Haines and Skagway AK

Monday was our final day in Juneau. We poked around the city for a while and then headed for the ferry terminal for our 4:30 pm sailing. While I parked the coach on the ramp and checked us in, Dorcas headed to Walmart to pick up some last minute groceries. While there we met a father and daughter who owned a construction business. Actually, the daughter's border collie is what brought us to them. They were moving some construction equipment to Haines for a job, and the collie stayed with the girl on the seat of the equipment as they shuttled four pieces of equipment onto the ship. One piece proved difficult. It was a heavy truck and trailer with a large backhoe. They had to back the equipment onto the boat, and the arm of the backhoe had difficulty clearing the door to the ship and overhead obstructions on the vehicle deck. The daughter climbed up onto the top of the arm and would push up on pipes and wires and other things. It was comical in a sense. She would yell to stop because the arm was not going to clear something, but her dad didn't hear, but somehow they cleared it anyway and didn't drag down a pipe or break the boat.



This cruise would be during normal daylight hours so we were able to do some wildlife watching. It paid off. We saw humpback whales and dall porpoises. Our boat for this cruise was the Malaspina and it had a theatre. They showed a chick flick with Jack Nicholson and Reese Witherspoon and a travelogue on, of all things, traveling the inside passage in an RV.



We arrived in Haines about 9:30 pm. We had planned to drive a few miles to a state recreation area, but about a mile from the ferry terminal we saw a very inviting pull-out overlooking the Lutak Inlet. It was late, and we couldn't resist just pulling over. The pullout was next to a waterfall and we were serenaded to falling water throughout the night. The next morning we moved another 4 miles to Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Area, where we spent the next 4 nights. There were no hookups there, but we found a site that was fairly open to the sky and would provide some solar gain, providing the sun continued to shine. The campground is on the shore of scenic Chilkoot Lake and the beginning of the Chilkoot River. The Chilkoot River only flows a mile before emptying into the Lutak Inlet. One evening at the inlet we saw a sow grizzly and her three cubs. They appeared to be regulars in that area as we saw them again at the same time the next evening.



During our time in Haines, we basically just knocked around, enjoyed the sites and took it easy. When we made our ferry itinerary we had a choice of ending our voyage at Haines or at Skagway. We chose to get off in Haines because it was relatively quiet and less touristy than Skagway. Skagway gets four cruise ships every day. Haines gets one per week. It's a very different atmosphere. One highlight in Haines was our visit to the Haines Brewing Company. The brewery visit was good, but it couldn't compare with the Alaskan Brewing Company in Juneau. Instead of free beer Haines Brewing had $1.25 samples and $4.50 pints. It was still very good.





We did however make a day trip excursion to Skagway. On Wednesday we took a 45 minute fast ferry to Skagway. Skagway is famous as the primary gateway to the Klondike gold rush of 1898. Stampeders would


arrive in Skagway, and climb the Chilkoot Pass or White Pass. From there they would trek about 40 miles to Bennett Lake, build a boat and float to the Yukon River at Dawson City about 600 miles away. In order to prevent the miners from starving in





Canada the North West Mounted Police required each miner to carry one years provision, which would weigh about 2000 pounds. This necessitated each miner make about 20 trips over the pass and to Bennett Lake, about 40 miles away. By the time most





gold-seekers arrived at Dawson City all the productive claims had already been staked. Most left broke. Much of Skagway is owned by the National Park Service as Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. In the morning we took a guided walking tour of the historical buildings in the town. In the afternoon we took an excursion on the White Pass and Yukon Route, a





narrow gauge railroad. Construction of the railroad began in 1898 and was open for business in 1900. Our excursion took us through the White Pass over 27 miles to Fraser BC and return. Along the way we saw many remnants of the gold rush trail and at least 3 bears.