK! Let's go!"
A few strangers wanted to say hi to the dogs. NO! Gotta go.
Back in the car, racing towards the terminal a few blocks away. Buy tickets. We are on standby. Breathe! breathe.
Homeland Security is there. Border Patrol asks for the paperwork. All is fine. We just have to wait to see if we can get on. If we can't, oh well. It is just another night, one tat we probably would have enjoyed.
The long lines of cars were all getting on. One by one until the lot was empty except for us. They squeezed us in. Made it. And we said goodbye to Canada and Alaska. We were definitely headed towards home now. Our parting shot below was bittersweet.
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