Floating the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve in Haines

Greetings again readers!

Now that the season is beginning to wind down, I'm trying to take full advantage of my remaining time in Alaska by squeezing in as many tours as possible on my days off. Most people don't make a lot of money as seasonal employees since the hourly wage is not very high, but the "free tour sharing" offered here as a courtesy from one vendor to another is one of the great perks of working in the industry since the cost of many of these excursions can be high. These types of opportunities are why most of us are here.

Floating the Chilkat River in the bald eagle preserve.

Last week I enjoyed floating through the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve in Haines, where in the fall thousands of eagles converge in their natural habitat. This time of year the number of eagles in the preserve is much lower than that peak gathering, but even so the chances of seeing them in groups is pretty good.

Helen and others in our group cross a small portion of the river after donning our loaner wading boots to access the put-in spots for our rafts.

The trip started with a 30-minute ride on the fast ferry to Haines via the Lynn Canal fjords, followed by another 20 minutes or so via bus from the Haines docks to the preserve and put-in area for the floats. Since I have different days off from my co-workers, we often end up taking these tours alone since we most often do them on our days off, but this trip I was lucky that a friend and co-worker, Helen from the Holland America Sales desk, was able to go on the same day as me. So far our days at the desk on "ship days" have been so busy that I simply haven't had time to take any photos at that workplace -- but I'll try to do that if time allows before the season ends.

A marker just ahead of glacier-filled valley

After arriving at the Chilkat River, our group donned the loaner wading boots from the guide company and crossed a section of the river to where our rafts waited at the put-in spot. We first enjoyed a great picnic lunch along the river, and then after gearing up in our life jackets we climbed into the rafts and our guides paddled us into the river "flats."

Helen and I shared the aft section of the raft, just behind our guide.


Given our....ahem.....tempestuous weather in southern Alaska this summer, we really lucked out with a partly cloudy day with mild winds and even some sunny breaks. I found this float trip incredibly beautiful with awesome views up the valleys of glaciers and mountain passes in the distance, and beautiful rocky river shores and soaring eagles all along the route.

We saw eagles sitting up in trees watching for salmon and other prey in the river, eagles soaring high overhead like silent sentinels watching and waiting, and eagles sitting on driftwood along the riverbanks. They were everywhere, and were pretty easy to spot --that white "golf ball" like head stands out quite well among the green leaves of a tree or the grey river rock.

Eagles along the riverbank during our float of the "flats."

Our river guide, Carl, and the other guides worked hard and really earned their tips as they muscled the heavy rafts through the shallows and steered us along the way. My favorite part of the considerable skills they exhibited was when they needed to stop the raft along the way -- with one solo guide per raft - to watch them take a huge leap from raft to the closest bank as we floated by in the fast water with a rope attached to them -- their body acting as our "anchor." Once they had man-handled the raft to a stop (or woman-handled in some cases, because there were women guides too), they'd scope out the water ahead or wait for the rafts behind to keep our armada of 6 rafts together along the several-mile float. It was an awesome site to watch.

As we approached the lower section of the river the guide paddled us over to the take-out spot. We were in the lead raft so we were the first to arrive at the post-raft snacks waiting for us in a shady spot along the shore: homemade chocolate chip cookies, hot chocolate and lemonade. Yum.


Helen and I at the take-out spot at the end of the float. Ours was the lead raft and our group is waiting for the remaining rafts to arrive.

As we enjoyed our snacks we watched the rafts which had followed us along the river arrive one-by-one at the take-out spot to unload their passengers. This is my kind of public transport!

Our talented guide, Carl, setting up the snack table after the after the float. Naturalist, river guide, lunch and snack server -- these guys do it all!

After removing our life jackets and leaving them on the tarp to dry, we enjoyed our snacks and then switched back from wading boots to our shoes which the support team had brought along to the put-out spot. Then we re-boarded the bus and headed back to Haines and our 30-minute return ferry trip back to Skagway. This is another great Alaska trip for anyone who loves the outdoors, wildlife and the water!

Until next time, cheers! cy