Friday, June 18, 2010

June 18 Haines Junction, Yukon Territory to Haines, Alaska

We had a great day today! While it started out cloudy and cool, the day ended with wonderful sunshine. We drove about 150 miles south to the US – Haines, AK and back. Tomorrow in Haines Junction, Yukon Territory they are having the Kluane to Chitkat International Bike Rally which draws more than 1,000 participants in an 8 –leg 148 mile race. There are solo riders and teams of 2, 4 and 8 bicyclists. Today the road was virtually deserted, we saw only about 10 vehicles the entire round trip, but people were setting up lanes and signage for the race. The road climbs to an elevation of 3,510 feet at Chitkat Pass…dedication on the part of bike riders!

Just south of Chitkat Pass is a river and a mountain, both named Three Guardsmen and below is an image of the clouds abutting the mountain. The peaks appear so tall (but not compared to NM) and the snow was beautiful and all along the route clouds were butting up to the peaks – interesting something so light can’t simply rise above the solid rock faced mountain.

In Haines, AK we visited a hardware store since we’ve lost the large level, a liquor store and the harbor.



On the way out of town we stopped to take images of the fishing wheel. The Indian tribal members can fish any river or stream and use a fishing wheel. As you can tell it is movable and it rotates around like a scoop which picks up the fish, at the top it deposits them into the funnel like canvas and they are stored underneath. On our way into town a man was harvesting the fish from the container below the fishing wheel. Interesting.




Within a 13 mile corridor we saw four bears—three on the way south and this one that John shot on the way back. The grizzly was seating dandelions!



Great day. Tomorrow we head north again and perhaps cross the border. Internet and phone service will be very difficult until we reach Fairbanks.

1 comment:

  1. I never would have thought that bears liked to eat dandelions. Kind of like Ferdinand the Bull, huh?
    The clouds are really neat. It seems as though the sky is 'lower' there than here.
    Interesting fishing concept too. I wonder if they end up with stuff in the wheel that they don't want.

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