July 30, 2018
Left fairly early this morning, but stopped a short distance from the campgrounds at Soldiers Summit.
This was the location where the south and north sections of the Alaskan Highway met here and opened the road on the 20th of November, 1942. The completion of the highway from Dawson Creek, BC to Big Delta, Alaska was accomplished in under ten months … what an amazing feat.
Just a little further down the road was an old log cabin and a cross on a hill. The cross enscription was: Alaxander Clark Fisher 1870 January 1941. I don’t know what the story is about this but I am definitely going to research it.
Crossing the bridge, just a short distance from the cabin, was where the old highway joined onto the new one. I decided to take a little hike up this road. At the gate there was a sign that read, “It’s berry season: bear encounters are likely.”
In just one kilometre I observed many signs of skat and bear barf. There was not much of a clearing, so this was not a good place to hike and encounter a bear. It would also be difficult to photograph a bear here as well.
Continuing my drive to Haines, I stopped at a few spots to take some mountainscape shots … so majestic.
As I continued on, I came to Kathleen Lake and remember reading about it. I decided I better check it out. Well, it was absolutely beautiful here. Emerald green lake with mountains in the background. You can also camp here.
Continued to make some stops along the way and got a few nice photo’s of the mountains and flowers. Just a gorgeous drive.
Crossed the border and made my way to Haines. I stopped at the information center and she gave me one map and indicated a couple places I could go to camp. The first one she indicated that there are many bear sitings at … and I indicated that was what I was looking for. HaHaHa. The look on her face, and she tried to discourage me from camping here and just go during the day. I thanked her and made my way to the campgrounds. It turned out there were quite a few tents in this campgrounds so not as big a concern as she had indicated.
After setting up, I prepared a very lovely meal ... steak, mashed potatoes, green beans and mushrooms. Oh my, it was more than my stomach could handle ... so tasty! :)
After such a meal, I drove along the river to see if there were any good spots to watch for bears. I got my camera gear ready and went to the river. I talked to a couple of fishermen who indicated that they had seen a couple bear that day at different spots along the river. While waiting for about half an hour, I saw movement way up the river. I ran up to the spot and just caught a shot of one of the three grizzly bear cubs before they headed into the bush.
Oh well, I will be trying to find them again tomorrow. Believe it or not, hunting for bear with a camera is a lot of fun.