Aug 19-Aug 25

The day after the great Chilkat river trip we took it easy. We had been entertaining the idea of climbing the mammoth Mt. Ripinski (sp?) to the north of Haines in a 2 or 3 night backpacking trip. Bob suggested however, that we wait for a better day so we could get the good views. I don't think we needed much arm twisting to take a day off though.

As I write this now, 2 months later in Keokea on the island of Maui after 3 days hiking around the volcano, something strikes me: why the hell did we want to climb that big mountain with full packs?

Instead of hiking, we went into Haines and bought a couple gifts then mailed them at the post office. Then we went to the library and found they had internet access for free! Despite an obvious sign above the computer screen that said, "No E-mailing from these computers," we spent a couple hours reading and sending e-mail.

I don't know what night, but one night that week Joan and I cooked a meal for Bob. He picked fresh corn on the cob from his garden and some beans and he had some steak he bought that day. Joan and I set out to cook everything and didn't do too bad except the beans weren't done for an hour or so after we finished eating. We ate them another night. Bob pointed out that we may have been the only people in Alaska in fresh roasneers (corn on the cob).

Bob is probably the most successful corn grower in Alaska. He is even more successful than his favorite pioneer/ farmer/horticulturist from Haines, Charlie Anway.

He told us that night about a special deal, for locals only, on the White Pass and Yukon railroad. This included a 1 hour boat ride from Haines to Skagway then a 30 mile train ride up White Pass to the Yukon Territory and then back down to the boat for the return to Haines. The White Pass and Skagway are famous from the Alaska Gold rush of 1898.

This is where the thousand steps were cut in the snow. This is where every miner had to bring 1000 pounds of food and gear with him to be admitted into Canada (the border is at the top of the pass). Skagway was a pretty rough town for a few years there, probably not unlike Natchez, Mississippi in its hey-day. Now Skagway is like Disneyland, with a wax museum of the old bars and a Starbucks.

We had considered the trip to Skagway before and I'm always up for a train ride but the full fair cost was about $105 each so we had abandon the trip. But at the locals rate, we go the whole thing for $40 each so we went for it. The deal is, it was the end of the tourist season and no cruise ships were in port so they were desperate for people. That's why the big discount.

I enjoyed the train ride immensely. It goes up quite a canyon with almost continuously remarkable views. There are some tunnels and bridges right out of a model train magazine.

On the way down we were on the last car and we stood on the back of the car just like Abraham Lincoln and watched the scenery pass behind us. After a while the brakeman came back to watch too. I asked him what a brakeman does anyway. He's like an assistant conductor, collecting tickets and what not. He also keeps an eye out on the train and tracks for potential maintenance problems. He also told us that when a cruise ship is in port, all of the seats are filled. That day only about 15 percent were filled. A very easy day for him and he was enjoying the ride for once.

The next day, Sunday August 24th, it was misty and cloudy again so Bob took us 4-wheeling in the mountain-side to some more of his favorite spots. We couldn't go to one place because the river was flooding. At another place there was a huge stump across the road but we just managed to sneak the truck around it and not slide off the road.

We were on our way back, going down a gravel road through the woods when we saw a black bear galloping down the road not 30 yards ahead of us. It was skinnier and more agile than I expected. We saw him for a while then he dashed off the road into the thick brush on the left. We were happy that our only bear sighting in the northwest was from a truck not a tent, or a tree.

We took a hard look at the calendar that night and realized that we would not have time to make a 2 night trip out of Mt. Ripinsky and we did not want to do the whole thing in one day. So Bob suggested we climb the other mountain next to Haines, Mt. Riley.

Haines lies on one of my favorite geographical features and an unusual one at that: an Isthmus. I don't know the dictionary definition of Isthmus but it seems to be a narrow or low piece of land connecting two larger ones. Central America is an isthmus between North and South America. Haines is an isthmus (called the Deshiu (sp?) isthmus) between Mt. Ripinski to the north and Mt. Riley to the south. As I write this in Maui, we are near the isthmus between the western mountains and Mt. Haleakala. And in Costa Rica of course, we were on the great central American Isthmus. This is sort of an Isthmus tour. (We sent some people gifts of coffee from Costa Rica - think of it as an Isthmus present.)

So the next day Bob dropped us with our bikes at the trail head for the Mt. Riley climb. We locked our bikes and he kind of laughed at the sign that said, "Mt. Riley Summit 3.0 miles."

Bob was right. It was the longest 3 miles I've ever hiked. Well worth it though. I just wish they had a more honest sign. From the top we could see 360 degree. We could see the entire Isthmus, we could look up the Chilkat river and relive our trip, we could see up the Lynn Canal almost to Skagway, and down the Lynn Canal half way to Juneau. We could probably see a dozen glaciers. We took lots of pictures. Some other Californians at the top gave us some dried apricots, thank the Lord, I was starving.

Next: Humpbacks, Orcas and Klinkits

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