North to Alaska: Saturday, September 15th

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Day 22

Pretty cold last night, 39. Got up, quick breakfast and off to Haines, Alaska. Dreadful weather most of the day. Windy, cold, and rainy. I guess I should have not cleaned the RV the day before. So we took the Haines highway, traveled along the Dezadeash Lake another huge body of water. If I had time I would love to compare them to Lake Texhoma or Big Bend. I bet both of them (Lake Kluane yesterday) would easily be larger. We did have to go through the border into U.S. again and on the return trip back to Canada again. About 20 miles from Haines we stopped at the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Reserve and saw lots of Bald Eagles.

Our original plans had been to take the ferry from Haines to Skagway, but we were too concerned about Andy boy and decided not to travel that way plus the weather was not too great either for riding on a ferry. Save a little money, I had estimated the cost at $384 for a one hour ride. Upon entering Haines we drove around went to the ferry terminal and saw the boat we would have been on. After seeing the cars being loaded, we were glad we changed our minds. Drove to Chilkoot Park. Observed where Lake Chilkoot enters in the sea. At the meeting point 1000’s of seagulls and numerous eagles were feeding. In the mix were some seals also feasting. We were going to eat at a local diner, they wanted $24.00 for one order of fish and chips, and charged $1.50 for takeout. Ouch. Went over to the IGA purchased some deli meat and ate sandwiches in the RV…16 bucks.

We departed Haines, sadly, since we had heard lots of bears use the rivers to feed on the salmon. But we struck out. Drove back to Haines Junction, hopped back on the Alaska Hwy and headed for Whitehorse, Yukon. About an hour from Whitehorse of course the sun comes out. Along the way we did see some animals.

Got into Whitehorse around 8:30 pm set up the RV, did some laundry, and worked on the blog. If you noticed our daily mileage is starting to go up. Our last couple of days before getting to Seattle next week will be a little long.

Our view again from our RV before we left Haines Junction

Dezadeash Lake

Our view starting out on the Haines Highway

Look at the low clouds!

Getting very foggy!

Our view for about 10 miles!!

Bald eagles at the preserve sitting in a tree

Let's all be friends!

Fishing!

Soaring

Ferry to Skagway that we didn't catch!

The view and ride if we did catch it!

Harbor seals

The 1st original totem pole that we saw with many seagulls in this area

Seagulls were everywhere...also fishermen

Our view after we left Haines, Alaska on the Haines Highway

Haines Highway

Back to the Alaska Highway to Whitehorse, Canada

Interesting!

2nd porcupine we saw today

Two deer--can you see the 2nd one?

The sky was gorgeous!

MILES TODAY 436 TOTAL MILES 6486

ANDY’S REPORT.

Another cold night. Where’s the heat? The peeps got everything ready and off we went. Weather was horrible, so I took off to the back of the moving house and napped out. We finally stopped by some moving water and saw lots of birds flying around. Too far off to chase. Drove around, saw another place with moving water with lots and lots of birds. Dad would not let me out. We stopped in the city and peeps took off for sights unknown. Yep, guard duty again. Drove back to the first place we say the birds and had dinner. Dad and I like to eat around 2 pm, those 7 o’clock feeding times are hard on my digestion. Continued to drive, stopped once for some cat looking something, but had sticks all over it. We then stopped for some skinny looking cow with big ears, gave him a woof and off it went. Finally got to the lot with more moving houses and settled down for the night. Goodnight.