Day Five - Stewart

I'm actually sitting at a grocery/cafe in Stewart right now - they are closed for the night and I was going to head back to camp but Janay emailed me to say that I've been tardy on the blog posts...in my defense it's not because I've been busy doing things (well sort of) but mostly from a lack on good Internet!

Anyway this posting takes us from the Nisga's Lava Memorial Park to Stewart via a fairly good gravel road, a couple of bug infested lakes (check out the fish count on the right) and our first kilometers on the Stewart-Cassiar Highway (#37). The day started out well - we were packing our gear and I made scrambled eggs with leftover sausage (a birthday gift from Mick - the non-medicated butter chicken sausage...amazing!!!) and pepper. Being the dutiful daughter that I am I offered to make coffee (if you're reading this in order - this is the rest of the story that I hinted about in relation to dad's "easy coffee at Tim's") even though TEA is a much better drink and EASIER to make! Well - my first attempt was "coffee flavoured water", my second attempt at making a single cup...let's just say it ended up all over me and the picnic table and that colourful language was said! The really funny part to this story is that when I attempted to dispose of the "coffee flavoured water" dad's mug slipped (accidental - that's my story and I'm sticking to it) out of my hand and ended up in the bush. Being the smart man that he is...dad knew that he would be the one retrieving the cup...without the handle! Moral of this story - don't complain when a non-coffee drinker makes you coffee flavoured water! (I did end up perking him some after this to make up for it!).

Not long after leaving the Park we stopped at Dragon Lake recreation site. The lake is beautiful and there were a number of campsites, of course we had stopped to fish! Unfortunately the lake wasn't great for fishing - not because there were no fish (see left - I had to take the picture myself as dad was so upset that I'd caught the first fish!!) but because the Cottonwoods were shedding and the "cotton" cover the lake. It would wrap around your line, lure, and everything else it came in contact with. We quickly headed out but not before I caught the first fish of this trip. I wasn't sure how big they needed to be so this little guy was released back into the wild!

There is an age old question: Do Bears shit in the woods? The answer - NO! They Shit on gravel roads!!! We knew that we were in bear country but we didn't know just how healthy the population was! Yup, they are real regular!! There were PILES of scat every 200 - 300 meters...and some of them were HUGE! I did like the contrast of having lovely butterflies (eating?) sitting on piles of poop!

We saw a lot of wildlife on our way to Stewart including a couple of deer and a family of grouse. In fact when we stopped to look at a hen with some chicks we also got a good look at a pimped up male grouse (rooster?) I've never seen one before - particularly one that was all puffed up and doing a little dance for us! We didn't hang around too long as it was clear that we were stressing out momma bird quite a bit. Not long after that we came across a nice two point mule deer - dad was good and didn't make any comments about shooting it!! I'm sure he was thinking it though!

Once we hit the highway it was a lovely driving change - we hadn't had lunch yet so found the next recreation area on our map. We had only one real objective in mind - find a lake where the fish were biting...and hopefully the bugs were not (not an easy find)!

Dad found us our next destination - Jigsaw Lake Recreation Area. It was a good thing that we were looking for it as the sign (dark brown with white lettering - we're learning to look for this type of sign) was on the far side of the turn off...only a problem when one is travelling at 100 km/h!! The drive in was a fairly well maintained gravel road and it was also the access point for Bonny Lake Rec area but we didn't go there. The decision to turn off at this point was a good one for many reasons - we saw another 5 black bears (I only saw 4...the one I missed ran across the road in front of us...scary I know!!), we found a great site (buggy!!) for lunch, and dad took the time for my first fly fishing lesson...I love it! Better yet...I caught fish #2...Dad's still skunked!! As you'll see in the picture - my fish are getting smaller not bigger!! I want to be clear - the fish bit the hook I did not snag it!!

After giving up on the bite we headed to our next destination - Meziadan Lake Prov. Park. It was nice if you like camping in a gravel pit, in 30 degree heat, and a LOT of ants (the big, black, flying kind). We (I) decided that another location would be better so we moved on towards Stewart/Hyder (highway 37a). We checked out Clements Lake Recreation area - even had to put the truck into 4X4 status for that adventure...dad was really quite calm considering! Of course I've skipped another part of the day that had dad's blood pressure up...as we headed up the highway at a sedate 100 km/h I noticed a black bear sow and 2 cubs on the opposite side of the road - not wanting to miss the photo op I did a 2 point turn across double solid yellow lines in a very short straight stretch between two corners...this was repeated later down the road (straight section was longer the second time) so that I would be on the right side the vehicle to take pics! Unfortunately the cubs headed into the grass quickly but mom stayed around to have her picture taken (only one stupid tourist got out of their car to get a closer look)!

Back to our hunt for a place to stay the night. We ended up heading all the way into Stewart and even did a quick drive through Hyder. I'm glad we through in the passports as the Canadian boarder guards was a little snarky! Happy shiny people he was not! Apparently that is a common experience which is really too bad! Hyder was seedy looking - I can understand why Uncle Bill (with Mike & Ray) liked it so much!! We decided to head back to Canada and booked into the Rainy Creek Campground. We planned to stay two nights but I've learned so we only paid for one night at time!