Sam And Saundra's Year Long Adventure - Part 165

Sam And Saundra’s Year Long Adventure – Part 165

Alaska

8/13/09-8/15/09 – Hyder, Alaska

Hyder, Alaska.  The most northern city that we have been to on this adventure has been Fairbanks, Alaska.  Hyder just feels like it is further away. It not only is surrounded by Canada and water, it has no other visible connections with the US.  It officially states that it has a population of 100. We have it on good, local, authority that there are only about 65 people that spend the entire winter there.  Hyder received approximately 24 feet of snow this very last winter.  The winter before, it was over twice that much.  I asked our local source, Tom, what do people do when it snows that much.  He told me that they stay indoors.  People take all non-winter time to prepare for winter.  Food, fuel and activities to keep them busy and alive while snow bound, must be hoarded during the good weather.  Hyder has several places for sale, but even though things are very rustic – the prices of property seem outlandish.  You check it out.  The oil stipend and the freedom to harvest nature’s bounty is a part of it. 

Fox?

We missed some of the advertised activity in Hyder.  We did not stroll though the toaster museum, or check out the Boundary Gallery & Gifts.  We did stop at the local grocery and the owner/clerk told us that unless we have weapons, there were no safe places to fish in the area.  He also sold us tickets to park and sit at the Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing Area.  People come from all over the world to view the bears at this area. We went on a drive to view Salmon Glacier. To get there we drove pretty close to straight up from Hyder.  Although advertised, we found no charters to take us out on the Portland Canal.  There are about four good restaurants, but we did not try any after The Bus.  The food was good, but took a while.  Costs are pretty high and I assume it is due to being in a very ‘inaccessible wilderness’ area. We drove back to Stewart (population 699) to buy some groceries, as their grocery store was larger.  We only bought what we absolutely needed, but it was still very spendy. Expensive this area may be - but beauty and bears it has!!  

Beaver

 Hyder is in Alaska and therefore the official time in Hyder is one hour different from the Pacific time kept in British Columbia.  Hyder unofficially keeps Pacific time right along with the Canadians. The nights are beginning to have some substantial darkness, and the weather can get downright brrrrr. 

Camp Run-A-Muck Office