Haines AK to Hanes Jct YT

Woke up on Sunday morning in Haines – To a blue sky, with just a few clouds !!  (Still no internet or WIFI available anywhere that worked – This is about the first place in the world I have been to that doesn’t have a working system in place !!  Maybe that is how remote we are ?)  Anyway, I questioned the hotel people about tours, and they didn’t know of any except private charter fligts out to Glaciers etc.  I did call one of them and they said that even though it was sunny at the moment,  it would hardly be worth it as the cloud cover was going to come back down shortly and you wouldn’t see very much at all.  So I ran down to the Tourist Information centre, and they said much the same – Plus as it was Sunday, most things wouldn’t operate today anyway !!  But I had heard about a Bald Eagle reservation up at the end of the road in Haines, so I decided to run up there straight away, and then decide what to do after that.

Drove about 14 miles out, back past the ferry terminal, up the Lutak inlet to Chilkoot Lake where Bald Eagles are attracted due to some kind of small fish in the water called Hooligans !!  Well, that’s what the locals call them !!  Anyway, good little drive out there, and did spot 3 eagles up in the trees – Apparently they weren’t very hungry. 

But a great little reserve and camping spot out there – Closed until May 18^th !    I also checked out a couple of other camping sites out on that road to see if it would be worth staying for a day or two – Both still closed !!  I had also spoke earlier with some local guys in the motel, one of whom helps run a white water rafting business. He was saying that this year is really weird – very cold, wet down low and snowing up high – basically winter conditions. Due to the cold, there is not enough snow melting up high to fill the rivers enough to enable them to do white water rafting, and now they are really concerned that it might turn REALLY warm in June and ALL the snow will melt at once, and then there will be too much water in the rivers to do any rafting safely !!  So everyone has problems with the current weather patterns !

As a result I decided to cut and run North to northern Alaska.  I suddenly realised that I had originally not planned to come to southern Alaska, but to focus on the north, so I might as well get up there and do what I had originally intended ! And now people are saying it is warm and dry up there anyway !!  So I drove north out of Haines, and for bout 75 miles the road wandered up beside this very wide river bed with boulders and tree trunks strewn everywhere. When the snow melts, this wil be full, and the salmon will come up it, and the whole Chilkat Bald Eagle Reserve will be swarming with Eagles in the air and bears in the river bed.  But for now, not a lot there !   But the weather was definitely improving as I went north, so I stopped and took the roof off !!  Chilly, but now with my fur trappers hat, I was so warm even when it was 1 or 2 deg C outside !!

                                       

 For the first time since I drove into Skagway 5 days before, I was able to clearly see mountain tops, and they were getting bigger.  Then the road start up into the mountains. And from there on, the whole day was just incredible – and it just got ……better.  We went through Canadian Customs back into British Columbia, (no problems with bear spray yet again), and the road just climbed up and the snow got deeper and deeper beside the road and up in the mountains.  The Haines Summit was only 1070 metres, but as far as I was concerned, I was on top of the world.  I have never seen so many big mountains, stretching for as far as you could see, and every time you went over the brow of a hill, there were more !  There were a few small snow flurries just to keep the interest up at peak levels, and occasionally snow across the road, but nothing to worry about.

Then ground squirrels were everywhere – running all over the place. The I managed to spot a ptarmigan, despite his camouflage, and had to do a U turn to go back and photograph him.  Then, right beside the road, I saw this lovely bear walking along, scratching at stones to turn them over and see what was under them.  So I snapped away until he went off in the other direction.  It was only later that evening when I was downloading the pics onto the pooter that I suddenly realise he was a Grizzly !!   My first one !  I guess I had just got so used to seeing bears, I hadn’t even thought about the fact that he was brown and quite a bit bigger than all the other black ones I had seen !!   And he didn’t look grizzly at all – Look a real old pussycat, from what I could see !  He was only about 20 yards away from me when I was taking the pics – But the car was in 1^st gear and my foot on the clutch ready to get out of there, I can assure you !!

 After the grizzly, it was porcupine time – They were all over the place !!   First time I have ever seen one, and I was surprised how big they were – more the size of a big badger or so.  They are pretty timid and so you tend to see bottoms more than faces as they run away at the sound of a car – And they have surprisingly BIG tails !!!

As we approached Haines Junction, the snow beside the road was retreating, and the ground cover was more tundra (?) with stunted pie trees everywhere.  But the big mountains were still there to the west – In fact Mt Logan, at  5959 metres Canada’s highest mountain, is right there to the west of Haines Junction.

 So I came into Haines Junction with a big grin on my face – That was truly one of the most spectacular drives I have ever done. Not so much the road itself, although that was good, but the enormous mountains for as far as the eye could see to the west, the vast tracts of virgin snow for as far as the eye could see to the east – I think even the camera could not pick up the pure beauty of the scenery without some kind of filter to enable it to differentiate between all the folds and shadows in the snow. As I said to someone last night – It was almost a travesty to do that trip on my own, and not have someone to share it with. Everybody in the world should one day see beauty and majesty like that – It will blow your mind.   It certainly did mine, and I am sorry the photos do not do it justice.

I will leave you to look at the photos – they are far better than any words I could ever write.

https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/HainesAKToHainesJctYU?authkey=Gv1sRgCK3v5cWtkOK8eA#

And to finish of an incredible day, I was setting up my tent in a campground when I heard an interesting (ie no US !!) engine - looked over, and there was a Super 7 pulling into the gas station !  Couldn't believe my eyes !  Turned out to be Jude Lumba, who lives in Juneau, and was driving up to Anchorage following some of his family in a U Haul truck.  So he could only stop for a moment and then had to keep going, but nice to see the car - A 2004Caterham 7 SV with a Zetec motor in.