Sunday, August 12
Whitehorse, YT to Haines Junction, YT
99 miles, clouds and sun, temps 50s and 60s
I was tired from traveling yesterday so I slept in. Paul’s flight wasn’t leaving until 5 PM so we decided to go to our favorite restaurant in Whitehorse, Burnt Toast, for their breakfast brunch. They were packed but two guys sitting at a four top noticed us and invited us to sit with them. It turns out they were pilots for a German leisure airline and make regular non-stop flights from Hamburg to Whitehorse, and they love the place. The food this morning was amazing – the best broasted potatoes I have ever had (other than Elaine’s), with mozzarella cheese on them, topped with two luscious poached eggs and hollandaise sauce.
It took a while to get everything organized and loaded back on my bike, but I got away by noon and headed for Haines Junction. I didn’t take any photos of the ride today because I had been over this same stretch on my ride up to Fairbanks.
Haines Junction is the gateway to Canada’s Kluane National Park which includes the St. Elias Mountains and the largest glacier ice mass in the world outside the polar zones. There are no roads into the park, but many hikers trek up onto the glaciers – three van loads of guys from Ottawa arrived this evening to do just that. Unfortunately you can’t really see the mass of mountains and glaciers from the highway, but my motel room that evening had a nice view of the close mountains which were shrouded in clouds.
I met a very interesting couple from Brazil who were in the room next to mine. They were riding two-up on a GS and had ridden all the way up from Brazil, through Central America and the U.S., had been up to Prudhoe Bay, and were on their way back. Living in Brazil they had already ridden down to Ushuaia at the tip of South America. They encouraged me to do my dream ride down through South America to the tip. We’ll see…
Monday, August 13
Haines Junction, YT to Skagway, AK
miles, clouds and sun, temps 50s and 60s
I have wanted to ride the Haines Highway for some time, and today I was finally going to get my chance. It is a down and back route, unless you take the ferry from Haines to Skagway, so it doesn’t get nearly the traffic the other roads get. This road was built about the time the Alaska Highway was built (1942) as a way to get supplies up to the road construction site without having to go through Canada. An ancient route of Tlingit people, the route became knows as the Dalton route during the Gold Rush when Jack Dalton would charge stampeders a toll to take the route to the Klondike gold fields.
The forecast today was for rain and cool, and it turned out to be true. I was able to stay pretty dry and warm due to my Goretex jacket and pants, and a great goretex balaclava that I wear under my helmet and the apron fits around my jacket collar and keeps all moisture out.
The sun almost peeked through at one point, just enough to cast a glow on these resplendent fireweed flowers that framed the St. Elias foothills in the background.
The ferry to Skagway was scheduled to leave at 5:45 PM but when I arrived several hours early I leaned it would be 4 hours late!
So I tried wasting some time in the ferry terminal which had no amenities but soda and candy machines. I did get my tank bag reorganized in the process, but that didn’t take up much time. However, I did meet an interesting Australian couple who recently retired, shipped their BMW GS to the states, had ridden up to Prudhoe Bay, and were on their way back south along the Pacific Coast. Their plan is to take a year to make their way down through Central and South America to Ushuaia. That’s traveling very light, with only what you can get on the bike, but they looked relaxed and happy. I though some more about riding down to Ushuaia…
Well, since there was no coffee in the ferry terminal, and it was going to be a late departure, I headed back into Haines to find some. On my way back I followed the road north along Lutak Inlet for several miles, past the terminal, and along the Chilkoot River. I noticed what looked like brown bears on the river bank and, sure enough, there they were! Mother grizzley ambled along the river bank seemingly oblivious to us tourists scrambling to get photos, but I would bet she’s been there many times before and has learned the people are harmless.
Ten to twenty yards behind momma grizzley trailed three cubs of fairly good size. Signs warned against feeding or otherwise interacting with the cubs. In past years people had done that and as the cubs grew up they became threats to people and were shot. Sad.
Finally the ferry arrived, four hours late, and it took an hour and a half to unload and unload and get on our way to Skagway.
By then it was dark, but I was still able to get a shot of Skagway in the night sky.
I had reserved a motel room at Carcross, an hour’s drive from Skagway, but I didn’t want to ride in the dark – it would be risky because I couldn’t see critters, and I wanted to see the spectacular scenery along the Klondike Highway north toward Whitehorse. But I had no place to stay in Skagway. Fortunately, Gilbert whose bike was parked next to mine on the ferry, said he found a B&B in town so I followed him there and sure enough, they had a vacancy (photo taken the next morning.) It was so nice and the internet service on my phone was so good that I decided to stay two nights. I could use the down time and I had a lot of catching up to do on my blog.
Tuesday, August 14
Layover day in Skagway, AK
Sun and wind, temps in the 60s
Gilbert is from LA and was riding his very cool Indian Scout up along the coast, using Alaska’s Inner Passage ferry service to visit Juneau and other smaller communities along the way. He is heading back today riding the Alaska Highway. He is also blogging about his trip and you can read it here. He took this picture of the two of us this morning using his phone camera on a little tripod and a Bluetooth remote. Gilbert is a very friendly, talented young man.
After a nice breakfast at Mile Zero B&B (my B&B, highly recommended) I went for a walk downtown and this is what I saw – thousands of people disembarking from four huge cruise ships and descending on the town. I immediately flashed back to 1898 and the Klondike Gold Rush. Not quite as many prospectors then as now.
The ships are really huge. The thousands of people from the ships just flood this little community of 1,000 population, but the local folks do a pretty good job of managing the cash flow and keeping the place looking nice for the tourists.
The details may have changed to reflect modern times but the business model is pretty much the same. The prospectors come with money in search of gold. They go broke, but the merchants selling them food and supplies and renting them rooms make the money.
I couldn’t find a place to eat lunch today – too many prospectors. So I tried again around 6. I got a table this time but by 7 the restaurant had cleared out, people were back on their ships, and main street was once again deserted. In 1989 the gold rush lasted several years. Today it lasts a day but gets repeated daily throughout the summer.