Haines, AK - Aug 8-10
We’ve spent the last couple of days in Haines, Ak After arriving on Monday, we found this really cool spot along the Chilkoot River that bears like to frequent. In addition to the bears, it is just plain beautiful here. Chilkoot Lake is a snowmelt and glacier melt lake that feeds the river and right now the salmon are running by the thousands therefore the bears are also frequenting the river. The fishermen are after the trout since salmon don’t feed once they hit fresh water. Alaskan citizens can dip net for salmon, meaning that they can just stick a big, really big net into the water and pull out salmon. Think pulling fish out of an aquarium with a net, but only on a much bigger scale.
Haines is a nice, quiet little town that is the 1st stop on the Alaskan marine highway where one can actually get to the Alaskan highway and into mainland Alaska. There is also a cruise ship stop here on Wednesdays. It isn’t a typical cruise ship town in that they don’t have all of the jewelry stores, souvenir shops, etc. I have enjoyed the past couple of days, just chilling and getting our packs ready for the Chilkoot Trail that we start tomorrow morning. Honestly, I am terrified! I am not in the kind of shape I need to be to do this hike; my boots aren’t broken in enough, my pack weighs way too much, but it is now or never. At the very least I can try and fail or not try and never known if I could actually do it. There really isn’t anything that I can eliminate from my pack to lighten my load since the nighttime temps will be dipping down into the 30’s and we are pretty much guaranteed rain. At least some of my food will be gone by day 3 which will be the most challenging of the 5 days. Much of the hike on day 3 is at a 45-degree angle through a boulder field. The 8.5 miles typically takes 10-12 hours. I am thinking it will be probably the biggest physical challenge that I have ever attempted. Thursday will be about 8.5 miles, Friday about 4.5 miles, Saturday (please pray for me day) 8.5 miles, Sunday 8 miles, and Monday 4 miles. At the end of the trail at Bennett Lake, the White Pass & Yukon Railroad has a depot and we will have a big lunch there and take the train back to Skagway. Hopefully the weather will be good because they make the backpackers ride in an outdoor car. I can totally understand this! If I were a tourist I don’t think I would want to sit near me after 5 days on the trail either. Once back in Skagway and after a long hot shower, a couple of beers and a good night’s sleep we will begin the long trip home.
From Skagway, we will go back into Canada and drive the Cassier Highway south through British Columbia, then head east on the Yellow Head highway into Alberta to Jasper and Banff, then time allowing down to Glacier before crossing the border in Montana and booking it home through ND, MN, WI to arrive back in Ann Arbor on August 27 with plenty of time (2 days) to get ready to go back to work.
For more information on Chilkoot Trail and the Goldrush National Historic Site, see http://www.nps.gov/klgo/index.htm.
Hey! What happened to that fisherman?
The Golden Staircase on the Chilkoot Trail (day 3) during the goldrush
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