Good morning. On one of my final days (for this trip!) here I am working on what has become a routine on my visit here. I am sitting looking out Phyl and Doc's view over the valley, with my morning coffee and my blog.....The valley is full of fog with the sun shinning brightly on the tops of the mountain on the other side....beautiful....I also am making plans to start off for home...making reservations in Dease Lake and Stewart BC. I am headed off Monday morn for Whitehorse..have decided to take the long way around as the Campbell highway (or shall I say road) is a little to long and remote for this city girl.....and besides what's the rush???
If I stay an extra day in Stewart as planned, I will probably arrive home Sat. evg.....
But not wanting to leave behind any memories,, I shall tell you about Haines/Skagway....
This journal has been very helpful to record memories, its surprising when you are so busy what you can forget...
Haines, we found looked quite waterlogged like most parts of the world these days...The Chillkoot river never did come over the road, but at times I was very surprised.
The entrance to Haines is an eagle sanctuary, with the largest influx in Nov. feeding off the smelts and salmon in the river. The water is quite warm in the cold Alaska winters and that is what attracts the eagles.
I have to admit this is Phyl's photo (why didn't I think of that??) but as usual we are sharing ;-) It rained all of the first day we were there...Our motel room did not have a window view of the harbour, but did have a veranda surrounding the building but alas we were unable to make use of it due to the rain. So we compromised and drove from one end of the trail to the other and I found some beautiful rain forest campgrounds with no people in them!!!!!! I could not believe they were empty....we would so love that near Calgary, you have to drive a few miles to find that in our area.
Again I found myself fantasizing about having a small motor home and the ability to drop anchor and take advantage of the opportunities.....It was beautiful...The
green grass growing on the approaches
showed me no one else had been there for quite a while...peaceful There was one family with the kids racing about their lot it reminded me of yrs. ago camping with the kids on Vancouver island by Tofino. (remember the whale on the beach guys?)
At the western end of the trail there is a river strewn with large boulders, a popular fishing spot, hip waders up to their chins standing in waist deep swiftly running water and very successfully catching what I think was very large salmon...
Chilkoot Lake at the source of this river was
beautiful with the low clouds and windless
reflections. We found ourselves finding excuses to take a drive back out here to just enjoy.
This does not look real does it? Its going to be one of those photos that I will be able to use for my rocks or cards or framing. No skill in taking this photo I just had to stand there and drink it all in.
For the life of me, give me a boulder and a horizon and I cannot get the horizon straight...I must life life a little crooked ;-))))
I have tried to compensate, it never works!!!
The residents of this lovely spot in the world show they so appreciate their area by the art work, whimsical gardening etc. in front of their homes. One we came across was especially inventive.
What better use for old boats??
I have so many photos and so many stories...I may have to wrap up when I get home and organize, but I have one more morning here to tell you of the ferry ride from Haines-Juneau-Skagway. See you in the morning. ;-)
Son of bear? We were taking a break on the side of the road on our way to Haines, Alaska and this fellow in a truck pulled up with a smile on his face....It was a fellow from Oregon, also freshly retired, he had chosen to sell everything, gave half his furniture to his daughter, half to his son....bought a truck and camper and said goodbye...didn't know where he was going, didn't know when he would be back....and having the time of his life....He stopped to talk because he saw Oliver behind my car and swore from a distance he looked like a bear cub....by the time he approached us he was smiling at his mistake....one that created quite the conversation at the side of the Alaska mountain.....a pleasure.... We also could have had a conversation with a grizzly and her cub if so inclined....on the side of the road, she obviously was very used to the paparazzi and ambled quietly to the opposite side when she was ready....
Our focus for this trip (other than having a great time) was to find some white fireweed. We had seen it in the books but could find none around the area....Photo in book said Alaska...so we were on the look and found it....Halfway between Haines Jnct. Yukon and Haines Alaska...
It was just a wave in amongst a bank of regular fireweed....beautiful...I stopped of course to get closer and smiled as someone else had already been there and trampled all the horsetail fern in front getting the perfect shot....I wasn't the first!!!!!
The road to Alaska against the Kluane park was my perfect highway drive...I felt like I had been there before...I couldn't put my finger on it....was it Hawaii?BC? or the top of Alberta somewhere? but I felt comfortable.....The weather was typical of this summer, started off cloudy and eventually rain for a full day....I at first thought I'm not seeing the peaks but the cloud was so low it was fascinating driving up to and through the cloud banks....visibility sometimes down to about 50'... I loved it....want to do it again.....
There was not a lot of traffic, a real
casual drive....It supposed to be a couple of hours drive....but we stopped in Haines Jct. for lunch and then arrived in Haines about 5:30 pm and of course had halibut fish & chips for supper.....
I stopped at a neat place along the way called Million Dollar Falls.....they had stairs built along the cliff side to get the best advantage point...rock face covered with twin flowers and Dog wood....
I constantly have to take a moment and remember where I am..in the middle of a vast expanse of very limited population. When I do see a cabin out in the middle of nowhere, I have to wonder what brings people to this isolation. They have picked a perfect spot.
Haines appeared to be flooding as are many areas in Canada are this year...The Chilkat River was right up to the road...The residents are gearing up for the salmon/smelts run with fishing camps and very unusual fishing gear tied to the guardrails on the side of the road. We saw eagles but were not as quick as they were and I walked away with no photos...
A few times in my visit to the Yukon I have wished for a motor home. The ideal way to see the country would be to travel with everything you need and stop whenever an opportunity arose. One of those times was Haines. At either end of the Chillkoot trail were my ideal spots to hide for a few days. Tomorrow I will share.
Good morning to you....
I survived. Phyl and Doc purchased a quad ride for myself as a retirement gift. Regardless of the desire to get up on top of Sunshine mountain and take a million photos I definitely had big big reservations. We have had the pleasure of a visit from a 2nd cousin and her hubby from Oregon that had that same desire to travel to Sunshine Mtn and maybe get muddy in the process...Immediately I was worried about holding them back. But Ray Henderson from The Bears Den B & B and ATV tours in Faro Yukon had the solution. We started up the mountain with the spring chickens on two quads and Ray and myself rode a Rino. What fun. I was so thankful I conquered those fears and did it...It was the most fun....The top of the mountain is another whole world...Can you imagine the peace and quiet? The journey up was an experience in itself. I had the advantage over the kids because Ray sitting beside me gave me a running commentary regarding the area, mine, animals, even down to recognizing individual "poop" very very informative.....
Alan and Suzanne (the spring chickens) have had very little luck in seeing some wildlife making it a priority on this trip...The first thing we saw by the mine road was a young cow moose, I was sure their luck had changed. On the trip up the mtn. we scared this cow off the area, but on the way down she calmed down and the meal was more important.
At times I had a tough time distinguishing whether we were travelling on a creek or a trail but that turned out to be part of the charm.
Always on the look out for the flowers of the area I found the trail strewn with the elusive cotton grass, finally. I had found a wee patch on the North Canol Rd. but not as plentiful or as large as up here...Beautiful... I found numerous flowers up on the mountain that we cannot identify. For the first time I found some White Mountain Heather and tiny bunches of Pink Moss Campion huddled from the wind in little cavities in the rocks.
I took every opportunity to wander around by myself up there in that other world, looking for everything I thought was a new plant. I just told everyone to yell when they wanted to go again....We got along just fine up there. It rained at one point just long enough to get the butt wet but as soon as the sun came out everything dried up appropriately.
Suzanne started out on the trip a rookie quader with Ray's and Alan's instruction she quickly gained confidence needed to conquer those boulders and on the way down you could read her facial expressions expressing the fun she was having.
Ray and Tina Henderson offer a great service for visitors of the Yukon an opportunity to see the real picture. One of the daily comments was How many people have seen this...How many people have actually set foot on the top of this mountain...I am glad I am one....
I want to thank Ray, Suzanne and Alan for a great day.
We had lunch at an outfitters camp and headed further downhill....At Suzanne's request to get muddy, Ray took us down to the Pelly River by Faro town site. And muddy we got....yes including me...I had Ray deposit me on the side of the mess to "take photos" but that wasn't enough for them, I was encouraged to participate and as Alan said...I didn't come this far not to. 
So down to the river we went I laughed so hard at Ray.....Watching Suzanne, Alan & Candace (Ray's daughter ) take trip after trip into the muck I turned and saw Ray all by himself in the Rino go for a dip.....In my opinion the biggest splash of the day. A big kid at heart.
Now Heather's turn....can you tell if I had fun or not?
It was such a grand day sharing good times. I lost my voice at one point, perhaps backseat driving to much or yelling when Suzanne went into the trees on three wheels or laughing so hard listening to Ray's laughter (a most unique laugh, the type that makes you laugh before you know what's funny).
I have a to do list of things I don't want to miss in life, good start don't you think?
It was foggy/cloudy on the trip to Haines and it rained all the next day but our ferry ride the sun came out in all its glory and gave us a spectacular ferry ride....On this particular Sunday there was not a direct trip to Haines/Skagway so we just compromised and went along to Juneau just to see....A wee bit more expensive but 5 hours of sightseeing. No whales or dolphins visited the boat but we did see glaciers and wee light houses....beautiful.... 
The trip caused a little bit of adjusting at the Juneau...the ship loads at one end and unloads at the other...so when we were in port we had to run downstairs and turn the car around on the car deck...but I had the whole empty deck to do so...The area around the mountains of course was a little behind Faro being at a higher altitude...So the flowers were just in their prime. 
One of the reasons for wanting to return to Skagway was to see it out from underneath all the snow...and it proved to be worth the effort...... 
We had another cloudy day right down to the highway at times...but still beautiful to drive. Formerly the lakes were invisible, covered with white blinding snow....I hear that some of the ponds captured in little hollows become quite warm with the sun and can be used for swimming.....(not on this day) 
Do you remember the original photo I took with the reflecting puddles in the ice....A much different picture on this day coming back from Skagway.....beautiful in itself..but showing you have to be in the right spot at the right time...I have been so fortunate to be here for so long because it has given me those exact opportunities.... 
Back home in Faro the little cross fox missed me and the following morning he came right into the yard looking for brekkie....By the time I ran for the camera he was on his way out over the wood pile....saying goodbye Heather for this year.... 
