We walked around the grounds of what was once Fort
Seward, the first military presence established in the wild territory of
Alaska. This was many years before Alaska became a state. A lot of
cool old buildings and Alaskan Indian arts and totems. It was about four
square blocks.
We checked out the weather for Haines and it varied from light showers to
rain for the next 10 days! Ugh! We're outta here!
On our way out, we checked out the prices on a few flights from Haines to
Gustavus (Gus-TA-vus) to catch a tour of Glacier Bay. We didn't want to
spend $500. for flights and then the price of the boat tour, if all we would see
would be clouds.
We headed out on the Alaskan
Highway. We were forced to rethink our ideas of remoteness we had
experienced in the desert. Haines is over 700 miles from Anchorage, a real
city. We're on the only road into or out of Haines. The only other
way in is by plane or by ferry (like we did). We drove 44 miles and
crossed the Canadian border into the Yukon Territory. The Canadian Border Patrol
officer was pretty funny. Since I was driving, I got to answer. He asked how we
got to Haines. I said, in a sleepy stupor, "The ferry". He
asked where we got on the ferry. I said, "Uh, Belling...ham?"
and looked at Andrew for approval. He said, " The Saturday
ferry?" I said, "Saturday? Was it
Saturday?" He said, "Yeah, you were on the Saturday
ferry. You won't wake up until Monday" He's apparently aware of
what a 3:45am ferry arrival does to a traveler.
This part of Canada is truly beautiful... and remote. We passed thru a
couple of small towns that only existed to supply travelers with gas, snacks and
souvenirs. A couple of restaurants and motels completed the attractions
along the highway. We stopped at a rest area to make dinner on the
tailgate and someone in a motor home also stopped there came out to chat.
Billy Woodfin is a full time RVer from Texas. This is his third trip to
Alaska.
As we headed down the road, we saw several RVs and campers at numerous
pullouts, camping for the night. We prefer to camp slightly further off
the road. we found a spot shortly before dark and went to bed. It's
now getting dark about 10:30-11:00 at night. We haven't slept in the truck
for perhaps a week and it was like coming home.