Southern Cassiar Highway, Stewart BC and Hyder Alaska!

#latergram Let's do this thing! At the bottom of the Cassiar Highway. We'll be on this road for the next week until we hit the Yukon. #Airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #airstreamtoalaska #cassiarhighway

After yet another crappy lakefront lunch/nap stop at Bonus Lake and an even crappier campsite beside Meziadin Lake (neither was crappy, both were spectacular, I'm just trying to make you feel better), we turned down Highway 37A, an offshoot of the Cassiar, for a side trip into Hyder, Alaska, just across the border in the Panhandle from Stewart, Canada. The drive is said to be one of the most scenic in British Columbia, and it got off to a good start when seconds after making the turn, a good sized black bear crossed the road in front of us! #Airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #airstreamtoalaska #britishcolumbia #cassiarhighway

Yeah, this lunch view will do. It's funny how normal these family meals feel, just with a different scene out the window each day. #Airstream #airstreamwithkids #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #bearglacier #britishcolumbia #advodnaxmascard

Hey look kids, a glacier! #childhoodunplugged #airstreamwithkids #bearglacier #roadtrip #heylookkidsaglacier

Not too far down the road from seeing our first bear, we stopped for lunch beside the Bear Glacier. #Airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #airstreamtoalaska #bearglacier #britishcolumbia

So we're sitting there having lunch in the trailer in front of the Bear Glacier, and we start to hear a rumbling. At first, I just assumed it was a big truck coming down the highway, then I thought maybe it was a plane. When I looked out the window, I saw a big chute of snow, ice and maybe some water sliding off a face to the left of the glacier. I grabbed the phone and jumped out the door to catch a bit of the end on video. Our hearts were beating pretty quick after that one! #bearglacier #britishcolumbia #avalanche

Went to Alaska for dinner. There's no border checkpoint leaving Canada and entering Alaska 'cause you can't get anywhere else from Hyder. After driving through the 8 or 10 wood buildings on International St, we stopped in at the Sealaska Inn where the bartender had to stifle a laugh when I asked if she had a recommendation for dinner in town. "Glacier Inn is the only place that serves food this time of year." And for anyone who believes even for a second that our days are all wildlife encounters, cheerful family lunches and scenic vistas, dinner was crying kids, flung silverware, dropped fish sticks, forgotten extra diapers, and beers finished while standing up waiting for the check. That being said, people were very nice and my halibut burger was delicious! On the way back, some guys in a Subaru towing a teardrop camper were getting the full search treatment at the Canadian border checkpoint even tho we'd seen them the night before camped with us in Canada. Glad we decided not to bring the trailer over! #fulltimefamilies #hyder #glacierinn

It's not all exciting. Sometimes you just have to ride to the hardware store to pick up a couple things. Okay, with the possibility of encountering a bear or even a wolf, plus this scenery, it was pretty exciting. #Thule #chariot #marinbikes

Hang on one sec, guys, I'll be right out to talk bikes. We actually did talk for a while about the TransAmerica Trail I rode with a buddy from CA to Colorado and the sections on the way back (including the Alpine Loop in CO and the White Rim Trail in UT) that @advodna_ann and I rode 2-up. (You can find the stories somewhere on my old blog site at http://coydog.com.) These guys were part of a group of about 50 riders doing a certified "Iron Butt" ride and had ridden here from Pittsburgh in 2 1/2 days! #ironbutt #ouch #motorcycletouringforum #mtf

Despite wanting to drive to the end the road beyond Hyder, we couldn't bring ourselves to put the kids back in the car today. Instead, we took a walk on the boardwalk over the estuary, found a nice playground and had *the best* smoked salmon in our lives at the local deli (the owner catches and smokes it himself). Like hundreds (thousands?) before us, we left our names in Sharpie on the exposed beams of the ceiling. #fulltimefamilies #britishcolumbia #stewart #smokedsalmon #advodnaxmascard

Mae enjoying a shirtless bagel at the Temptation Bakery & Deli. I can't say I wasn't tempted to do the same.

Leaving our mark.

Toaster museum closed = Trip ruined.

We got turned back by a rockslide across the road a couple miles before the highest viewpoint (and my motion to spend 30 minutes dragging the larger rocks off the road with our tow strap was summarily denied in light of an impending nap deadline), but we still got an incredible view of the Salmon Glacier 17 miles past Hyder, Alaska this morning. #salmonglacier #hyder

Hey look kids, another glacier! No, it's a different one than the other one. Seriously, just look out the window. The window right next to you. Just turn your head like a little and you'll see it. Okay, now turn your head and take your eyes off the iPad while you're doing it. #childhoodplugged #salmonglacier #butimwatchingIceAge!

We came down from the glacier ready to pack up and get on the road for a 45 minute drive back out to the Cassiar. But since we are literally the only people in this campground that will be packed in July and August when people flock here to see the bears feeding on salmon, and after the Canadian border crossing had botched Mae's first nap, we decided to stay for the afternoon and leave after the next nap (yes, that's how we have to schedule our lives). That sounded like a great excuse to get another Parmesan bagel with house smoked salmon and visit the mark we'd left among the other names of travelers on the rafters of the bakery. Oh, and have people figured out our blog name by now? We've heard it pronounced just about every way but to us, it's just a shortened version of "Adventures of Dave and Ann." ADV - O (like of) - D 'n' A! #notgoodatbranding #ordrawing #whygetashirtdirty #babylife

We came down from the glacier ready to pack up and get on the road for a 45 minute drive back out to the Cassiar. But since we are literally the only people in this campground that will be packed in July and August when people flock here to see the bears feeding on salmon, and after the Canadian border crossing had botched Mae's first nap, we decided to stay for the afternoon and leave after the next nap (yes, that's how we have to schedule our lives). That sounded like a great excuse to get another Parmesan bagel with house smoked salmon and visit the mark we'd left among the other names of travelers on the rafters of the bakery. Oh, and have people figured out our blog name by now? We've heard it pronounced just about every way but to us, it's just a shortened version of "Adventures of Dave and Ann." ADV - O (like of) - D 'n' A! #notgoodatbranding #ordrawing #whygetashirtdirty #babylife