8-10-2010

8-7-2010
Another cruise ship pulled into port overnight. For the past couple of days only one ship has been in port each day. The town of Skagway was busy but not like when there were three cruise ships in port the day we arrived.
We left Skagway at about 9:30 in the morning and made it to the Swift River pullout. This is the same pullout we stayed at on the way up to AK and washed our rigs using the river water. Six other rigs also spent the night at the pullout. Three rigs were from Europe.
We asked about the Cassiar Hwy 37 road closure due to fires. One of the campers had come through the area and said escort cars were used to guide traffic through and the time was 11:00AM for south bound traffic from the Hwy 37 Jct.

8-8-2010
We got up by 7:00AM and were on the road not long after 8:00AM. It was a good thing we were out early. When we got to the Hwy 37 Jct. heading down the Cassiar there was a line of about 75 vehicles mostly RVs. We able to fuel up at the station on the corner and get back down the road to the end of the line. The road block was lifted at about 9:45, about 30 minutes after we arrived. The pilot car guided us for about 12 miles through the smoke and then we were on our own.
The Cassiar was in pretty good shape. We may have been on only about 10 miles of gravel off and on. It has been a far sight better than what we expected and the other roads we were on in Canada and AK. The Alaska Hwy through Canada and Alaska was much worse.
Tonight we are at a large gravel pullout at mile marker 330 K/M, 244 miles from south of the Alaska Hwy on the Cassiar Hwy. The pullout is on the west side of the hwy next to a creek just north of a brake check pullout. From this point south there were several good gravel pullouts to spend the night.

8-9-2010
We arrived at Camp Run-A-Much in Hyder, AK at lunch time. Hyder is an interesting place to visit. Not much here. Fuel and groceries are to be had in the neighboring Canadian town of Stewart. The trip here is worth it. There are several glaciers and scenic mountains along the road leading here.
In the afternoon we took a trip three miles up the road to view the bear viewing area to watch them catch salmon. We saw only one bear and he was not all that active. We were told they were very busy catching fish in the morning.