Alcan Highway Adventure Day 3: From Co-op Lake to Stewart, this trip is a bear.

Monday, August 1st, 2022

After the triumphant survival of the night of the mosquito, we wake up to an extraordinarily loud alarm, get up, get out of the car, and discover yet another gorgeous vista.
This is Co-op Lake. In Oregon this would be a $20/night camp ground. In BC, for whatever reason, it's free.

I get ready for a run. Pilot insists on joining me. We trot along a dirt road lined with spires of green trees and a dome of blue sky. The air is crisp but not too cold. The ground feels good beneath our feet. We run for 25 minutes together. A record for Pilot, who generally loathes a long run. It doesn't feel like that long, though. Just feels beautiful and free.
We get back to camp and I go about cleaning up the mosquito carnage and getting coffee and road snacks together. Pilot discovers the incredibly entertaining machine-gun-scolding of a chipmunk upon whose turf we have trespassed.

I let him watch the 'munk for a minute but remind him that it's not ok to torment and terrify wild things, especially when they are much smaller than him, and that smaller than him is pretty small.
Pilot listens. Gives the little bugger space. He's got a good heart, that kid.

We hit the road. Highway 16. Destination: Stewart, where there's a room waiting for us at a B&B.

It's fairly warm and partly sunny, but not heatwave hot anymore. Along the way we stop for a short hike on the the Bulkley River Recreation Site Trail, which looks like an old drive-up campground that has long since grown over. It's not at all pleasant to walk on. The trail has been recently mowed, and the dead grass gets stuck in the lining of my socks and in between Pilot's toes. But the nature surrounding is nice.

And the river is pretty.

I try to get Pilot to pose by it but he's convinced I'm going to throw him in. He hams it up next to the daisies and says "that's all you get, bitch."

On the way back he's hot and sick of grass shards so I give his spoiled ass a ride.
I love his spoiled ass so much.
All dogs should be spoiled asses.

We climb into the car and continue our journey.

I pull over to take this shot just to make you jealous. As I do, a pack of bikers rumble by.
Wish you were here, don't you.

We connect with Highway 37 and make a quick detour to into the tiny town of Gitanyow to check out their famous totem poles.

You really need to see them in person to take in their towering presence and the extraordinary artistry and craftsmanship that went into making them, but hopefully this gives you some idea.

Back on the road I get a chance to get a photo of a frothy bear.
It's a quick shot, no time to adjust the settings on the camera. He doesn't like me looking at him, either, and disappears quickly into the woods. I'm not sure why he's so slobbery. Hopefully he's not dehydrated. Nobody likes a dry bear.

I'm thinking that's probably the only bear I'm going to see for the day when, not twenty minutes later, I see a bear-like silhouette up ahead. Some bikers slow down, veer out far onto my side of the road, and ogle. I proceed ahead slowly, eager to ogle myself. As I get closer I question whether I'm seeing a bear or a massive palomino horse grazing on the grass by the road.
It's not a horse.
It's definitely not a horse.
I stop the car, but keep it in drive. I roll down the window and get some pictures. Then I watch her with my own eyes. She looks up at me and grunts, then goes back to grazing. I get sharp tingles. I want to cry. In this instant she's the most beautiful creature on the planet. Fear is there, yes. But reverence, oh reverence, it's so much greater than the fear.

I pull away slowly. I want to linger but I don't want to upset her. I wish I could watch her forever.
But I gotta keep my eyes on the road.

We hit the turnoff for the 37A and I'm reminded of the bigger picture. The journey ahead.

But tonight it's the road to Stewart.

Bear Glacier makes an appearance shortly before we reach town. I pull into the turnout and take her picture.

Then pull out my big ass fancy zoom lens and get some closeups.


Not far down the road I discover a second turnout that makes Bear Glacier look even better. I don't want to stop again, though, so I promise myself to get a good shot on the way out.

We arrive at the B&B House Austria which really is owned and run by Austrians. Either that or the guy who checks me in has perfectly mastered the Austrian accent.

An entire family checks in at the same time. Mom, dad, kids kids kids, aunts, uncles. While the children run and thump and scream and the adults lug in the luggage, I rush to the bathroom and lock myself in and take the greatest shower of my life.

The house is echoey and the walls are thin and the kids are loud and having way too much fun, which sends the secretly sensitive Pilot cowering under the bed. I lure him out with the promises of a walk and make good on that promise.
We walk through this:

Along this:

A raised platform over an estuary.

The ice in my cooler is almost completely melted and I don't realize this until after the one place in this tiny town that sells ice is closed, but the clerk at the King Edward Hotel (who is probably the owner) looks up from his phone long enough to tell me in a Russian accent that I am welcome to take a bag of ice from the cooler on the third floor. To him it's not a big deal. To me it's tremendous.
I fill the cooler with ice and drive down to what I guess is the boat yard. The sun sets early here in Stewart, nestled between its alp-like mountains, but it stays light for hours.

I slurp up a bowl of berries and cream and stare out at the water. I think about the quietness of this town. What life must be like to live here. What makes a person come here and stay, or grow up here and not move away. The peace? The predictability? The beauty? The community?

Not half a mile away is the border. Hyder, Alaska, lies on the other side. I consider checking it out, but it's after 8pm. These aren't big tourist towns. Everything in Hyder will be closed, too.
Maybe I'll go in the morning.
Maybe not.
We'll see what decisions time makes for us.

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Read Day 4

Read Day 2.

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