Back in Canada

We carried on to Haines, AK where we spent a couple of nights which gave us a chance to tour around the town.  They have a Hammer Museum which I thought might be interesting; however, Gerry felt that a hammer is a hammer is a hammer and just how many different ones could there be.

We camped out at Chilkoot Lake where apparently the grizzly bears feed at the mouth of the river from the Lake.  Well we drove over a couple of times and we sat and waited and waited but no grizzlies. 

We booked a ferry over to Skagway which was quite an experience.  We arrived at the ferry terminal in plenty of time and got into our allotted space.  When the ferry arrives, it came to the dock sideways as the entrance for the vehicles was on the side of the ferry rather than at the end as most of them.  Several cars were loaded first and when it was our time to load and the attendant comes over and says, come and pull out here as you are going to back in.  The look on Gerry’s face (and likely mine too) was one of disbelief.  We have been having trouble getting backed into a campsite so now he gets to back down a ramp and makes a sharp left to get parked in his lane.  There were several staff members helping and give directions.  He only had to pull ahead once to get straightened out (and that was at the beginning so he could start down straight) – amazing!!  Apparently not everyone backs down as easily because the day before the ferry was two hours late as they tried to get a vehicle towing a trailer backed in and apparently it wasn’t going very well.

Skagway is a pretty little town at the base of some mountains.  The store fronts, on the most part, are quite colourful.  But about all that is in town is shops.  There are quite a number of jewelry stores and many of them have people standing in the doorways telling you of the authentic gold jewelry they have to offer – reminiscent of visiting Algodones in Mexico.  Then it was back to Canada along one of the most scenic drives we have been on up to Carcross, YT.

This trip has been absolutely amazing.  We have never met such friendly folks from all over the world.  One evening we were chatting to a young couple – she was a teacher up at Tuktoyaktuk who was on a working visa from Czech Republic but had to go back as her visa was expiring.  She was also in charge of the art program and gave us a couple of beautiful postcards that she had made.  The young fellow with her was from Montreal and had just got a permanent job in Yellowknife.  Then there was a young couple from Germany who had started their two year tour of the Americas in Argentina and were on their way north.  I find that on the most part, people are more than happy to chat and share their experiences.

We passed through Jade City.  Now this is really gift store near a site where they mine jade.  It is family owned and you could watch as they prepared the pieces.

As we headed south we decided to take a little tour to Stewart, BC which is Canada’s most northern ice-free port.  It is a little town just across the U.S. border from Hyder, Alaska which is Alaska’s most southern settlement with some very interesting characters!!   Here, when you cross the border there is no American customs – only when returning to Canada where the officer we had today was one of the most pleasant.  There is a viewing station where the bears come to eat the salmon from the river except the salmon haven’t come yet; hence no bears.   

We found a small recreation site and settled in for several days.  While the weather was cloudy and cool for the first couple of days,  the drive in was spectacular, and the people we met wonderful.  It was quit sad to leave this place as we became quite a little community – a young couple with two children from Calgary, a  photography profess, a social worker from Nebraska, and a retired policeman from Australia – and all so interesting.

The young couple from Calgary were big hikers so one day they went off on a hike with their 6 year old son and 7 week old daughter.  When they hadn’t returned some seven hours later we went to the RCMP with our concerns.  Fortunately, they arrived back shortly thereafter so off we went to say all was well.  Since we did not have any cell service, this meant running into town about 15 kms away.  We met the young officer as he was on his way out so he got to cancel the Search and Rescue team that were on stand-by and said he was going back to do his report and “that was the kind of reports he liked to do”.

This area also is the home to Canada’s fifth largest glacier, the Salmon Glacier.  We drove out to the summit on a great clear day and it is massive.  On the way there is an observation station where the bears come to eat the salmon from the river – but the salmon weren’t there yet so, no bears.  Hopefully we get to see them before we head back home.

I’m afraid that this week I will be boring you with photos.  There is just so much incredible scenery so it is very hard to pick some special ones as they are all special.