the book. Our only stop was in Whitehorse where we ate some dinner and got some supplies at Walmart. We continued driving and made our bed for the evening in Watson Lake at the same hotel where we bought a room at during our northward journey, only this time sleeping in the parking lot. The next morning we 
headed to the signpost forest again, this time armed with supplies. We had picked up nails and paint at Walmart the day before in order to make our mark in the forest. We had decided to use an old disc of mine as our sign, paint it, then nail it into the signpost forest, and that is just what we did. Katie
took creative responsibility and came up with the design and color scheme while I was the brawn behind the operation and nailed my newly painted disc into its final home. We, of course, shamelessly plugged our blog on our disc. PS - not to brag or anything, but we are currently over 2600 views!!!! Thanks everyone :) Anyway, after making our addition to the signpost forest, we backtracked a few miles and headed down the Cassiar Highway. This was a particularly neat stretch of road since it was recently on fire. The first time we passed through Watson Lake, all of the hotels were booked because no one could drive down the Cassiar due to the wild fires. By now, the fires had stopped, but the damage was evident all around us. We didn't even realize this as the same fire until about half way down the road. Our trusty guide, the Milepost, has every wildfire listed in it, and as we drove through the area, it didn't mention anything. We were perplexed at first but quickly made the connection that the reason for its absence was that it had just occurred! We had another beautiful, cloudless day full of driving. We had decided earlier that we would be heading to a town called Hyder, Alaska in the Inside Passage. There are only two cities that are accessible by road into the Inside Passage, the southernmost being Hyder, right on the bottom edge. The Canadian equivalent of this town is Stewart. The only way to reach either of these towns is by traveling down a 40 mile access road; one way in, one way out. The towns are very small and have a combined population of 700 people. When you cross the border into Hyder you don't even have to go through customs because there is no where for you to go but right back out. There is however a state park on the outskirts of town and this was our destination for the day. We found out from the Milepost that there was is a river there that the salmon spawn in, thus attracting many bears during their runs. This was an added bonus since our original plan was just to visit Hyder to say that we made it to the Inside Passage; we had no idea there was even a reason to visit the town. On our way down the road toward Hyder we saw our first bears in
about a week, which we took as a good sign. It was a momma black bear with 2 cubs. She stood up and looked at us a few times which gave us the perfect opportunity to see the beautiful white spot on her chest. A bit further down the road we spotted a wolf standing right in the middle of the road! This sight almost caused the car in front of us to get in an accident, but a few skid marks later, both cars were safely on the side of the road, rattled, and looking back to spot the wolf, which had run off into the woods moments after we pulled up. After these two encounters and some amazing views of mountains, glaciers, and waterfalls along the roadside, we made it into Hyder and pulled into the state park. We had read in the Milepost that we had missed the season by about a week, but we figured since we were there already we would just check it out and see if there was anything to see. We got out onto the viewing platform and noticed about 5 people with huge telescopic lenses standing around talking. We took this as a sign there were no bears. We walked around a bit, up and down the boardwalk but there was nothing. We could see many dead fish, bone fragments from eaten ones, and about 20 still swimming up and down the stream. Slightly disheartened, we decided that we would walk down the road, where Katie thought that she heard something. Our walk proved to be fruitless and when we reached the next parking lot we decided to take the boardwalk back that connected the two parking lots, check if the band of photographers had moved at all, then leave. It was about halfway down the boardwalk that I spotted a black bear
just sitting in the water! He was just sitting there staring at the water. There were no fish nearby that I could see and apparently
he came to that realization soon as well. He began drinking water and scratching his face, then walked across the river right toward us and went into the bushes, emerging moments later with a huge dead salmon. We watched him carry it for a bit down the river until he found a spot to climb out. He then hid in the bushes to eat. Though we couldn't see him, we could hear the periodic bone crushing sounds as he ate. We decided to move on and come back later to see if he had finished his appetizer and was trying to catch a real meal. We went back to the main viewing platform and noticed that no one was there. Upon further inspection, we saw everyone piled down at the far end of the boardwalk, obviously a bear had popped up there as
well. We walked quickly and quietly down but when we approached there was no bear in sight. Apparently a mom and cub had came out briefly and rushed back into the woods. We waited about 5 minutes and had just decided to go, when I spotted the mom coming out of the woods, followed quickly by the cub. They
were brown bears and much bigger than the black bear we had just seen. The moved into a clearing and we watched them play together for about 10 minutes before they began to walk up the river, right at us, to do some fishing. They weren't that good at fishing though and usually the fish swam frantically away long before the bears reached them.
They ended up settling for some dead ones which we watched them eat, then move up the river, under the bridge, and beyond our view. In total we watched them for about a half hour and saw them fish / walk the entire length
of the boardwalk and more, probably a half a mile in total. It was a great find and we were completely satisfied with our trip to the Inside Passage. As an added bonus, right as we left the park there was another black bear perched on a ledge right next to the highway! We were amazed at his unique location was and watched him for a little bit before moving on. We pulled
up to the border, a one lane crossing manned by 2 customs agents, and were almost immediately pulled over. The agent asked where we were from, Katie and I both responded Chicago. He walked to the back of the car and noticed the Michigan plates, and without further questions regarding it had made up his mind. We pulled off and were forced to stand in the cold for about a half hour while our car was searched. After they finished inspecting our car and both of our jaws were chattering, the agent approached us and said "Welcome to Canada" as if we should be honored to get by him. Now, in all my time going back and forth between the cottage, I have been pulled over countless times, so it does not bother me to be pulled over, nor do I begrudge them for doing their job. What I don't understand about this particular crossing is why would anyone who would be in any way questionable for crossing the border, actually cross into this 100 person town that is literally a dead end, only to cross the border again? It doesn't make sense, and I am sure that the customs agents realize this, but since they occupy such a desolate post, must get bored, taking joy in searching cars if only to pass the time. Anyway, we got back into Canada and headed back up the access road to its junction with the Cassiar. It was dark by now and we drove for a bit until we found a town large enough to have a hotel or two in it and bedded down in the parking lot for night.
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