Well quite an eventful few days! We drove south from Kluane, back into Alaska to the coast at Haines. It's very familiar landscape - coastal rainforest rising to alpine peaks, but the difference here is the more northern climate maintains huge icefields at the higher elevations. Glaciers reach down into every fiord, many touching the sea. Fabulous for photography!
The seasons are clearly changing now. It gets dark at night and we've started to see some stars in the brief nighttime sky. The fireweed, a harbinger of spring and companion of summer is all gone. And the salmon are coming up the rivers to spawn. That means bears are coming down to fatten up on fish before winter, so the rivers are alive with fish, fisherman, and grizzly bears. Very dramatic, and not the sort of peaceful angling I imagined. We decided photography was a safer option after watching several fisherman lose their catches to a momma grizzly.
We've been distracted by all this bountiful scenery and had a slight camper mishap this week. When first driving an RV we did a lot of reading about what not to do - there's plenty of that sort of literature! Things like not driving out of the campsite with the clothesline still tied to the RV, or the dog. Ensuring all the roof vents are tightly closed before taking off at highway speed - they tend to fly off. Closing the back door before driving - it's amusing for other drivers to watch the terrified cat on the doorstep. Disconnecting the sewer and electrical hookups before departure - obviously! Our folly? We were fishing a lovely stream, and failed to do our usual pre departure walk around. A mile down the highway I said to Norbert 'Did you put away the stairs after lunch?' Odd, the sound of aluminum stairs bouncing along behind the truck!
We've now abandoned the camper in Haines for 10 days and we're off on a different sort of adventure. We've taken the ferry to Juneau, and tomorrow another ferry to the hamlet of Gustavus, just outside of Glacier Bay National Park. We'll be off on a mothership kayak cruise for 6 days in the park, aboard a 96 ft. ex-navy minesweeper, the Sea Wolf. Sounds like wonderful luxury, and we can't wait! Tell you all about it when we return!
Posted at Driftwood Lodge, Juneau. No photos this time, sorry!
Posted at Driftwood Lodge, Juneau. No photos this time, sorry!
Fishing for momma grizlies does sound dramatic.
ReplyDeleteI hope your aluminium stairs weren't too badly damaged.
I remember looking at the Sea Wolf web site last spring when you first mentioned it. Definitely a unique adventure, and hopefully you'll be dressed in thick merinos when kayaking among the bergy bits!
See you in a few weeks,
Richard