2010 - July 17 (Day 32) a Day in Haines, AK

Yesterday evening after dinner we went out and drove around a bit. We drove about 11 miles east of town to Chilkat State Park. I was pretty remote. It was on the shore of a tidal inlet with a boat launch and a no hook-ups campground.

Then we drove about eleven miles on the other side of town to Chilkoot Lake. The road followed the mountain stream as it came from the lake to the ocean and eventually it lead us to the beautiful lake and campground. It was kind of "dusky," about 10:00pm by then, so I don't have any good pictures. I'll try to get some later today.

As we were leaving the lake, we rounded a curve to see a very large (aren't they all?) grizzly bear standing in the road abut 25 yards in front of us. As soon as he saw us, he turned and ran down the road. I grabbed the camera, but couldn't even turn it on before he turned and quickly disappeared into the forest. Even though we were in the car and only saw the bear for a few seconds, it was a great experience.

This morning we drove out to Chilkoot Lake again. Stopped along the way to take a better look at a fish wire that is installed across the river flowing from the lake to the ocean. The weir blocks the fish from traveling upstream so that they can be counted as they swim to their spawning grounds. There are three guys there who count and release the fish manually. The count for the day as we were going to the lake was 170 at about 10:00. It was 220 when we came back. That's low. It should be about 1500, so a couple of days ago they lowered the catch limit from 6 to 1 per day.

One of the reasons we came to Haines was to visit the American Bald Eagle Foundation Museum. It's closed today and tomorrow even though the literature says it's open. Bummer! So I took a nap this afternoon and Marsha did the laundry.

After a dinner of Caribou burger, we went to the local IGA for our periodic grocery price shock. Ya gotta eat! Then we drove out to Chilkoot Lake again where we saw a grizzly sow and her three cubs. As well as a Golden and a Bald Eagle. Pictures to follow.


Tomorrow, we hit the road again and retrace the 150 miles back up to Haines Junction where we'll get back on the Alaska Highway and head toward Whitehorse and beyond so we can finally turn south toward Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK. We're getting to be on a first name basis with Canadian and US Customs. ;-)) See you on down the road.