Back to Haines in a change of plans

We had originally planned to leave Tok, drive back down to Haines Junction and on down the Alaska Highway almost to Watson Lake where we would turn south and continue down the Cassier Highway.  We have never been on that road before as we had driven back down on our last trip on the Alcan.  We want to visit Hyder, AK on our way.  We are hoping to see a bunch of brown bears there, and the town is supposed to be funky cool.  I had an idea come to me, so we called a powwow to see if we all wanted to return to Haines on our way back.  If you look carefully at the map you can see Haines all the way at the southern end of the Haines Highway, 146 miles south followed by 146 miles north to the Alaska Highway and our way south.  My idea was to see about taking the ferry across to Skagway instead, then north to Carcross.  Distance driving around, 292 miles, distance with the ferry, 67 miles.  We all had loved Haines, so this way we would be able to come back for a week, save some mileage, and get to ride the ferry the short way over to Skagway on our way out of dodge.  So here we are, ferry all reserved, hunkered down in beautiful Haines.

The worst road we encountered in our travels so far was the 60 mile section south of the Yukon/Alaska border below Tok.  We had hoped since 7 weeks had gone by since we had come north, maybe it would be better on our way south.  No such luck!  It was even worse than we had remembered, and it went on for perhaps 85 miles.  85 miles of being pounded, on and off gravel, potholes, and washboard all at maybe a screaming 13 mph!  We were so relieved to finally get to Kluane Lake in the Yukon and much smoother road for the second half of our journey back to Haines.

I thought it would be interesting to share some data.  We arrived in Haines on June 26th, and left on Jan's birthday June 30th, we arrived back in Haines on August 17th, and will be leaving on Karen's birthday August 23rd.  We traveled 3091 miles from Haines to Haines, stayed in 22 campgrounds, and paid an average of $4.37/gallon for diesel fuel, all in 49 days!  And we still have 1730 miles to get back to the lower 48 entering the USA near Glacier National Park on our planned route.

As I had mentioned we are sad to be leaving, but we are definitely noticing signs of fall, leaves turning, chilly mornings, only barely in the 60's in the day, and the biggest thing of all...........darkness!  It is actually dark by 9pm!  It happens so rapidly here that you can see the days getting shorter.  Remember by Sep 21, the autumnal equinox, night and day are equal, but up here you go from about 19 hours of daylight with the sky never really getting dark on June 21 all the way to 12 hours of daylight in 3 months.  Quite a change, especially the farther north you are.

I'll give you a few parting shots of our journey to Haines.

Not kidding, airplanes are everywhere!

Another mom moose and her calf

Here's looking at you babe!

What scenery!

Lunch stop

Our little caravan

We had heard there was a good chance of seeing bears in Haines later in the season, so we had our fingers crossed.  Salmon come up the Chilkoot river into Chilkoot Lake to spawn, and when the pinks come so do the bears, at least that's what we had heard.  So Jan and I decided to run over just before dinner last night and see.  We saw 2 bears, one meandering along the river, and the other at the buffet:-)

Prowling around

She is propped up in the water right up against the weir
This weir is here so they can count the salmon runs

Aaaahhhhh, fresh salmon!