Sharing my favorite Alaskan town - Haines - with Tim

Monday, July 21, 2008

At the totem overlook in Haines, Alaska.

Greetings all! I hope this entry finds you all well and enjoying a great summer. Tim called from Maine the other day and mentioned it was too hot to take the dogs with him into town to run his errands, and it reminded me that there are places in other northern climates that are actually warm this time of year. Skagway (and I gather Alaska in general) is having a very cool and wet summer this year, and although this is not atypical, I understand there are summers here when it can actually feel like summer with warm and sunny days.

Tim and I with Emma in housing. Emma’s proper name is Emma Catalina Acevedo and she is from Bogota, Columbia. Emma and I work together in the gift shop in Liarsville and she is a very sweet girl who is studying to be a lawyer. She leaves in mid-August to go back to school and I’ll miss her greatly!

But so far, with the exception of about a week at the end of May and a few days in June that reached near 70 degrees, most of our days have been overcast and a bit dreary with highs in only the low 50’s. We’re all getting pretty tired of the cold and damp. We keep hoping “next week will be warmer” – but it’s almost August and we’re running out of summer weeks. (Above the 45th parallel in places like Maine, Montana and Alaska - August days tend to cool off considerably and it begins to feel more like fall). But we’ll keep hoping for warm!

Our Liarsville gang at a local restaurant during a special dinner for a friend.

Tim and Brett (camp musician) making the second batch of banana-nut pancakes in housing. What great teamwork!

We had similar weather during Tim’s visit so you’ll notice most of the photos shown here and on the photo blog show us wearing coats. After renting a car on July 4th and driving up to the nearest town via road in Whitehorse (Canada, 2 hours each way from Skagway), we spent the next several days in Skagway so I could work our busiest days at the docks.

Tim on the fast ferry to Haines via Lynn Canal fjord.

While I was working Tim had some time to work and also to tool around Skagway on foot. He also spent some time in camp and saw the show several times since it’s a little different when there are different performers. One rainy morning after I finished dock duties between 6:30 and 8:30, the camp was having a late morning since there were no shows or bakes until 11am, so Tim and I teamed up to make banana-nut pancakes for most of the crew who were available which was lots of fun.

The fast ferry to Haines only takes 30 minutes from Skagway via the Lynn Canal fjord waterway. The canal is not manmade, but was carved from glaciers a millennium ago and is almost 2000 feet deep in some places.

After working the busiest days in Skagway (Monday thru Wednesday), Tim and I caught the fast ferry to Haines at 2pm on Wednesday afternoon to start our 4-day sightseeing journey through southeast Alaska. I believe I have an earlier post about Haines so I’ll try not to repeat myself too much, but since I had much more time in Haines this time instead of just the couple of hours I spent there in May, there are many more photos in this entry.

Approaching Haines from Skagway via the Lynn Canal fjords. Much of the hillside shown here is the parade grounds of Fort Seward.

While in Haines we stayed in a great little bed-and-breakfast located in the middle of town and with a great view of the harbor. Haines is without question my favorite Alaskan town of the ones I’ve visited so far. It’s a small town (population ~ 2800), and to me is more “real Alaska” because the town is still a working town which makes much of its living from salmon and other fishing and similar industries.

Photo of Haines taken from the air on a recent flight. Shows the harbor and Lynn Canal (fjord) in the foreground which is the approach from Skagway, and the Chilkat River in the background.

Haines is also the location of the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve which is located on the Chilkat River flats along the Haines Highway. This area is called the "Council Grounds" because of its large congregation of eagles (thousands gather here in the late fall). The 48,000 acre preserve which was founded to protect and and conserve the world's largest concentration of Bald Eagles and their critical habitat. We didn't get a chance to tour the preserve this trip because it takes several hours (most often done by raft or pontoon boat), but that is one of the tours that I sell at the Holland America Sales and Service desk, so I hope to take that one later this summer before I leave, so stay tuned if you're interested!

Left are some signs that caught Tim's eye along the quiet streets of Haines near Fort Seward. Right is a great mural in the Bald Eagle museum which also covers other animals and habitat in the region. It has some great exhibits in the back room with life size replicas of bears, mountain goats, eagles, salmon and other kinds of fish and much, much more. When we were there a student intern was on hand to explain the animals and their habitat in detail so it was both interesting and educational.

Below, the Hammer Museum. Now that's a hammer!

Now of course there is of course a tourism industry in Haines. Even though there is only one dock (not counting the ferry dock which is several miles down the road), there are 2-3 cruise ships that come into port during the week (one at a time, compared to about 20/week in Skagway with up to 4 major cruise lines in on the same day sometimes). But relatively speaking the town still seems to have kept it’s original flavor and there appear to be more “local” shops in town than tourist ones. To me, that’s a good thing.

Inside the hammer museum is an amazing display of hammers for every imaginable purpose. I had no idea there were so many kinds of hammers and that they were used for so many things.

Haines is also one of the most stunningly beautiful towns I’ve ever seen. It is surrounded on all sides with towering snow-covered mountains, and the town is perched on a ridge between two waterways, the Lynn Canal fjord on one side and Chilkat River on the other. Lynn Canal is a poor choice of name since canal implies man-made, and the only thing that “made” the canal was the glaciers carving out the path as they moved through the region millions of years ago during the ice age.


Left Tim checks out the wall of marine hammers, and the photo to right is for my USCG buddies who might see these for testing hulls.


Below, in the Sheldon Cultural Museum - Tlinget beadwork on moccasins and other items.

When Tim and I arrived after the 30-minute fast ferry from Skagway, we had packed pretty light so we decided to take our bags and hike the ¾ mile into town where our hotel was located for the exercise. While in Haines we toured the Hammer Museum, the only one of its kind in the world that I know of, and which reminded me much of Tim’s dad and his love of tools (not to mention how handy he was with them).

Tlinget village showing how traditional blanket weaving is done.

Tim takes after his dad in that and seemed to enjoy the eclectic collection of hammers from every industry. I had no idea there were so many different kinds of hammers – special ones for the marine industry and for making furniture and some used for purposes I’d never even heard of. The Smithsonian donated a couple of statues of forgers working with the hammers, and the museum is staffed with volunteers who work there because they enjoy it. I highly recommend this stop if you find yourself in beautiful Haines, Alaska; and the $3 entry fee is incredibly reasonable.
The Sheldon museum included examples of Tlinget ceremonial dress.

After the Hammer Museum we visited the local cultural museum which contained one floor focusing on the Tlingit Native Alaskan culture and history (Tlinget is pronounced "te-linget" but run together quickly), and another on the overall history of Haines and surrounding regions. I enjoyed the Tlingit native exhibits the most which featured a recreation of a Tlingit village and examples of actual handmade Tlingit baskets and clothing with beadwork, including a special exhibit of ceremonial costumes.

The move White Fang was filmed in and around Haines, and the museum included a sled used in the movie and made by a local craftsman.

In an earlier blog I mentioned Leona, one of my co-workers and a roommate from “the French” common house where I live – she is native Alaskan and of the Tlingit tribe (wolf and eagle clan). Her family is from the Skagway area originally and some of her family her lives here year-round; however when not working the summers in Skagway Leona now considers Anchorage home.


Tim and I thought this "dog parking" sign at a restaurant in downtown Haines was a hoot. In case you can't read it with this small photo, the text in the red circle says "No dog parking in doorway." The text above that reads "Dog bar located on lower side of building." And the "bar" is literally that - a metal bar like a hitching post, with a water bowl!

Introducing Tim to Skagway and being tourists!

Greetings readers. I hope this posting finds you all enjoying a wonderful summer.

As I write this it's July 16th, which is Tim and my 25th wedding anniversary. We actually celebrated that milestone earlier when he was visiting Skagway, and we plan to celebrate again later when we're together at home again. Who says an anniversary has to be only one day eh?

Tim stayed with me in housing and got to meet all of our "gang" in Liarsville. It's a fun bunch and since most of them are performers, they aren't exactly camera shy!

Tim has now departed for a business trip in the Pacific Northwest and goodness knows where else, so we're not actually together on our anniversary. But that's okay because I wanted Tim to get to experience Skagway's 4th of July celebration, so together we decided we could celebrate our anniversary anytime, but the 4th happens only when it happens!

Tim joined us at the dock and snapped this photo of me dockrepping with one of my favorite shorex's (shore excursion managers), Sophie from Royal Caribbean. Sophie's a peach!

We took lots of photos while Tim was here, so I'll be posting those in future entries -- so stay tuned for more highlights of his visit in later postings. This entry is mainly devoted to the 4th celebration in Skagway and our trip to Whitehorse in the Canadian Yukon later in the day.

Skagway streets were crowded with people lining up for the egg toss competition.

In addition to the photos here, I'll soon be posting more (and larger) photos on the photo blog at the link noted below, so if you're interested check back occassionally at the photo blog at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/ctssyount/2/tpod.html

July 4th turned out to be a cold and drizzly day as you can see in the photos, but that didn't seem to dampen the spirits of anyone in Skagway. Alaska is one of those places where people just go on about their business regardless of weather (because if you didn't you probaby would never do anything), and whatever comes they just deal with it without complaining. What a concept eh? After all, we're not going to melt, so what's a little rain?

Mother and son are both dressed in the sprit of the day

The 4th celebration started with a great home town parade which reminded both Tim and I of the parades we've seen in other small towns where we've lived like Bozeman, Montana and Bend, Oregon. My favorite entry was the "Fresh Catch" float from the local ice cream store (we have only one) called Kone Kompany. The float was a huge net (like a driftnet used for fishing), and the "catch" inside was cruise ship passengers, who were "lured in" to the net by casting a fishing line with an Alaska guidebook. Classic! They had even included "sample tourists" in the net who stood inside the net asking (in a loud voice as we tourists often do) questions like -- "Where can I find something not made in China?" (but of course that's cheap) -- or "What are the winters like here?" -- questions we all answer multiple times each day. Don't forget, on my "off work" days I'm a tourist here too, so if we can't laugh at ourselves in life, then what's the point?

One of the old cars from a local vendor featured in the parade. These cars are stored in a garage just down the street from our camp in Liarsville, and are used to ferry guests around in Skagway tours.

As with the Kone Kompany's float, all the floats were homemade and there wasn't a big-name sponsor (like Walmart or Sony) in sight! The sponsors were just the local market, hardware store, gold rush era shows and so on. And as usual in these small town parades, there were plenty of dogs and firetrucks and bicycles decorated that joined in the fun. My favorite in that category was a lady who appeared to be in her 70's or 80's who was riding around on her own bike with red-white-and-blue streamers in the wheels, and she was dressed in the same colors with a headpiece and everything. She was so cool!

I grabbed this blurry photo from another blogger's site of the parade. The lady in the center on the bicycle is the older lady I mentioned (she appeared to be in her 70's or so), and notice the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Mounties) as the flash of red in the background.

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera for the parade so I don't have any photos to show of that except a couple I snagged from another blogger shown above, but check out the egg toss photos.

The egg toss competitors included many local vendors who were still in costume from the days of 1898. Check out the rapt attention of that girl in the red dress and white bloomers as she prepares to catch that raw egg coming at her on the street. She's braver than me!

The egg toss was the highlight of the day, where Skagway apparently broke the world record for having the most participants tossing raw eggs back and forth on the street ("unofficial" count was 1,454 people). That was such a blast! Strangely enough, the previous world record was in Wrangell, also in Alaska just a bit south of Skagway. The toss consisted of two lines of people which stretched for several blocks along our main street of Broadway (which is most of downtown Skagway), and the goal was to toss the raw eggs back and forth while increasing the distance between the tossers each time. Once the egg drops though, you're out of the competition.

The crowd and judges (one is the guy in the yellow pants) watch the finalists in the egg toss competition.

The competitors consisted of both local residents, we summer workers, and cruise ship passengers from the one ship in town that day (Friday's are quieter days in Skagway with less ship visitors). Most stores were closed for the parade and the egg toss since everyone wanted to see both of those -- so if you wanted to buy something during those events, you just had to wait until the clerks returned and the stores repopened! Yes, there are still places where people do that!

The sign below is representative of many on shops that day which says "Closing for the Egg Toss!"

After the egg toss competition we grabbed some lunch to go and headed up the hill toward Canada and the White Pass Summit. Skagway has exactly one traditionl car rental place - the Avis at the Westmark Hotel - so I used my local worker discount to get a car for the day at a rate a little lower than the standard $82/day premium.

We drove up the pass in pretty thick clouds and fog, but even with the limited visibility it was a beautiful drive. We saw a bear on the way up as he crossed the road in front of the car before disappearing into the trees on the other side. While in Whitehorse I took advantage of the opportunity to enjoy some food that we can't get in Skagway -- stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut sounds pretty good when you haven't been able to find it for 2 1/2 months, and you'd be surprised how appetizing a McDonald's hamburger and fries sounds after the same length of time. Tim was a real sport at going along with my drooling over these fast food delicacies. :>)

A shop in Carcross (Caribou Crossing) between Skagway and Whitehorse Canada.

After the two-hour drive to Whitehorse and spending some time there, we backtracked back down the Alaskan Highway to Skagway, but stopping first at nearby historic and remote Dyea. Dyea was a huge "tent town" during the Yukon Goldrush of 1898, when stampeders stopped there to gather supplies on their way up the Chilkoot Pass which took the into the gold fields of the Canadian Yukon. From the summer of 1897 right on into the winter of 1898, gold stampeders poured into the tent and shack towns of Skagway and Dyea, both jumping off points for the 600-mile trek to the goldfields. (Source is National Park Service website: http://www.nps.gov/klgo/historyculture/index.htm).

Tim on the trail to the abadoned location of the old city of Dyea where gold rushers camped before heading up the trail. Dyea was a bustling town in 1898 until the train was built through Skagway about 10 miles away and Dyea literally died overnight. Today it is a remote residential area with a few lodges and campsite. This photo was taken about 10:30 at night and we were the only ones in the vicinity. We walked along the trail until it started to head deep into the woods, and after seeing some fresh bear scat we decided to turn around and leave that hike for another day when the chance of an encounter was less. We have bears around here and sightings in Dyea are very common (as well as in Liarsville), so it's a good idea to be a cautious hiker.

During the days of the "stampede", the Canadian government required that anyone going to the Klondike gold fields carry a year's supply of food so they could sustain themselves through the long and harsh Yukon winters. This amounted to a full ton of supplies (in weight) for each person, including the recommended supplies of 400 pounds of flour, 200 pounds of bacon and 100 pounds of beans. (There is a great National Park museum is Skagway that Tim and I toured while he was visiting which shows a model of a stampeder and his ton of supplies -- very illuminating to what it must have been like).

The most difficult part of the trail was what became known as the "Golden Staircase" -- a section of the rail which climbed straight up the moutainside and was too steep for pack animals. This meant that stampeders carried their full ton of supplies on their backs up the "steps" cut into the snow. Imagine the number of trips up and down those steps it would take to carry one ton of supplies to the top.

An actual National Park Service photo of the Golden Staircase along the Chilcoot Trail. The line you see going up in a line of miners climbing up the snow-packed "steps" to cross the pass at the top. Not for the faint-hearted (or faint-willed) eh?

In addition to the grueling trail, stampeders also faced other hardships like murders, suicides, disease and malnutrition, and death from hypothermia, avalanche, and, some said heartbreak when they arrived in the Klondike to find all the gold claims had already been staked (little details conveniently "left out" by reporters as they perpetuated false stories of miners who stepped off the boat and picked up potato-sized nuggets of gold with ease). The "misreporting" by actual reporters became legendary during that time, hence the name "Liarsville" which is the name of the recreated gold camp where I work in Skagway.

The "flats" (tidal areas) of Dyea on a foggy night. This photo was taken about 10:30 at night.

The Chilkoot Trail was the major route into the Yukon gold fields unti the Whtepass Narrow Gauge Railroad was built a year later, when Dyea basically just disappeared overnight since those with gold fever found the train a much easier option than the grueling steep trail. It's amazing what people were willing to believe and put themselves (and unfortunately their animals who didn't have a choice) through for the chance at instant wealth. Hmmm.... given the popularity of lotteries and smiliar ventures, perhaps we haven't changed that much eh?

The road to Dyea is a windy dirt road with drop-offs and no guard rails (like many in Alaska). It's a beautiful drive.

That concludes the "history lesson" for today :>). I'll write more about other adventures when I have time, but until then, cheers! cy

Season halfway point and Tim's visit to Skagway

Greetings readers and a belated Happy 4th of July!

As I post this it's almost mid-July which means we're halfway through the Alaska tourist season. Wahoo!

And the arrival of July also means the long awaited time for Tim's visit to Alaska has finally arrived. Between my work schedule in May getting acclimated to my two new jobs in Alaska, and Tim's crazy travel schedule in June (he was on the road 4 out of 4 weeks) -- we had to wait until July before our nutty schedules cooperated.

He arrived in Skagway on July 1 for a 2-week visit, so this blog has a few photos from that trip, with more to come in future postings.

I am still finding it difficult to obtain Internet access often enough to keep my postings current, and that may be the case until I leave if my current housing situation remains the same (we don't have Internet access in housing). And lately Skagway's service provider has some sort of equipment problem with the relay from Haines which apparently takes all of Skagway Internet down sometimes (only in Skagway) -- so that's made it even more of a challenge. As I understand it the needed part is on order, so hopefully access will improve when that arrives on the barge and can be installed. Life in Alaska is never boring.

I'll keep trying to post when I can, but until then I've posted a series of Alaska photo albums in the photo blog at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/ctssyount/2/tpod.html

I hope you enjoy the photos in the photo blog noted above. And please note that there are 5 different photo albums representing different places/topics, so when you finish one album look for the "Next Album" or "Previous Album" links to view the others. Enjoy!

As I write this entry I've taken a few days off from work and Tim and I have taken the ferry south to Juneau, and then a small single-prop plane "hopper" flight to Glacier Bay. We just completed a spectacular day-trip on the water to the glaciers where we also saw bears, sea otters and whales. It was great. I'll be posting those photos and others from my time in Alaska here and on the photo blog later, so if you're interested please check back frequently to both this blog and the photo blog for future entries.

In addition to the two jobs at Alaska Travel Adventures (dock repping for the jeep tours/salmon bakes and working in costume at the gift shop in the goldrush camp), I have also started working 2 days/week for Holland America Tours. I work on Tuesdays and Saturdays at the Sales and Service desk in Skagway. At the service desk we handle passenger transfers -- passengers who are disembarking from the cruise ships to go on land-based tours, exchanged with passengers who have just completed the land-based tours and are embarking on the ships in those vacated cabins.

Those two "transfer" days are very busy days at the desk, and as it turns out, in my dockrepping job I settle with various cruise ships in the hotel where that desk is located and had gotten to know some of the staff. So when I heard about the opening I applied since it sounded like an interesting job. The company I work for is actually called Discover Alaska Tours, which was created when Princess, Grayline, and Holland America merged last year -- so I see lots of potential there for different kinds of jobs in different places.

At the service desk, in addition to getting cruise ship guests to and from their land-based tours and ship cabins, we also sell them excursions in Skagway and Haines. Because of that the company encourages us to take the tours so we can better inform guests of what the trip is like. I took the Skagway Historic Street Car tour when Tim was here so he got to go along on that one, and I hope to make more excursions during the rest of the summer. Stay tuned for photos and updates on those if you're interested.

Having 3 jobs may sound like a lot, but actually it's not unusual to have multiple jobs during the season in Alaska, and I took on this one because I'd like to maintain a working relationship with HAL (Holland American Lines) since they appear to be a good company, and employees get great discounts on cruises and other tours after a certain amount of time worked. This would also be a great future employer if Tim and I return to Alaska in future summers.

The 3rd job does make things a bit crazy sometimes, and on Tuesdays and Saturdays it's not uncommon for me to work all three jobs in one day -- I start around 6:30am to work the morning jeep tours for the 7:30 pickup, then go to the HAL service desk from 8:30-2:30, then go to the gift shop in Liarsville from 3-closing at 7:30 or 8pm. It keeps me hopping!

This schedule is also part of the reason my postings have not been as regular as I'd like, so I'll keep trying and post when I can. In the meantime, check out our website (http://home.maine.rr.com/ctssyount/Index.html) and the photo-blog noted above, along with checking back here for photos and text updates.

All the best, Carla (Tim says Hi too!)