Haines, AK

June 19, 2014

The Haines Highway

Wow.  You’ve never really traveled until you’ve traveled with a photographer!  It was only 185km from the campground to Haines … but around every turn was another ‘photo op’ and screech!  Pull over and snap, snap, snap!  We must now have 10,000 pictures of mountains!  I mean … I LOVE the mountains … but …

Stunning views along the Haines Highway

Haines Highway

Fish trap along the Haines Highway

Anyway … we drove thru the rest of the YT and into B.C. for a bit then crossed into Alaska.  It’s a very weird stretch of road and for a while you have B.C. on one side and the Yukon on the other!

Haines

Made it to Haines around 12:00 – in time for lunch!  Made up a quick meal of leftover potatoes and scrambled eggs, then grabbed the cameras and headed out to tour around the town.

Haines, Ak

What a pretty place!  Fairly small, but lots of good restaurants, coffee shops, gift shops, fish shops and quite a few museums – not to mention Fort Seward!

We got some good tips for food from a lady in one of the gift shops … so we’ll go out for a ‘date nite’ tonight.  Nothing’s too far away here – all within walking distance.  I just want to be able to get the spruce tip beer from the Haines Brewing Co. as recommended by Heidi & Dugald!

Oceanside RV Park

We’re camped at Oceanside RV Park which is oddly enough – right on the ocean!  It’s very strange to smell the ocean air – and to have so much of it!  We’ve been accustomed to being at 800 – 1,000 metres for well over a month and sucking wind on hikes!

We ran thru some low clouds and rain on the way here but now it’s cleared up … warm and sunny.  Bruce is lamenting the fact that we SHOULD have gone paddling to the glacier today.  But maybe tomorrow a.m. if the weather is good.

Later that night ….

We did get out for dinner – at a restaurant called Fireweed.  We sat on their balcony and had a grand view while eating pizza and drinking the amazing spruce-tip beer.  It really is quite good!  I wonder how much we can bring back over the border?  I see there’s also a brewery in town that’s producing some (they say) awesome spirits so we might check that out tomorrow.

Pizza & Beer at the amazing Fireweed Restaurant!

June 20, 2014

Well, Bruce didn’t get his wish … this morning is windy, raining and low, socked-in clouds.  I’m not sure what we’ll get up to today … maybe don our rain gear and walk around a bit.

It can be wet in Haines, but don’t let that stop you!

Went out for a walk in the rain and found SaraJ’s café.  A great place for coffee and snacks!

We then walked to the smoked salmon store and bought some of their fresh caught, locally smoked products, then on to the Port Chilkoot Distillery to sample some of the local made gin and vodka. A most excellent gin!!

Port Chilkoot Distillery, Haines

Port Chilkoot 50 Fathoms Gin

Very good actually. Nice building restored from a former bakery at Fort Seward. The owner was quite passionate about the spirits and they’re going to be expanding their selection into whiskey’s and bourbons. We went to the liquor store immediately afterwards and bought 2 bottles of their gin – VERY tasty!

Then a wet walk back to the RV.

June 21, 22, 2014

A Paddle to the Davidson Glacier on Chilkat Inlet

Today we left our spot at the RV park and drove down to Chilkat State Park where we wanted to launch our kayaks for a paddle to the Davidson Glacier.  We thought we might want to camp at Chilkat … but seeing it changed our minds.  Nice park but we’d be camping in a heavy forested area and that turned us off.  Way too many bugs, no view and quite chilly.  So we just went to the boat launch and headed out.

Bruce on the way to the Davidson Glacier in the Chilkat Inlet

Paddling to the Davidson glacier in Chilkat Inlet

The paddle over to the beach across the fiord was ok.  The wind was blowing a bit and the water was – while not bad – a bit too sloppy to put me at ease.  I just kept my head down and paddled.  It wasn’t that far … only took about 45 minutes to get there.

The Davidson Glacier

Once on the beach we ran into a fellow leading a tour of people to the glacier.  He told us that unfortunately there’s no way to paddle right up to the glacier!  Drat!  Well, Bruce might have made it up the river that flowed from the glacier if he was by himself but there was no way I could have done it.  So we decided instead to hike the road up to it.  Well, the bugs were pesky when we landed, but as we hiked they got worse.  We were on a gravel road which we assumed was the way to the glacier, so we plodded on.  As the trees got thicker, so did the bugs and there was literally a cloud of them around Bruce.  Unfortunately we’d forgotten the bug repellent!

We hiked for about ½ hour with no end in sight and decided to turn back.  There were no signs – as the only people going there normally are tour groups and they know the way!  So …we  never did make it to the glacier.

We had a quick lunch on the beach where the bugs weren’t AS bad and then headed back.  It actually turned out good from then on as the wind dropped to nothing and the water looked like glass!  It gave me a chance to put my head up and look around.  OMG … the scenery was stunning.  It was almost like looking at the Grand Canyon … sort of hard to wrap your head around it all!

Chilkat Inlet

We took our time paddling back, both of us taking reams of photos!  Once back to our launch site, we loaded up the boats and headed back to Oceanside RV to stay for another night.  Unfortunately, while we were gone the park had filled up!  There was a bike relay that day – bikers riding from Haines Jct., YT to Haines, AK and they’d get in that night so things were booking up fast. We drove over to the other RV park in town, The Haine’s Hitchup RV Park … which was way larger, and way nicer AND cheaper!

Haine’s Fisherman’s Community Salmon BBQ

We also discovered that the annual Haine’s Fisherman’s Community Salmon BBQ was happening that night … and only 2 blocks away from our campsite!!  We got settled in, then rested for a bit before walking over to the fairgrounds where the BBQ was going to be held later … but for now we wanted to check out the brewery which was also located there.  We had a few samplings of their beer (the spruce tip was the best!) and then walked home to wait till the BBQ.

Haine’s Fisherman’s Community Salmon BBQ

**Interesting note … the fairgrounds had all these old-looking buildings down the ‘main street’ which we found out was the set from the movie ‘White Fang’ which was filmed there in 1990!  Now there are shops in the buildings and of course the fairgrounds all around.

Salmon BBQ & Haines Brewing Spruce Tip Beer!

We walked back over there for around 5:30 (the BBQ started at 6) so as to try and get in before the big line-ups (as we’d been advised by a local!).  And the lines DID get huge!  Promptly at 6 the lines started moving and … for a donation of only $5 each, we got the most food and the best salmon I’ve had in a long time!  Two big chunks of BBQ’d salmon (over a wood fire … all smokey … how tasty!) and 2 chunks that were ‘fried’ (I imagine deep fried) and it was also extremely good…not greasy at all but crispy on the outside and moist and juicy on the inside.

We didn’t stay for too long as the crowds were large and the noise level was also large (I think perhaps some of the people had been visiting the beer garden numerous times before the BBQ started!).

Back to the RV by 8:30 and a ‘Walking Dead’ marathon!

June 22, 2014

Onwards to Skagway

Up early this morning  as we want to catch the ferry to Skagway and we don’t know how booked up it gets – or how big the boat even it.  The Alaska Marine Ferry Corp. has the WORST website imaginable.  You can call them … but no one ever answers.

Ferry to Skagway

So we drove down to the terminal where there’s NO signs telling you where to go or what to do.  We put the RV in the lineup of cars that were already there and Bruce hiked over to the office.  We found out the line we were in was for ANOTHER ferry … we had to go and park, then buy tickets.  A few signs would help people!!!!

So here we are, parked and waiting for the ferry!

Check out our next post: Haines to Skagway

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