Camping out....
This has been discussed at past THING-FEST's and SPC and I first thought of this on the '03 Trip; How about spending a night actually camped out up at 'the site' amidst the burned remains of the Outpost?? An hour drive up the old mining road, surrounded by mountains and the glacier, the sun falling behind snow capped peaks, tents around a fire, a bottle of J&B passed around...and the ghosts of Childs and MacReady lurking in every shadow... Could it get any better? This would be pretty damn cool. We saw people camped out just down the road by the Salmon Glacier look-out, so you can over-night it up there. I just hope the bugs would be more of an issue than the bears......... Mountains seen behind the camp on the 2003 Trip. Photo taken at the fuel dump (about where Bennings was torched) looking south-west. T

That sounds like an excellent idea Todd. If everyone listed goes, trust me, bears won't be a problem. They won't dare come into a large group vicinity such as ours thanks to previous and many experiences of camping in the North. Not only cheaper, but much more aesthetically pleasing.

This guy here... ... is not a THE THING fan, but he finds humans pretty tasty.

Hey A.R., Great to see you stopping in! I doubt the bears will be an issue with camping overnight on "the site" Outpost #31 Ground Zero. However, I am serious, there are LOTS of bears around there. We saw 'em..a park ranger yelled at SPC, Moon, and I for walking up the road and not staying on a specially designed bear barrier walkway. When you come through Hyder and are heading up the mining road there is a bear viewing platform/area (Fish Creek) where you can watch the bears feeding off salmon in the river. (August is also when the salmon are in the rivers to spawn and there are bears everywhere...) Stewart, B.C. is one of the bear viewing capitols of the world. http://www.nbctourism.com/categories/bear_viewing Stewart, B.C., and Hyder, Alaska are also prime stops for wildlife viewing. Shuttles are available to famous Fish Creek in the Salmon River Valley. The carefully positioned observation area allows visitors to watch and photograph grizzly and black bears fish for salmon and chum. Bald eagles are also attracted to the plentiful supply of salmon. Canadian geese, harlequin ducks, mink, beaver and a wide range of songbirds are also common. Fish Creek (Hyder, Alaska) The Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site is just a five-minute drive from Hyder, Alaska, southeast Alaska's only road-accessible community. An elevated viewing platform along the bank of Fish Creek ensures a safe separation between people and bears. These animals come to fish for salmon in the creek's clear, shallow waters and must remain undisturbed in their natural habitat. You'll hear the many songbirds in the area and see a host of other wildlife, such as nesting Canada Geese, Harlequin Ducks, Common Mergansers, Mink, Beavers and Bald Eagles. Wolves are also known to visit the creek for the salmon.The observation site is located off Highway 37A, adjacent to Stewart, BC. I don't think bears will pose a problem with a group of us camped out further up the mountain well past the river. However, this is something I will definitely look into before we decide to pitch tents and spend the night. Any problems of any kind up there and it is a 45 min. drive back down a winding dirt road cut into the mountain side and the Salmon River Valley drops thousands of feet on the west. There are no guardrails or stuff like that up there and more than a handful of unlucky souls have gone over the side... Boy, this trip sounds more fun by the minute, eh? :wink: T

Well, if we keep all the food in something seperate outside of our tents, they'll at least probably just fish through all that stuff and leave us in the tents alone... hopefully. Or else I'll just have to use my special connection with nature's creatures to communicate.

Yeah... You're not worried Todd, cuz you know bears are gonna go after the slow fat ones! lol :lol:

Quick, climb the non existant trees!

I'm figuring 2-3 nights at the hotel (Sealaska Inn, where the cast stayed) and a night camped out on the site. The proposed dates for this trip are Sat. 8th - Wed. 12th of Aug. 2009. Giving us a day to get there and a day to get back allows 2-3 nights up in Stewart to poke around the towns and site. I suggest we just book the rooms at the Inn and then pick the evening with the best weather for the camp out. Also, be best to have a room booked to return to just in case, and somewhere to keep your stuff. The Sealaska Inn is nice, there is bar/restaurant where we can eat, shoot pool, get 'Hyderized' and the bar owners tell stories of JC, Kurt and the rest of the men getting drunk at the very same bar! Pretty cool... I think this camp-out/bonfire idea is really awesome. I'll have to look into the details more; like, are we allowed to overnight it up there and where would we leave the vehicles, etc. We did see some people camping up there so I doubt it is not allowed. The Outpost site is found at the near end of an isolated dirt road used to access Salmon Glacier look-out, there will be no traffic or other tourists after dark. We'd definitely be very isolated up on the mountain side. I was at the video store and saw this 30th Anniv. 2-Disc Special Edition of GRIZZY and thought of us on the Stewart Trip!! I have never seen this movie, any seen it?? Benson? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074593/ T

I saw it! In fact a few years ago I bought the DVD for my brother because it scared the shit out of him when we were kids. He slept in my bed that night. lol This time he watched it with his daughters, and his oldest liked it. I asked to borrow the disc but nothing yet. Only last week I was considering getting him the poster, matted and framed for his birthday.

If I can find this for rent I am gonna give it a look. T

I was at the video store and saw this 30th Anniv. 2-Disc Special Edition of GRIZZY and thought of us on the Stewart Trip!! I have never seen this movie, any seen it?? Benson? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074593/ Hell yes! I got this dvd for my birthday last year. It's a rip-off of JAWS, but on land, and with a grizzly instead of a shark (obviously!). Worth watching. As a kid, it scared the hell out of me. Yeah, since there are no trees, we would be in a precarious situation for camping out. No, not for climbing trees, but for hanging bear bags in them (to store out food). However, they DO sell tough bear barrels, which we could use to keep food, toothpaste, anything that gives off an odor. And no, you can't keep food in the car!!! Check here for a pic and description of the bear barrel: http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?storeId=8000&catalogId=40000008000&productId=48027348&parent_category_rn=5760752&vcat=REI_SEARCH Here's a favorite pic of mine. This is Bart the Bear, the bear from movies like The Bear, Legends of the Fall, The Edge, etc). He was a BIG bear:

Cool! I think I'm gonna just pick this DVD up...reminds me a lot of Piranha by Joe Dante, which was a favorite of mine as a kid as well. I missed Grizzly though. :? Actually there are tons of trees at the Outpost site, it is located on a cleared plateau just past Salmon Glacier. There is actually forested mountainside the whole way up and to the east of the camp is complete forest! Carpenter, Cohen, and Cundey shot and edited very cleverly, concealing the trees right behind the camp. Once you get up there and see how it actually lays it becomes clear, but here is a very good pic that SPC made up showing how the Outpost buildings sat on the site. This is an awesome photo taken from the main mining road, looking almost west north-west. There are no shots of the camp in this direction in the film. This pic also clearly shows how this plateau was back-filled and leveled to contruct the set, and the two access paths up onto the site. Remains of the camp lay scattered all about the gravel area and the Norwegian chopper remains lie where it says 'Building Area'. I don't think bears will be an issue, but again, there is no doubt that there are LOTS of bears in this area. We will see them. Any food can be tied up in trees. I'd like to see too if we could drive right down onto the site, there is a road (read: gravel trail) coming down from the main road on the left of this photo but it is a very steep incline and dropped off about a hundred feet on one side and both SPC and I agreed not risking it and we all hiked down. (And that meant hand bombed the 15' rotor up and out.) There are sudden, huge drop-offs right behind Mac's Shack and to the south-west of the camp, behind the Fuel Dump, see the extreme left of the photo. These photos make everything there look very small, seeing the mountains and the glacier first hand will forever redefine your sense of size... T

I'd like to cast my vote for not camping out. Don't get me wrong, I love camping, but there... I dunno... Bear/Human Conflicts in Alaska, courtesy of the USGS: August has the most incidents. #1 and 2, are July and September, respectively. Here's the webpage: http://www.absc.usgs.gov/research/brownbears/attacks/bear-human_conflicts.htm

Stefan, you wuss! I hope your not really serious. #1 we're actually technically in B.C. not Alaska, and #2 you don't have to outrun the bear just the next slowest THING fan.... In all seriousness I think we're gonna have to use our heads and of course research camping and bears in the area a little more before heading up there. I hope I haven't spooked anyone. We'll be fine. Trust me.... :wink: T

This is absolutely NUTS... I just posted here and then checked my e-mail and a friend sent me pics of a polar bear attack in the Yukon. For a sec I thought it was someone from on here but this friend doesn't even know about the Outpost to my knowledge. A beyond freaky coincidence, now I just got spooked. Seriously. Just did some poking around, here's the pics I was sent, they are pretty graphic: http://www.b0g.org/wsnm/articles/Polar+Bear+Attack Maybe Stefan is right and we'll just stay back at the Sealaska Inn safe from any bears........... :( :?: T