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!