Haines

I’ve got just two words to describe our visit to Haines, AK—too short!!!   I don’t know what it is, but the mountains just seem to be getting higher and higher all the time, and when they rise straight up from the sea, they are especially breathtaking!

We knew within minutes of our arrival that this was going to be a special place for us.  While Jim and Bernie went ahead in Lily to check out possible campsites, Kathy and I waited in their truck.   They weren’t gone five minutes when the two of us looked up to see a disturbance in the woods right beside us.  And here was the culprit!   We watched the moose family just five feet from us for 20 minutes at least before mama decided to taken them down the road a bit, and cross the street.   

Mama moose

"OMG!  She has a baby!", we said.

"Wait a minute, here comes another one!"

Time to go

"Wait for us!!!"

Something fun we did here was tour a cannery.  It was set in a beautiful bay and cannery windows are positioned so you can watch the catch being processed.

In our campground we found another surprise—it was thimbleberry season!  Bernie and I were familiar with these flavorful berries from our journeys around Lake Superior, and the four of us had a lot of fun picking!  Our camper smelled like heaven with a thimbleberry crisp browning in the oven that night!

Thimbleberries--and Jimmy blowing raspberries in the background!

Another delectable here was the BEER!   Haines Brewing Company turns out what may be the best beer we’ve ever tasted.   We each got a different flavor—including “Spruce Tip Ale" and “Black Fang” stout—and they were yummy.

So fun to share our passion for microbrews with Kathy and Jim!

We drank them outside in the remains of a movie set Hollywood constructed here in 1996 for the filming of “The Call of the Wild”.  It was called Dalton City in the movie which was based on Jack London’s famous novel.  It is located at the fairgrounds and many of the facades now grace little businesses, including the brewery!

Could that be "White Fang" himself??

Also in the Fairgrounds Saturday morning was the farmer’s market, and we enjoyed getting some fresh greens and listening to the little bluegrass ensemble that was playing for the crowd.

Rubbing elbows with the locals at the farmer's market

Yes, indeed, this is a beautiful, beautiful town.  The tourbook says Haines has the highest per capita concentration of artists of all kinds of any city in Alaska.   There's certainly no lack of inspiration, that's for sure!  Here are a few more shots from in and around Haines, taken while hiking and just driving around.

We are seeing more and more quonset huts for businesses of all kinds, and even churches!

Sunflowers and cabbages decorate this storage shed

Haines harbor

That's the library in the foreground!

Retired biology teacher, Kathy, really enjoyed the fungus on our hike!

When we leave Haines it will be by road now, not ferry boat!   This is the end of our time in Southeast Alaska and the start of our adventures in the “interior”.    We are, of course, filled with happy anticipation of what that will be, but feeling sad that six weeks of our time in Alaska has already passed.   It is going by much too quickly!!!

Skagway

Bernie tries to supplement our retirement funds!

As promised by our Alaska tourist handbook, Skagway is all about the history of the Klondike Gold Rush.  The National Park Service Visitor Center has a wonderful museum on site with movies, lectures, ranger-led walking tours of the towns of Skagway and the ghost town of Dyea, historical cemeteries associated with these two ports through which the stampeders flowed; as well as dozens of restored buildings from the period, monuments, and the like.   No doubt about it, the town (population 1000) caters to tourists, but has been very successful in maintaining its turn-of-the-century charm with boardwalks, saloons, and interesting shops up and down the streets of the entire six block city area, bringing the period of 1996-1903 back to life.  To be here was to be “immersed” in the history of that period.   It seems crazy that 100,000 people converged in this spot during a period of just a few years, risking all for the the chance to find gold.   Only about a third of them even made it to the gold fields at all, and only a handful of that group found any gold there.  But at the time gold was found in 1896, the country was three years into a severe economic depression that had left millions in the US hungry, depressed, and destitute.  The news that three prospectors had found some two million dollars worth of gold in Northwestern Canada must have filled people with hope for sudden riches, and perhaps as well a strong desire to simply escape.    Anyway, as crazy as the story seems, it was important to learn, as the gold rush figures so large in the history of this state.   It is very difficult to describe all this in a small blog entry, so I’ll try to let my photos tell the tale.

The first decision the stampeders had to make was whether to start their quest from Dyea (pronounced dye-EE) or from Skagway, both tucked into the terminus of the Lynn Canal.

Either way, they arrived to find a tent city crammed with stampeders stocking up for their journey into the Yukon where the Klondike and Yukon Rivers converge

The Canadian police required every one of them to bring supplies that would sustain them for a full year--estimated at about a ton of goods!  That requirement doubtless saved thousands of lives though it complicated their trek greatly!

If they chose Dyea, the "poor man's route", they had to hike the 33 mile Chilkoot trail, carrying all their goods on their backs, 30-40 pounds at a time, making some 30 trips up and down the 45 degree "Golden Stairs" carved into the ice by their trudging feet.  It would take them each about a month to reach the top at Chilkoot Pass (elevation 3800 feet) with their stuff!

If instead, they chose Skagway, the "rich man's route", they were told they could use pack animals to haul their stuff up the White Pass because it was a less steep, though longer trail.

Unfortunately, this was hardly the case and in two months of overuse, the trail was destroyed.  Worse off yet were the pack animals!  White Pass came to be known as the "Dead Horse Trail" because conditions on it were so difficult that all 3500 horses who stepped onto it perished!

In any event, those that made it up either pass gathered on the shores of Lakes Bennett or Lindeman for three months awaiting spring breakup of the ice.   They spent their time constructing all manner of "watercraft" to float the 550 miles remaining in their journey to the gold fields.

Less than a third made it to the Klondike and when they did, found the claims already staked by prospectors who were already in the area, and really no gold to be had.   The few that stayed on had very tough lives trying to melt down and dig gold out of the permafrost--certainly not the glamorous and prosperous life they thought it was going to be.

Meanwhile, down below and seaside, the towns of Skagway and Dyea were booming!   Each had  a population of about 10,000 during the period of 1897-1900, and all manner of "businesses", both legitimate and illegitimate, popped up to "support"  the stampeders 



But then Dyea...well...died.  In 1902, its population dropped to 3--count 'em, three!.  

This is all that is left of Dyea.

We took a ranger-led hike to and through Dyea, and it was quite amazing to see what once was and what was left!

One factor was an avalanche on the Chilkoot trail which killed many hundreds of stampeders.  That kinda discouraged stampeders from using that route!   They had been warned, by the way, by local indigenous people of the risk of avalanche, but didn't listen--I'm so surprised!   It was weird to visit a cemetery and see the same date of death on all the tombstones.

Dyea also had a poorer, more shallow harbor compared to Skagway, and a changing river course.  This was the road we drove to Dyea where we camped for the week, and it was a circuitous route indeed.  It was so remote from town that we had a grizzly bear walk right through our campsite one morning!

But Skagway boomed as Dyea died, largely because a railroad was constructed on the old White Pass trail carrying gold-seekers, tourists, and commerce of all kinds into the interior of Yukon, opening it up in a big way for the first time.

Downtown Skagway today

4-6 cruise ships dock in Skagway's harbor every day, each carrying 2000 passengers or more!  Here's one in harbor, seen from down the city street.

This may look very touristy, but it really was a fun and charming place to visit!   Here we are doing a double-tree pose in front of the Arctic Brotherhood Hall, which sports Alaskan driftwood architecture.  

Everything in town is made to have a turn-of-the-century--19th century--appearance

Some places have employees in costume, which was fun!

Thoroughly mixed in with the businesses are actual museums, such as this restored 1900 saloon

Recreated interior of Mascot saloon

Restored turn of the century home of a wealthy individual of the period

shows Victorian era parlor furnishings in fashion then--cluttered!!

The Chilkoot trail brings hikers from all over the world.  Those who wish to backpack the extent of it must compete for a permit and are seen here being briefed by a ranger on what to expect on this trek which is seen as very challenging even today.

Of course we had to hike at least a couple miles of it!!

Right from the get-go it was an uphill hike as Kathy and Jim demonstrate!

Rushing waters of the Taiya River on the trail, now bridged by the park service would have been quite the challenge for stampeders, not to mention grizzlies, swampy muskeg, below zero temps, deep snow, and god knows what else!!

Whereas all previous ports of our journey thus far were accessible only by air or sea, for the first time in 6 weeks, we could actually drive home to Wisconsin from Skagway!  It connects to the Alaskan highway via the Klondike Highway which leads north from town into the Yukon of Canada.   We took this drive one day, closely following the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad line.  It ascends 3300 feet in just 14 miles and affords magnificent views of the 1900 style narrow gauge railroad line complete with trestles and tunnels, mountains, waterfalls, gorges, and moon-like vistas of Yukon tundra.  65 miles to the north of Skagway we came to the little town of Carcross, Yukon (short for Caribou Crossing--no kidding), with an absolutely charming frontier personality!

Starting up the Klondike Hwy, following the White Pass route to the Yukon

Mountains rise over the muskeg

Anglican church in Carcross dates back to the 1880s

Wonderful bakery in Carcross

Swing bridge for the railroad

White Pass and Yukon Route railroad station

Beautiful Chilkat Tlingit clan houses in Carcross.  The famous Chilkoot Trail was their trading route to the coastal tribes, used since time immemorial.

Gold rush aside, the area around Skagway is very scenic.  The name “Skagway” is derived from a Tlingit word which means “Home of the North Wind”.   We liked that a lot, and indeed it was windy, windy, windy!!   

As stated, Skagway sits at the northern terminus of the Alaska Marine Highway Southeast ferry system and wedged into the depths of the Lynn Canal, which our ferry boat captain said is the longest fjord in all of North America.   The mountains surrounding it are as steep as you can possibly imagine, with too numerous to count glaciers and ice fields in every crevice and saddle. 

Glaciers and waterfalls surrounded us

And so ends this rather lengthy blog entry about Skagway--you've been very patient!   Our visit was filled with history about which I barely scratched the surface, and the beauty which surrounded us was jaw-dropping.   I think Bernie can quit the panning for gold now.   We both know our true end-of-the-rainbow gold is found in just being here in Alaska together!!  

A rainbow appeared over our ferry boat as we prepared to depart Skagway for our next stop, Haines. 

Indeed we've found lots of "gold" here!