Day 45: Around Haines

From the Chilkat Inlet to the Chilkoot Inlet

Haines, as seen from across the Inlet

Today began with lots of rain, so we waited it out until it abated a bit, and then set out to explore around Haines.  We began by driving Mud Run Road, which tracks the Chilkat Inlet, to the Haines Packing Company, a cannery where we hoped to get some fresh salmon.

Dock at Haines Packing Company (note the crane)

Unfortunately, we were out of luck as there had not been a boat in since Sept 2, and they weren't sure when the next one would arrive.  Apparently the fish have been strange this year, and did not at all present themselves when expected.  So, we ended up buying that "fresh frozen" salmon and will defrost and cook it up for dinner tonight.  We also got some very good Halibut Salad and were gifted some Salmon Salad that made a tasty lunch.

The woman running the cannery turned out to be from Wyoming, near where Bob's company had done a big job, so they bonded immediately (which is likely why we got that gift).

The drive from town to the cannery was simply stunning, so we took out time, and lots of pictures on the way back.  Here is the cannery from the other side of the inlet.

Hanies Packing Company, from across the inlet

We also stopped at a pull-out above the beach, and made our way down to the water.  It was a very windy day as you can see from this short video:

This one is a panoramic of everything we could see from the beach:




And, these stills capture some of the splendor:

Waves hitting the rocks-- Chilkat Inlet

Lisa on the windy beach

Mountains with glacier across the inlet

Bob surveys Chilkat Inlet

Clouds over the mountains, and a glacier

Closeup of two glaciers

Bob Touches Chilkat Inlet (Bob Touching Water Returns:  #10!)

Next, we decided to drive along the other side of Haines, the part that parallels Chilkoot Inlet.  This is the road to the ferry we will take tomorrow, so we wanted to check it out.  We ended up driving almost as far as we could go-- the road had a dead end sign, and it looked like you could get to the end, but when we came across homemade speed bumps (2 x 4s nailed into the road-- seriously, this is real and apparently permitted (tolerated?)), we decided to turn around.

At this point we were near a stream where the salmon were apparently at the end of their run.  You could see throngs of them up against the shore, and birds looking to feast on them as well.

There were even a few fisher-people who were, I guess, attempting to catch the ones in the middle who were still swimming, and somewhat more alive. There was no interest at all in scooping up the ones just milling about within arms reach. Apparently, when they are so close to dead they are not good eating, as their flesh has already begun to rot. (A new piece of information for this city girl--who knew that live fish could be rotten?  Probably the same people who knew that they could jump.)

On the drive back, we got some great views as we were coming into town.



We then returned to our apartment in town for lunch, and to get compactly packed for our ferry trip. It had started raining again, so we figured we'd have some time tomorrow to explore the town (and everything that is closed today). 

Even inside, we have great views.  For example, we constantly saw this bear out our kitchen window:

Bear outside our kitchen window

Here is the real scenic view in the overcast drizzle:

Out our kitchen window in the drizzle

And here it is a few hours later in the sun.  (Apparently in Alaska it rains in the morning and clears in the early evening-- exactly the opposite of Colorado and our mountains.)

Out our kitchen window in the sun

I'm not sure what kind of connectivity we will have while on the ferry, so this may be the last post for awhile.  We will post if we can, but if you don't see anything for a few days, don't worry.  We're cruising the Inside Passage, and will be back to the blog on September 15 when we reach Seattle.

--Lisa