Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Haines Junctions to Southeast Alaska

We are in Juneau this morning, and it has been raining for the past 48 hours. Here is how we got here...

Saturday - Saturday was a rest day for us in Haines Junction. We were at the last RV stop until the border, so it was very busy. Busy is good for us. (They hadn't closed for the year like the last 5 or so we saw) This rest day gave us time to heal, shower, and get some laundry done.
The day was beautiful. By 3pm, it was 70degrees and sunny, but we could see snow falling in the mountains right behind us. When night came, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. This is great for seeing stars, but it also cooled the temperature down into the 20s by midnight. We had a huge fire going to stay warm, when a local couple from Whitehorse came over to share the fire. We talked for a while, and they told us they had two campers at the site we were at. One they were staying in and one they were selling. Luck was on our side. They asked if we wanted to plug it in, turn on the heat, and stay in their second RV. I think I was inside less than 5 min after they asked.

Sunday - Sunday morning was a great morning. James and I made breakfast over the campfire when Bob and Deb, the couple who let us stay in their camper the night before, offered to show us some sites around the Haines Junction area. After a few more cups of coffee, we were on our way.



We started out going to a small river village where the locals used the river to catch salmon. Every house had a bigger smoker next to it. It wasn't the kind of town I could see myself living in, but James would probably fit right in. haha







Our next stop was at the Million Dollar River. This was one of my favorite stops so far. The river and falls were awesome. It reminded me of Chagrin Falls, but there wasn't anyone else for miles.









After the falls, we stopped at a roadside fort. There are a few of these around the Yukon. The forts are used for anyone who is passing by and needs a place to stay for the night. There are blankets, supplies, and a wood burning stove inside. The rule is, if you use something, leave something behind. If anyone plans to bike through the Yukon or BC, try looking up the locations of these forts. I didn't know anything about them until Bob and Deb showed us. Luckily, we overplanned each night and didn't need to stop at any fort, but if we were broke or injured in the rain, it would be nice to know where the next for was.






The rest of the day we spent riding south to Haines. We rode the final 50 miles into a downpour. It was hard to be mad because we finally had a ride that wasn't into a headwind. We were riding pretty quick in the rain, around 17 - 18 mph until we were around 12 miles away. We hit a strong swirling wind when we got near the port, and that slowed us down to around 8mph average. We got into Haines around 7pm and decided to get a hotel room for the night. Everything we had was wet and the temp was dropping below 40degrees again. 15min after we were in the hotel, the room was trashed. We had fans going, blow dryers on and the heat cranked up to 90degrees. It was a good night sleep.

Monday - We woke up and went straight to do laundry again. We were completely dry again and ready to continue our trip. We drove around Haines for awhile, then went to the local port to get on a ferry. The ferry took us to Juneau which is where we are now.



More updates to come soon.






If you ever go to Alaska, I would highly recomend going to Haines. The town itself isn't that great, but we saw over 12 Bald Eagles pirched over the river and some were catching fish. It was unreal to me. I guess there is like one nest for every mile around Haines. Alaska has over 50% of the world's Bald Eagle population. I think most of them must live in Haines.


Steve

6 comments:

  1. What's up fellas? First thing I do every day is check the site for updates, there can't be enough!! I have at least a dozen people that work for Saturn of Cleveland watching you guys. You should get a twitter account, I would love that! I would wait on your comments, like I do Ocho Cinco's. I think about ya'll when I'm having a bad day. Keep on truckin. -George C

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  2. Hopefully Jimi is still putting the sheets in the hotels to good use!

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  3. Nice beard- you are closing in on Corndog!

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  4. 5th period wants to know what did you leave behind at the roadside fort?

    7th period want to know were those sheep or goats in the picture?

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  5. 5th Period - We never stayed at that stop. We just rode by it and looked in. If we would have stayed or taken anything, we would have left something. I just thought it was a cool idea that I never knew about.

    7th Period - They were sheep, but they looked like white rams. Maybe a ram is a sheep. I don't know. Either way, they were on break.

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