Day 3 of return trip
Miles driven
today: 196
Total miles
driven: 825
Sept 1,
Monday
Awoke to
full sun and beautiful views of the mountain range across from our hotel. We are on Yukon Time that is an hour later
and very briefly we enter British Columbia.
Later today we will be back on Ak Time and will be on the ferry. It is
cool and still, no frost. We go to
Village Bakery around 8:30 for breakfast.
We eat outside on the deck surrounded by aspen trees. The food is
excellent as usual. We get sandwiches to
go and head down the road. It is very
early fall here with some foliage change.
The road is excellent condition.
We stop off at Lake Kathleen, a glacier fed lake that has lake salmon in
it, never entering the ocean. An
endangered species. Today it is still,
very different from the winds that come through the valley. This means small insects are numerous and
annoying. We drive above tree line with
wilderness all around. Bear sign tells
us they are on the move prepping for winter.
This 125-mile drive Is a fave in any weather. We have a steep descent into the Chilkat
River valley. We enter rain forest with
tall trees and lush foliage. We pass
through the US customs easily. The rest
of the drive follows the great Chilkat River that is a commanding presence
shaping the landscape, breeding place for salmon and largest bald eagle
gathering in the world. Haines is in
late summer. We drive directly to Chilkoot
River and Lake. River is beautiful with
huge boulders and lined with fishermen. No sign of bears today. The fish counter is active with spawning
salmon. We stop briefly at beautiful Chilkoot Lake. Today the dense forest is
dappled with sunlight and not looking so dark and forbidding. We stop early at Ak Ferry office to check
in. Into downtown Haines. Many stores are closed for Labor Day. The one gift shop we have liked in the past
now has small stocks of grocery items with the gifts. Not an improvement. Go to IGA for a few
snacks for the trip. We find a small
quiet park just above the water. We
picnic there but realize it is a tent camping site accessed only by foot or
bike. We are the only ones there so it’s
all good. Stop at Visitors Center for a
brief chat. Take time to arrange our
luggage for on board the ferry. We take
a quick drive out of town to the old scenic cannery, where the ocean meets the
Chilkat River. We see otters for the
first time in the area. Back to ferry
and get in line. We watch the Columbia
sailing from Skagway to Haines and docking.
We are put on the elevator and hoisted to the upper parking deck. We are able to walk directly from the car to
the deck of our room. We got the four berth large cabin with table and chairs,
bathroom. It is chilly sitting on deck
watching the scenery go by as the sun sets.
We see a couple small blowholes, maybe porpoises chasing salmon? We attempt dinner in the fancy dining room
but the service is chaotic and we are not getting waited on. So we go to the grille for our halibut
sandwiches. It gets dark early and a
strange golden half moon is shining.
Settling in for sleep. We have
WiFi now and it’s nice to half but does change the experience a bit.
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