After having watched the bears and the salmon run I continued up the narrow Salmon Glacier Road. This is an old mining road that leads up to the massive Salmon Glacier. I had spent quite some time watching the bears and it was getting fairly late already, but I decided to go on because I was eager to see the huge glacier which was much larger than the Bear Glacier I had seen earlier in the day.

It was a steep and very difficult bicycle ride up the road. I had to navigate countless potholes and washboard conditions nearly everywhere. The distance to the summit with the glacier viewpoint was about 40 kilometres, and I slowly made my way up passing the odd rockfall and and old mining towns on the way. At the summit there is a breathtaking overview of the entire glacier which takes the shape of a giant T fork here. It is an enormous glacier, and the cold icy wind was hurtling down through the valley and aiming directly at me. It was freezing cold and I had only brought a t-shirt and a thin windbreaker up from the campground so I didn't stay long, but I did manage to take a photo of the bicycle in front of the glacier!

The slow climb up here had taken me over 2 hours and by now it was nearly dark and I had to go back. While shaking uncontrollably from the freezing glacier winds I performed an insane ride down the narrow road which were here and there covered in fist sized boulders. The descent took more than an hour, which seemed like an eternity, and by the time I approached Hyder again it had become completely dark and I speeded past the bear watching area as fast as I could (which was not very fast in the dark on a bumpy gravel road). I certainly didn't want to encounter a hungry bear in the dark, although I didn't know if they were in fact out roaming at night or if they were more likely to actually be sleeping. Either way, I didn't stop to investigate!

That view of the Salmon Glacier was unforgettable and now, when looking back, that crazy ride up and down Salmon Glacier Road stands out as one of the single best experiences from my bicycling tours.