He got the job done!
On board the ferry
We had a lovely time in Haines for two nights and one day.
View of the harbor at Haines
So so nice to see the sun. Not as nice the next day, but not raining. We first drove to Chilkat State Park. I liked this boat house which is so like the ones you see all over the Atlantic coast. They seemed to be crabbing in these waters, just as they lobster on the east coast.
Then we drove to Chilkoot Lake out of which flows the Chilkoot River. The salmon are just beginning to run up the rivers for spawning. The nice thing about the Chilkoot River is that it wasn't "blown out", a new term to me used by the locals to refer to the rivers that are flooded, muddy or silty. They almost all are blown out. The amount of water flowing up here is just stunning. Here is the Chilkoot with beautiful clear water.
We saw four grizzlies foraging on vegetation along the river on the opposite side from us. My camera is not up to this task, but it was amazing. We didn't know there was such great bear watching in Haines.
Yesterday we drove from Haines to Tok, AK. Long long day. The Haines Highway is just gorgeous. Unfortunately we had heavy overcast most of the day, and rain off and on. But this is a good highway, crossing the border back in to British Columbia and along the Wrangell - St Elias mountain range. The highway goes above tree line. Lots of snow at the higher elevations, with much melting taking place. Water water everywhere. We saw trumpeter swans nesting in the high mountain ponds. Then down into the taiga forest that goes for hundreds and hundreds of miles along the Wrangell -St Elias range, basically along the edge of the huge Kluane National Park (in Canada) and the huge huge W-St E Preserve in Alaska. The land is dotted with uncounted and unnamed lakes, stunted forests of black spruce, called a drunken forest because the trees have liquified soil to stand on in summer and they lean all directions.
The long section of road that goes from Destruction Bay in the Yukon up to Tok, AK, and then from Tok down to Gakona, AK, on the western side of the Preserve is truly horrible, pretty but horrible. I made a note in my 2003 log about this stretch of road, and at that time pulled a quote from Milepost (the travelers guide) that is still absolutely accurate for today!!! No change. Here it is:
"Note: Northern travelers watch for sections of highway with loose gravel, bumps, frost heaves, patched pavement, no pavement, narrow road, no shoulders, road construction, and improved highway."
The stretch of road after Gakona, and on in to Palmer, AK, where we are tonight, is much better. This road (the Glen Highway) goes between the Chugach Mountains on the south, and the Talkeetna Mountains on the north, along the Matanuska River. We couldn't see much of the mountains due to rain and clouds ( did see them the previous trip), but we did get a great view of Matanuska Glacier which looks about the same as when we saw it in '03. Many Alaskans believe that Alaska ( and I guess the north) is headed for another ice age, due to global warming which increases moisture and heavy snows and then cool temperatures which reduces melting, which increases reflectivity and further reduces melting which will cause the glaciers to grow. How's that for a theory? We have heard this from several people including one national park ranger at Mendenhall Glacier 9 years ago.
Here is Matanuska Glacier from an overlook on the Glen Highway.
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