Day 3: Ak to Ohio
200 miles, 3
hours, good road conditions
Awoke to
part sun, no rain as predicted, 56
degrees on the road 9AM YT time. We have
coffee and skip breakfast opting for an early lunch later. The AlCan Motor Inn was comfortable with many
amenities same as in other stays, could use a privacy screen when opening the
door and better black out curtains. The
Haines Highway between Haines Jct, YT and Haines, AK is as beautiful as ever,
even with part cloud cover. It is
hovering around 50 degrees but it seems the elevations have never truly reached
full summer, yet to come? The summit is
over 3500 feet and we are above tree line, very arid despite the runoff in
creeks. This drive is in our top 5 of
beautiful and unique Alaska drives and that is saying a lot. There are significant snow patches on the
mountains and some glaciers seen. In a
break in the clouds, in the distance we can see vista of coastal mountain biggies
where the major glaciers reside. We don’t see any animals except for bear scat
on the road. The start of the Chilkat
River comes from this area. We descend
into thick forested areas of 30-50 foot Hemlock, Quaking Aspen and Cottonwood
trees, forming a tunnel on both sides of the road. We pass through US customs quickly due to
super nice agents. We stop at Roadhouse
Mile 33, funky log cabin where the locals eat, good food, breakfast all
day. We recognize the server and she is
nice as ever. The Chilkat River braids alongside us (glacial braid river) and
tributaries join in until it forms an enormous wide swift moving river. We see two native fish wheels at work and
natives in boats with nets, one of the salmon runs is in. The river flows right by the road in many
places and they have had to mitigate the erosion with new elevated
roadway. They have pounded large
stripped logs into bows in the river to divert logs that could bump into the
sides and increase erosion and or block the flow and back up to flood.
We enter
town of Haines, now a cruise ship town, but none are in today. We drive out to check out the ferry for tics
but will have to wait until tomorrow. We
see fishing boats in the canal so we drive further to the Chilcat River. There are fishermen lining the shores but no
bears. The electronic fish weir counter
says over 20,000 sockeye (red) salmon have passed through to spawn so fishing below is
open. We stop at the Bald Eagle Preserve
that has been closed in previous visits.
Rehab for injured eagles and other raptors. It looks shabby from the outside but very
impressive inside. The taxidermy is well
done and huge display. We get a talk
from a care giver on Belle the live eagle who
broke her wing and can not longer live in the wild. We stop at various shops we have never been
to before and explored the IGA grocery; it is literally loaded with product top
to bottom.
We’re once
again staying at the Aspen Hotel on Main Street. Haines has a tiny, funky downtown reminiscent
of old time Alaska. We talk to a
goldsmith and she tells us about getting gold from northern YT. It is so expensive now she is seeing less
business. The temp is mild with grey
overcast. The people here are nice as
always. We wonder what it’s like in
winter when the tourists and travelers leave.
Although they have a big Eagle Festival early November that has lots of
visitors. They have counted at least
4000 eagles that come from miles away just to capture and eat the late run
salmon. There is a relatively small
federally protected eagle preserve in the area.
It’s been a full day and have to be at the ferry terminal around 8AM. At the hotel we take advantage of the time to rearrange our luggage for boarding the ferry and pack the car accordingly. We get soup and salad from local store and eat in the room.
We have a kitchenette so easy to do.
Time to ready for sleep. Early morning, must be awake to board and park the car on the ferry and find our room. A person in Petersburg where we have to pass through says the Canadian fire smoke is just on the other side of the coastal mountains and they are starting to see it. Here we go again, smoke seems to be in our future.
Nighty night.
