Acadia National Park

Getting reservations for any campground in Acadia national park is difficult so we stayed in the state park for two days to start our experience.  After a nice lunch in a pullout near the harbor, we set up camp at the state park.  It was hot and humid, for Maine.  Our corner site was not very level but we made due.  We hopped in the jeep and drove straight to the beach.  The familiar red cabbage head jellyfish were plentiful.  As the sun set we headed home for a night of Ally McBeal, we brought the entire series on DVD.  These are my TV addiction medication.  

After several phone calls, the next day, our mail was located.  Kathy's mom had bundled our mail and sent it to us.  We headed into Ba HaBa or Bar Harbor to pick up mail and found a great Thai tea and coffee shop.  Then we were off to drive Acadia Loop.  Beautiful scenery hidden amongst fog and throngs of people.  We drove all the way up  Cadillac Mountain and got more Acadia stamps for Kathy's book National Parks Book.  Cadillac Mountain was a fog fest!  It rolled it heavy as we approached the crest.  At the top, the fog was thicker than pea soup!  Visibility was less than twenty feet.  The drive down was much slower as we feared cars that had pulled off into turn-outs would pull out in front of us.  

At the bottom, the fog was gone.  Hunger called.  We found the Chartroom, as per our locals recommendation from the Mexican restaurant up north, and feasted on lobster.  

Check out from the State Park was accented with a bike crash.  I backed the Jeep into a tree with the bikes on the back.   Kathy was upset mostly because I bent her rim.  Off to KOA for LP.  The nice guy filling our LP told us fellow work campers about corporate KOA jobs. Apparently, they offer great benefits.  A few minutes down the road, we joined the line for camping registration at Seawall Campground, the western park in Acadia.  

The campground was large and full even with no electricity.  It's alway interesting walking around and looking at other rigs.  The most memorable this time was a small class B. They set up behind us across the narrow road.  When they open the door out jumps two large white dogs.  Yes, two Great Pyraness and two adults in a large van!  

After our snooping around walk, we drove to many of the Acadia sights, Echo Lake, Seal Cove, Bass Harbor lighthouse.  Beauty at every turn but we were somewhat let down.  We decided our mistake was visiting Alaska first.  

We followed another recommendation and had dinner at the Seafood Street Diner.  It was pricy but flavors were spot on.  Upscale progressive dining and cocktails.  We recommend it too!  

On the way home, we stopped and watched the tide come in.  We sat on the rocks for an hour or so.  I enjoyed searching tide pools for starfish and crabs, picking at shiny rocks and watching seagulls of every variety.  We watched ducks swim in the ocean, yes finally, the real Atlantic Ocean.

Our evening entertainment the Ranger Todd show.  The program was about the sounds of the area.  Todd entertained us with his "twin" brother Ted (really just Todd) singing corny renditions of recognizable tunes. The walk home was in the real dark.  With only a disposable flashlight obtained from the Wisconsin Lumberjack competitions, and solar powered path lights we walked cautiously home.

The next day we had errands to do in town.  We found a laundry mat and tried to charge our computers, iPads and iPhones.  We bought groceries at the expensive town market and pharmacy.  Back to the seashore, the pounding surf, and a call with a job offer for next summer in South Dakota working at a motel. We discussed returning to Alaska, for a winter, well Kathy did.

Dinner on the open grate fire pit of steak and hobo potatoes we celebrated our last night in Acadia.  Finally, a flicker of our lights, our house batteries had dropped because we hadn't  used the generator for over five days.  We learned what our new limits of our batteries.  I finished reading Walking My Dog, Jane and decided, Alaska here we come!  Well, not quite yet.  

 

 

 

Side Trip

Hyder is the easternmost town in Alaska accessible via road through Stewart BC.  Stewart, British Columbia, is 2 miles away by road via International Street. No other roads connect Hyder with the rest of Alaska. A Canada Border Services Agency customs post is located 100 yards from the town and used by all visitors and residents as it is the only road out of Hyder.

Gold and silver mining dominated the early economy. Hyder, Alaska boomed with the discovery of rich silver veins in 1918. Hyder became an access and supply point for the mines, while Stewart served as the port for Canadian mining activity, which was centred on the town of Premier, 14 miles past Hyder.  In the late 1950s, Granduc Mining Co. near Premier drove the world's largest one-end tunnel 11 miles to the Leduc Copper ore body. A large avalanche killed 28 men on February 18, 1965 when a snow slide hit the mine camp. Although this community has suffered from loss it bounced back as mining is again an active endeavor.

Fourteen miles north of Hyder, beyond where the pavement ends, is where the Grand Duc mine and Salmon Glacier are located.  The unpaved portion is washboard and you have to dodge some potholes, but clearance is not a problem. This is the only place in the Western Hemisphere where you can drive to a point above a massive glacier and look down on it. It's actually in BC, Canada, but you have to drive from Hyder, AK, to get there.

We made the drive from Hyder to the Gran Duc mine in the jeep.  The glacial views are truly spectacular as you progress up the mountain.  Eventually, you get high enough that you can look down on the moraine and up to the top. It is almost as good as flying over a glacier like Kathy did in the Alaskan interior.  The debris field represented by the moraine is very well defined and has a lot of character. It took us eight hours up and back as we kept stopping to view the different scenery. There is a lot more to see than just the Salmon Glacier, as there are several other smaller glaciers and numerous waterfalls.

 

Back towards town is the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site.  Fish creek bear watching area is on Fish Creek, a spawning ground for some of the world's largest chum salmon, and is therefore very popular with the local bear.  We paid our entrance fee and watched the salmon swim and many die as this was the end of their journey after laying their eggs.  The only bear we saw here was one crossing the road before as we drove into the parking area.

We enjoyed shopping at the Boundary Gifts shop that sold homemade fudge and soaps. Behind the counter, Joy noticed several beautiful dulcimers.  The owner told us how her deceased husband had an ear for wood and how these dulcimers were made.  He could knock on trees and identify if the pitch and tone were good enough for instruments.  He had even sold trees to Martin guitars.  She played a few tunes for us and the moment was truly magical.

We also had dinner at a bar in Stewart.  The decor was interesting enough to to note.  The walls were covered with both Canadian, US, and other foreign currency, some with personal notes.  Also there is a rug with President Kennedy's picture on it hung on the wall.  The waitress was too busy to ask questions so we note it here for you to help us understand these choices.

We stayed at the Bear River RV park.  It was clean but the showers were pay showers and the wi-fi cost money after the first 1 mb.  We couldn't even check our email.  Besides we were ready to get back home to the lower forty-eight.

Back Through BC

Hwy 16 eastward from the Cassiar Hwy quickly gave indication that we were back in civilization by forcing us to share the road with speeders, semi-trucks, and unfriendly drivers.  Fortunately, the highway slowly evolved into farmland slopes, rivers with salmon and bear and humans fishing for those salmon. We never realized how much fishing is available in BC so far inland.

Trucks hauling timber to lumber mills is the number one source of the BC economy, with mining being a close second.  Communities appeared to support each other as Mennonite church members stood with striking school teachers.  Many small BC communities still hadn't gone back to school in mid September because of the teacher strike.   The small farms and ranches were preparing for winter as farmers covered hay bales and removed crops from their fields.

Our journey northward and now southward had been guided by the popular reference guide, The Milepost.  However, this book failed to represent hwy 16 adequately.  We looked for rest areas, as they were not cited in the book.  The kilometer posts were not numbered in alignment with real signposts and even the craziest math didn't help us figure out where the hell we were.  The book also excluded the native villages along the route entirely.

The highway itself is in good to excellent shape - especially when compared to the widened goat trails of the Yukon, but compared to roads of the US we still found them lacking basic amenities that would help us and others.  Often, there were no signs indicating rest areas or turn outs until we were on top of them.  Don't know if you've ever tried to stop a 31 ft fully loaded motor home towing a Jeep on a dime - but trust us, it doesn't happen.  

Being back in farmland made the drive somewhat boring without mountain views but it had been a while since we had seen horses, cattle, sheep, lamas, goats, and pigs so we enjoyed seeing familiar mammals again. As we drove east, the mountains disappeared from our line of sight several times but the calm lakes and streams allowed for some good photo opportunities.  Some communities had local radios and tv stations but we opted to listen to free Sirius XM radio during their fall promotion.  As we neared Prince George, the road widened and traffic increased.  City buses and traffic lights, a casino and a health food store told us that this was almost a real "city."  We turned south onto the Caribou highway just before crossing the city limits.

We looked for the community called Cinema, a location with a store and free camping.  Somehow we missed it and ended up at Canyon Creek RV park.  The park's beautiful setting, friendly owners, and a nature trail were nice but the facilities were old and the noise from the highway was constant.

We departed late the next day and got on the road to find groceries in Quesnel.  After driving in circles around downtown trying to find a store whose parking lot was large enough for us, we settled on a store near Wal-mart.  We used our own shopping bags was our cart in the store and this apparently became an issue during checkout as we had used our own shopping bag instead of a cart. The crotchety cashier was not certain we had emptied our bag and insisted on looking in both bags twice to ensure we had emptied them.  Accused of shoplifting by a rude Canadian!  Did we really look like we were trying to steal a block of cheese?  By this time we had had our fill of Canada and couldn't wait to get back to the good ol' US of A - faults and all.

A little farther down the road we stopped at Gold Trail RV park.  It advertised itself as an Escapees Club resort but trust us, this was no resort!  When Joy confronted the manager about the condition of the restroom and the fact that the campground was not currently an Escapees Club, he was rude and actually sexually harassed her by calling her a bitch.  He justified his behavior as only joking but is an absolute moron! He provided yet another reason we aren't too fond of our neighbors to the north.  Luckily, this would be our last night in Canada and we were looking forward to crossing into Washington and seeing friends and family.