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BC Railways Adventure Ride and to Alaska

7/9 Day 8: Ride Destination: Stewart

Day 7 started out much better. The rain had stopped but we woke up to a 1.8 degrees C temperature. That’s almost freezing. It was so cold so we got dressed in all our rain attire yet again to ensure warmth and be safe in case any rain came along during the day. We saw another bear and it was walking around eating while we were taking pictures.

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We made our last gas stop at an indian village called the Gitanyow Indian Reserve. They had a long history of Totem Poles

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The route into Steward is fantastic:

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We rode all the way to Stewart BC and tons of people along the way have asked if we were going to get Hyderized. (This as we heard from people, is where you go to a local bar and you get a shot of grain alcohol. If you can keep it down you get a certificate and you have officially been hyderized. If not you must buy an entire round of drinks for the bar. You sign the bill and put it up on the wall of shame.) A fun little tid bit, but no I did not partake in such activities. As we drove the last 30 miles into Stewart the mountains were absolutely gorgeous. The mountain tops are snow covered with waterfalls flowing down the mountain side. Some are even covered in beautiful glaciers.

Made it to Stewart and had dinner at the Silverado Cafe:

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Missy had the Pizza:

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After Dinner we stopped and talked to a group of riders working on a BMW F800GS. It seems they parked the bike and went in for lunch then when they came out the bike would not start. This was a group of 3 couples from New Zealand. They had shipped their bikes to the states and were all doing a vacation to Alaska. They had been working on the bike for several hours and it seemed as if it was getting no fuel. I took a look and agreed that it looked like for some reason the bike had decided not to feed fuel.

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The only help they could get was to hire a truck to take them and the bike to where? The nearest BMW dealer was 1000 miles away in Vancouver. Wow their dream trip to Alaska had been ruined. Latter I would learn that it was a defective Fuel Pump that BMW had known about. In the USA BMW was forced to do a recall, but in the other countries BMW did not do that. So these people were left on their own. It totally ruined their vacation. It seems like BMW was more interested in themselves then their customers. Wow BMW Bad!

The day ended at the Ripley Creek Inn

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Complete with Chicken just running around the place.

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Went to bed starting to worry about my own BMW. That kind of thing can't happen to a BMW HP2 right?

Missy could always save me on the Kawasaki!

Upcoming BC Railways Ride 2013 join us
 
Sunday 7/10 Day 9: Hyder Alaska now! GLACIERS

Today was by far the most beautiful day of the entire trip. We went into Alaska and saw some spectacular glaciers. In the morning we woke up and got ready for the day. The days plan was to go into Hyder, Alaska and see grizzly bears at an outlook spot and also view the three huge glaciers that covered the mountainsides. We headed from Steward BC into the small ghost town that was Hyder.

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We rode to the grizzly outlook but to our disappointment we saw no grizzlies. The Ranger said we were a week too early.

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We could not see any Salmon in the river.

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The Visitors center had the only grizzly that we would see.

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We traveled on up the 30 mile trail to the glaciers. They were absolutely amazing. I can’t even describe how beautiful they were. If you have never been to see one, I highly recommend it. By far the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life!

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Missy keeps saying: Dad this is awesome, this is the best thing I have ever seen in my whole life!

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We came across this sign, and of course Missy said, Dad lets go see. So we continued, right what could go wrong?

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This does not mean us, we came a long ways to get here, no turning back now.

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Turned out to not be too much, just more cool stuff

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On the way back we came across these structures, we were not sure what they were for. We think that this is where you hide from Grizzlies or maybe you pitch your tent on it. But it seemed really hard to get on.

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That was it for us, time to say good by to Alaska

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We went back down the trail and crossed the border back into Canada and stopped for lunch at a small restaurant in town. Our day was officially done but we decided to keep riding and take some miles off tomorrows ride.

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Saw another Black Bear, no big deal to us now.

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So we rode about another 150 miles and are spending the night at a cute little motel in Terrence.

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Great Day!

Upcoming BC Railways Ride 2013 join us
 
Awesomeness!!! :clap:

It brings a tear to my eye just thinking about going on an adventure like this with my young daughter one day.
 
Now that I've killed this afternoon reading this one, THEN going over to read the ADV ride report on last years ride, I have to say a return trip needs to be in my future.

Thx for re-stoking the interest!

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Fantastic is the only word I can say. Thanks for sharing this father / daughter trip. Some more of Canada and a trip to Alaska is still on my bucket list. As old as I'm getting, I'd better hurry. ;-)
 
Thanks for posting a great story and pictures. Now my wife is ready to take a two wheeled trip.
 
WOW, what a terrific adventure and a terriffic young daughter to enjoy it with. An adventure that she will remember the rest of her life. Congratulations. BTW Love the pic of her grinning through the bug covered facesheild. classic!
 
found this report following the link from a banner pic. great write up of an awesome trip.

i wonder how these folks are doing now?

I do the same thing. I like that the banner images link back to ride reports.
 
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