Stewart, B.C and Hyder, AK

First, allow me to introduce you to my new Subaru, which was purchased expressly to aid me in my Alaskan adventure.  As the Subaru is made for roughing it, I hope to feature it in a glamor-shot or two over the next year.

We left Houston, B.C. in the late morning, continuing along to Stewart, B.C. ("Where the Bears Are!") and its sister city Hyder, Alaska, (http://www.stewart-hyder.com/).  Immediately after turning left onto 37A, we learned that Stewart is indeed where the bears are, as we saw two roaming around on the side of the highway.  Having the first bear-sighting out of the way, we stopped at amazing Bear Glacier to take some pics of the Subaru in front of a natural wonder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Glacier_Provincial_Park).

After checking in at our hotel, we drove over the border to Hyder, Alaska.  After breathing a sigh of relief to be back on American soil, we quickly realized that, at least in these parts, Canadians take much better care of their roads.  See above for a picture of a pothole so deep than an orange street cone rested comfortably inside of it.

In Hyder, we stopped at Fish Creek, a national park with a bear-viewing observation deck set up over a salmon-filled river.  Although we were met by a couple grumbling about waiting two hours and seeing nothing, we managed to catch two feeding bears (and snap some pictures of the less fortunate salmon in the area).

After making it past the least friendly custom's official I have ever encountered (although he was a bit of a Sam Harris look-alike, so that helped), we stopped for dinner at the Bitter Creek Cafe (http://bittercreek.homestead.com/), where I had my first salmon of the trip (and although my hopes were high, I was not disappointed).  My companion, perhaps regretting his dislike of seafood, opted for the fajitas.  They were, much to my surprise, not terrible.

Given that we had a kitchenette that evening, and given that it was 50 degrees and rainy (which, incidentally, is pretty common weather for Anchorage in the "spring" and "fall"), we stayed in that evening and made s'mores.  (And watched this, which is worth a viewing, in my opinion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Kid_Could_Paint_That.)

This morning, we once again left a bit late, although our timing was perfect: we saw eight bears (five of which were cubs!) on our drive to Dease Lake, B.C. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dease_Lake,_British_Columbia).  The roads leading here aren't too well-paved, and the landscape has become a bit more forlorn (and a bit less Jurassic Park . . . I swear they could have filmed that movie in some of the places we've seen), but I'm excited to eat dinner at the Tanzilla Pub tonight after a walk around Allan Lake.