>North to Alaska – 23
>
>July 13, 2007
>
>My butt hurts! Another 400 miles to Hyder, Alaska just see the bears 
>feeding on salmon.  We forgot to order the salmon! They are late this 
>year so no salmon, no bears…oh well.
>
>The trip from Watson Lake to Hyder is primarily on the Casiar Highway. 
>This road is smaller than most of the roads we have been traveling and 
>the forrest is much closer to the road. We watched carefully for 
>animals near the road and all we saw were 4 bear cubs munching on the 
>vegetation close to the road. Each looked  up as I passed but they 
>never ventured into the road. We also saw 4 moose cows. Two were 
>feeding in ponds and the other two were trotting right down the middle 
>of the road. Jim had to stop and wait for them to get out of our way 
>and off of OUR road. As soon as they cleared the tree line they 
disappeared into the forest.
>
>There were two other things that bothered us about this road. First was 
>construction. In the first 200 miles we encountered 50 miles of 
>construction. This construction was a bit more difficult to handle. The 
>gravel was deeper in some places and the large trucks going the other 
>way kicked up dust that was as thick as the thickest fog you can imagine.
>Besides the construction there were frost heaves. Not as severe as 
>those on the upper part of the Alaska Highway but just as disturbing. 
>The last hundred miles though gave us the best roads we have had for 
>the last 2 weeks. What a way to end the day.
>
>The last 40 miles into Hyder was through a valley that had snow capped 
>peaks, hanging glaciers tidal glaciers for our viewing pleasure. The 
>Casiar may not be the best road but the scenery kept us looking all day 
>long. We saw lakes, ponds, meadows, forests, mountains, hills, streams, 
>rivers and nothing else for hundreds of miles at a time. Fuel 
>management was a concern but there seemed to be a gas station every 150 
>miles or so. All in all it was another good day!