August 19, 2010

Hmmmph.  For the first night in nine, we have cell phone coverage, but we still have no internet.

Haines was awesome, as we expected.  We even managed to not have to move the trailer to dump the tanks, going a total of nine nights without running out of water or room.  We really weren’t being that conservative as we fully expected to dump half way through our stay, but our normal practices do allow us to get through a couple more days than we thought.

Our adventures in Haines included a little more fishing.  I fished from the shore of our lake by the campground several times.  I got attacked by bugs one calm evening, but the weather changed for the last few days of our visit, bringing high winds and a little bit of rain.  The wind kept the bugs away. 

I ran into the bears a couple times while fishing there.  The first evening, I was delayed as the bears were there when I arrived, along with a crowd of people with cameras.  I fished back at the boat ramp until the bears left the prime spot.  On a more crowded afternoon, I ended up back at the boat ramp, where I did catch a big humpbacked, hook-nosed, pink salmon which I quickly released.  I figured I was in a pretty safe spot since the bears like feeding further up the shore, and usually come out of the woods along the road from the other direction.  The campground was behind me and I hadn’t seen much evidence of the bears even entering the campground.  Luckily someone yelled out a warning, although I might have been better off being oblivious.  I turned and emerging from the campground woods, right across the boat ramp from me, was a big brown bear.  Now this wasn’t some big boat ramp at a popular boating lake, this was a single lane boat ramp, 16 feet across by my stepped measurement.  I didn’t notice the collar, so I didn’t recognize it as the momma bear that we had seen many times until the babies emerged.  I was near panic, but I tried to calmly and quickly finish reeling in and began walking along the shore, knowing that my only escape route was exactly toward where she was heading.  I kept glancing back at her and she was coming along slowly.  The other fishermen seemed more panicked than me, scurrying about, collecting their gear.  The bear has clearly grown comfortable around people so I wasn’t too concerned about the old momma and babies combination, in fact I was relieved that it was the familiar bear and not some rogue try to sneak in on her favorite spot.  It was one of the most uncomfortable bear encounters I have experienced.

The situation there at the mouth of the river was a little disappointing.  The park has a nice cleaning table right along the edge of the river, but the water right next to the table flows in a separate slow channel that filters through a band of rocks.  The fish carcasses get caught in the rocks so the bears stop by a couple times a day to get an easy meal.  The proper thing to do is throw the fish parts out a little ways into the fast moving water, but no one has put up a sign to explain that to novice Alaskan fishermen.  I suspect the easy tourism associated with the bears doesn’t provide the locals with too much motivation to clean up the problem.  These bears are probably headed for a situation that will not end well for them.

After the close encounter, a few of us returned to fishing.  A fisherman caught a nicer pink and decided to keep it.  He was busy working at the cleaning table when I noticed something odd.  The crowd had long departed, but a few people were standing up on the high parking lot looking straight down at the river, just around the bend from the cleaning table.  I was done fishing so I walked in that direction to check it out.  As I climbed the sloped parking lot, I caught a glimpse of the bear walking in the river, heading back toward the cleaning table.  I immediately turned around and calmly told the guy the bear was coming back.  He had one filet on the table and was about 80% of the way with the other one.  It was kind of comical to see him grab his filet and then this cut up carcass and toss them into his plastic bag and quickly head away.  I tried to slow him down because he had time to toss a bucket of water on the bloody table, but it was too late.

I also fished one evening in the salt water, hoping to find either a passing salmon or a deep water critter.  I had scoped this point out earlier in the day on our bike ride and it had a fishable yet steep shore and a place to park.  The seal staring up at me ‘sealed’ the deal; I figured there had to be fish.  I was wrong.  I fished for an hour in a howling wind as waves splashed me on the shore which got washed off by the rain that fell for the last half of my attempt.

Our bike ride was awesome.  We rode from the campground all the way to Haines and back, a trip of about 21 miles.  It is always a joy to ride somewhere that we have seen many times by car because the change in pace changes how we see it.  We saw eagles and seals.  We could identify the plants.  We took in the amazing scenery of the Alaskan fjords.  On the return, we even saw a bear. 

This was another exhilarating bear encounter.  The bear was in the ditch right along the busy road.  I was coming up on it quickly when I noticed it and slammed on my brakes.  A truck going the other way wouldn’t have even noticed the bear as it passed within a couple feet had I not been pointing it out to Kris at that moment.  The truck stopped quickly and backed up toward the bear, I guess so they could check for fleas.  I was stunned at the stupidity, but the bear decided not to tangle with a pickup and began climbing the steep embankment.  We watched as it headed our direction, not high enough on the embankment to make us comfortable with passing.  It seemed to be aware of our presence, but we kept backing up to see which way it was going to go.  It looked like it was coming down when the pickup truck returned again for another look.  The bear finally went a little higher and we rode on by.  We immediately encountered a couple of bicyclists heading the other direction so we warned them.  They seemed a little disturbed by the possibility of a bear right on the road in the middle of the day.  Clearly, they weren’t from Haines. 

Our other adventure in Haines was kayaking on Mosquito Lake.  This is an odd shaped lake that feeds into the Chilkat River, although we couldn’t find a flowing outlet.  We paddled a little over four miles to cover the entire perimeter. 

We had a mild wildlife conflict while paddling along a grassy wetland.  A swan surprised us by emerging from the grass.  The swan was honking, and swans honk horribly loudly such that it echoes off the surrounding mountains.  I suspected immediately that the swan had young in the grass and was trying to lure me away, so I followed, diverting from the shore.  Then another swan came out of the grass with a young swan right behind.  A couple more young ones emerged as well.  The second swan seemed to have a different idea on how to deal with a potential threat from us kayakers.  This swan swam straight toward me.  I kept paddling even though I wanted pictures.  It was clear that this swan was threatening me.  It even made a quick move with a bit of a wing display that was quite intimidating from my low position in the boat.  Both swans were now honking loudly and the scene was a bit like slow motion chaos.  The mean swan and a couple of the babies passed between Kris and I, while another of the young headed along the shore ahead of us.  The lake was a mixture of boats and swans and it needed to be sorted out.  I found an opportunity to head back toward Kris to regroup the boats, but ended up with one of the young swans cut off from the rest.  As a result, the honking when on for probably twenty minutes until all the swans were reunited.

I didn’t catch any fish in this lake, but I tried.  I was hoping to catch a cutthroat trout, something I haven’t caught in Alaska.  I had many trout follow my lure, but no takers.  I tried trolling for salmon in the open water as well, but I suspected that anything this far upstream was going to be pretty ugly.

We found ugly salmon in a couple of inlet streams.  In the last corner of the lake that we explored, we found shallow, glassy water and a lively environment.  Salmon swam under our boats while crows or ravens made horrendous noises above in the trees.  A blue heron flew right over us a couple of times, more interested in the lively ecosystem than concerned by our presence.  Along the small stream trickling out of the woods, a juvenile eagle sat crunching on a salmon, holding the precarious position of top scavenger, constantly looking around at the other birds who wanted in on the action.  The eagle flew off when I snagged bottom about 15 feet away from it and moved in to retrieve my lure.  I felt a bit uncomfortable floating in mere inches of water, close to the woods, with salmon splashing all around. The only thing missing from the scene was bears.  I didn’t linger in close to shore.

The change in weather made it possible for us to take care of our laundry, a task that might have been too painful on a sunny day in Haines.  I felt like I could stay much longer in Haines, but I also felt like I could be done.  I had looked forward to this part of our plans for quite some time and it fully lived up to expectations.  It was a great part of our plan.

Our departure from Haines this morning was more like work.  We got an early start, recognizing that we need to start getting used to the next time zone and that as we head south, we need to get our travelling done earlier in the day to assure ourselves of a campsite.  We got off to a good start, but the tight maneuvering at the only available dump station in Haines added some time.  We also filled up with water and gas, before heading back up the hill to Canada.

The climb out of Haines is something to experience, especially in a heavy rig.  We climbed to about 3300 hundred feet from sea level.  At times, I held my foot on the floor for several minutes and never accelerated beyond the speed limit. 

Back into the Yukon, we noticed that fall has arrived.  Trees are starting to turn already.  The fireweed is done.  I even caught some glimpses of some new snow on some high peaks.  I won’t get to see this year’s Alaskan fall.  I won’t get to watch the snow creep down the mountains.  But today’s observations were pleasant reminders of my favorite time of year in Alaska.

We covered some miles today, about 350, bringing us up to about 1100 miles since leaving Anchorage.  We stopped in Whitehorse for groceries and some wine. I am still laughing at the amount of beer, mostly American beer, that the other people in line at the liquor store were buying.  I can’t imagine buying that much beer up here as it was outrageously expensive.  We bought a sampler of some local Yukon beers for our own amusement.  We drove another hundred miles before arriving at Teslin Lake, where we are wondering what tomorrow will bring, maybe slightly happy to hear the rain falling.  The Cassiar Highway was closed today due to forest fires.  We expect to be to the Cassiar tomorrow morning, hoping that we can get through.  We may be sitting for a couple of days if we can’t.