17.-23.09.2007: Campbell Highway - Cassiar Highway - Stewart/Hyder We spent virtually the whole day at the campground tidying up and Kirsten cut Helen's hair which badly needed doing. We left at 5pm and drove to Ross River to fill up with petrol and it was a lot cheaper than we had expected. But it took us a while to work out the pump and payment system as there was no one around! We drove just a few miles out of Ross River looking for a rest area at Coffee Lake but ended up driving down a private drive and the owner came out thinking we were their friends! They were from Germany and we ended up becoming good friends! We were invited in for tea and cake and spent hours chatting. By 1-30 am we just re-parked Winnie and then went over for breakfast the next morning. We got a tour of the land and the house and had fun chasing off the two Alaska Eskimo dogs that were determined to pee on our tyres!! Helen managed to feed the local Whiskey Jacks who nest in one of the trees. They flew onto her hand where she was holding food for them. Then we were given some wonderful home grown potatoes and spring onions and didn't leave until 4pm. We continued along the Campbell Highway and the first stretch was really bad. It rained and Winnie got really dirty from the gravel/mud road. At least the autumn colours were out in abundance. We managed to do quite a few miles the next day but hit snow on the way to Watson Lake. It was definitely time for us to head south. We took the Cassiar Highway which leads south for 450 miles. We stopped at Jade City where we found out that 85% of the world's jade comes from this area. It is then shipped to China where it is cut and made into various items, including jewellery and is shipped back over to Canada and other places in the world to be sold. We even saw some souvenirs in the shape of medals that have been made for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Unfortunately they weren't for sale! It was a long drive south and we hit very cold weather with sleet and snow. It would have been very scenic! On Saturday we turned off the Cassiar to head into Stewart and went past Bear Glacier. We also saw a black bear on the way. We stopped at the Canadian customs and asked if we were allowed to go over to Hyder which is in the US but seeing as there were no US customs here, there wasn't a problem. We drove up a scenic gravel road to Salmon Glacier which has a wonderful parking area so that you can look down on the whole glacier. Quite a view! So we cooked a meal so that we could spend time admiring the scenery. On the way back, we stopped at Fish Creek and spent about an hour watching a Grizzly going after salmon. There is a boardwalk and viewing platform which meant that we could really close to the bears without having to be worried. In fact the one Grizzly that was there, walked straight underneath the boardwalk and we were standing within a few feet of it! We watched as the bear wandered up the creek looking for unsuspecting salmon. It pounced, but the salmon aren't stupid. One salmon actually jumped out of the water to get away! It was dark by the time we returned to the Canadian customs and were let back in to Stewart without any problems. We stopped at a municipal campground for the night. It was actually closed for the season but there was no gate so we just found a spot. The next day we got a take out pizza and then drove back onto the Cassiar Highway where we saw lots of black bears (see Video-Clip). Unfortunately we also saw a dead bear lying on the side of the road.