Inside Passage from Skagway to Haines

13th September 2014

I wake up at 8:00 a.m. to the sound of the old train signal and for the first time in a long time, I feel well-rested! Incredible! We stay in bed until 9:30 a.m. since we don't have any activities scheduled until the afternoon. We walk to the Ferry Terminal and get our tickets for the ferry ride to Haines at 3:00 p.m. We go to the Sweet Tooth Café for breakfast, but they are transitioning to lunch. However, they are kind to us and quickly make us a breakfast toast and we get coffee anyway.

The Gold Miner's Cemetery is located slightly outside the town and has many graves from the late 19th century. There are German and Scandinavian names, gold miners, and even Soapy Smith buried here. The latter had amassed considerable wealth by tricking the residents of Skagway out of their money through various scams. Among other things, he opened a "telegraph office" where he accepted money orders for the families of gold prospectors. However, the money never reached the families and ended up in Soapy Smith's own pocket. His murderer is revered as a hero, and his grave is adorned with a monument amidst otherwise modest tombstones and wooden crosses. Once again, most of the graves here are enclosed by small fences, just like we saw at the small cemetery in Carcross.

On the way back to Skagway, we quickly drive past a Dredge, which is likely a tourist attraction during the season. There are some explanations and apparently there is a pub and signs around it, but it's advised not to enter the river as it flows mercilessly and looks extremely cold - dangerous.

It's interesting to see this gold dredge up close and be able to walk through it, which we couldn't do in Dawson.

In Downtown, we quickly stop by a bakery to buy a cookie for lunch and then head to the ferry by car. At $103 for two people and a car, the 60-minute ride is not cheap. There are a few otters rolling in the harbor and then we board the ferry.

The weather hasn't really improved and it's not until we are a few hundred meters out of Skagway that the town is briefly in the sun.

However, the slopes of the route, which is the northern end of the Inside Passage, mostly remain in the clouds and small seaplanes fly low above us accordingly.

After about an hour, we arrive in Haines, where the clouds are also hanging low. We immediately turn right towards Chilkoot Lake instead of left towards the town. Because at the Chilkoot River, which originates from Chilkoot Lake, and the Lutak Inlet, which is the slightly wider continuation of the river towards the ferry, grizzlies should now be catching salmon. Exciting!

During the approximately 6-mile drive, we see a few bald eagles but no bears yet.

Cub

At Chilkoot Lake, there are four Swiss people fishing and they say that the bears are further up, in the direction we just came from.

So we drive back attentively, but then continue to the Captain's Choice Motel, which describes itself in a local brochure as having a touch of luxury. However, we can't really confirm that. The porch in front of the rooms has completely worn-out carpet, the railing is weathered, the steps are crumbling, and the paint is missing. The room is okay, but it's nothing more than a regular motel room. Under G.'s bed, there is a Tetra Pak container of red wine, which is still there the next day and is about to explode from decay.

View from Captain's Choice Motel

Captain's Choice Motel

There is a bakery in Haines that also serves Thai food. The food is good, but they don't have a liquor license, so there's water instead of beer. It's already 7:00 p.m. when we drive another 10 miles towards the bears, and due to the lousy weather, it gets dark much earlier than on a sunny day.

We see a younger and two adult grizzlies fishing in and near the river, eating salmon. We come across a German from Cologne who is somehow everything: a retired elementary school teacher, a photographer, a grizzly bear expert, and a behavioral biologist. In any case, the man has been to Alaska and British Columbia 11 times to photograph bears. He does this annually for several months. He has his own car, which he keeps in Seattle and apparently also lives in most of the time. A board on several plastic crates, a sleeping bag, and that's it. He spends the night here at the ferry terminal because the toilets open at 8:00 a.m. Well, as much as I love nature, that would be too basic for me.

The Chilkoot Lake with the clouds and the extremely smooth surface still provides a beautiful sight. Occasionally, you can see a (red) salmon jumping. We return to Haines with a few dark bear images in our camera and go diagonally across the street to a pub where we are the only guests. And it's a Saturday! The bartender tells us that people in Alaska don't have to pay state income tax, only federal tax. And all residents of Alaska who have lived here for a calendar year usually receive around $1,000 from the state at the end of the year. This year, it will probably be double that!

We are back at the hotel at 10:00 p.m., which has no internet unless you buy it for $6.99 for 24 hours. I download my blurry bear pictures, and then it's midnight.

Distance for the day: about 50 km