The wildflowers have mostly gone to seed, leaves are turning beautiful oranges and reds, the popular RV park where we are staying in Haines is practically deserted and our summer here is just about concluded. Tempus fugit!
We hold reservations on the Alaska Marine Ferry for Thursday, September 7 at 9 AM AKDT leaving from the ferry terminal at Haines and are headed for Prince Rupert, British Columbia where we arrive on Saturday the 9th. We could have made the trip in as little as 33 hours, but we did not relish the idea of boarding at 2 AM or unloading at 10 PM or other such weird hours. Since we love cruising on ships, this will be part of our Alaska adventure. The fun will begin when John gets to drive the 40′ long coach on the ferry in the morning (Jane gets to drive the little Jeep) – as luck would have it, since today or tomorrow is a full moon, the tide for our loading will be over three feet below normal. John is having fun thinking about all possible disaster scenarios while loading! This will be another great opportunity to pray for an uneventful loading of the coach (thank the Lord that prayer works – it’s always nice to have some assistance!)
Fun in Haines…
Our typical weather pattern we have experienced in Alaska (maybe one nice sunny day every week or ten days) for the last three months held true here in Haines as well – we are both pretty tired of the rain and cloudy weather and are actually ready to move south. Haines is a really laid-back little town of maybe a few hundred or a thousand souls and is only a short ferry ride from Skagway where all the action is (relatively speaking.) Most cruise ships like to call at Skagway due to the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad (which you have already read about) and other touristy things to do and that is a big reason why we choose Haines over Skagway in which to spend a few days. We do get a large cruise ship here every Wednesday (Holland America’s Ryndam is here now) but that’s about it. One of the big attractions here is the beautiful Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site and the bears that gather near the entrance before dusk to catch salmon. We heard about the bears so we headed off to the park to have our very own personal encounter a few days ago. We drove to the bridge over the Chilkoot River and parked about an hour before dusk (8 PM) and walked a short distance to the bridge and noticed several bear-watchers, but no bears. We looked around a bit and walked back to the car. As we
approached the car we looked up and saw a very large Black Bear making his evening foray to the river on the road we were parked on – this big boy (or girl) was only about 75 feet away and we both headed quickly to the now-unlocked Jeep torn between our photo-op close encounter with the bear and the desire not to be on the 6 o’clock news (“This just in .. Florida tourists mangled by a wild and crazy bear in Haines…”) Even though bear sightings in Alaska are not particularly uncommon, this was still a very exciting moment for us because we love and appreciate the diversity of creatures that God has populated His earth with.
Click here for more pictures of Haines!
Be sure and stay tuned for a ferry report!