On our way home

We are in Canada now slowly working our way home.  we will stop in Wisconsin for a family reunion of Dick's mother's family.

We are driving south on the Cassiar highway which is a drive through the mountains & wilderness.  It is really beautiful although our visibility is limited as it has been quite rainy.  we are camping in Stewart, Canada and will viisit Hyder, Alaska which is just a couple miles away.  Hyder is like a lost piece of Alaska as it is on the coast and bordered only by Canada.  It is a very small community with dirt roads and looks mostly like a coastal ghost town.  I think its population is 100.  It has one claim to fame and that is Fish Creek.  Black and grizzly bears gather at the creek this time of year to fish for the spawning salmon.  Yesterday we watched a grizzly sow and her cub fish for salmon.  She had to work at it but she did catch a nice size fish!  There are two kinds of salmon in the creek, pink and chum.  The chum are really large and can reach 50 lbs.  When she would get near the fish they would start flipping out of the water.  It was really fascinating to watch.

Her cub was a spring cub, meaning born this spring and just adorable!  he was so cute and small.  He couldn't yet catch fish so he would play with the dead ones - after they spawn they die.  The dead fish were nearly as big as the cub and he had fun wrestling with them!

There are numerous glaciers around here and we will visit some today.  Too bad it is raining again today but oh well.  That's pretty typical for this area.  However it is supposed to be sunny for the next several days after today.  Of course we have to leave tomorrow!