Hyder Alaska

Gasless in Alaska

 in Alaska  tagged Alaskan Highway / Alcan Highway / bears / Hyder Alaska / Meziadin Junction / Milepost / travel by

Along the Alaskan Highway gas stations are crucial stepping stones.  Travelers–especially RVers–who leap, then look, are apt to end up hitchhiking in hungry bear territory.  Steve did his homework and plotted every gas stop along our route before we left home.  Milepost, the guide to negotiating Alcan, kept us comfortably fueled until we’d almost reached Alaska’s southernmost highway stop, about 40 miles from our intended Hyder camp spot.  At Meziadin Junction we pulled into a lonely gas station and found it closed–as in vacant.  Our fuel-mileage-estimator showed no hope for making Hyder with our camper…but the pickup, unhitched, had a chance of getting close. Leaving the trailer mid-nowhere […]

Wanna Meet a Bear?

 in Alaska / Wildlife/animals  tagged bears / British Columbia / Hyder Alaska by

In 56 years a Coloradan, I never saw a bear in the wild.  That changed in a hurry when we set out for Alaska by way of British Columbia.  In two months I went from zero to 18.  A longer stay in Hyder promised more interesting encounters.  According to a local, there was a bear trail through the middle of town, and bears sometimes stopped cars to lick smashed bugs off the license plates.  We walked a boardwalk along a stream where we would have seen bears fishing–almost close enough to touch–if the salmon had been running, but our timing was off there too.  I don’t know why Steve […]