June 23

We’re up and ready to go. Juneau is a large city using Alaskan standards. The same size as Fairbanks with more than 30,000 people yet you reach it by air or sea. No roads lead to Juneau. Off on a day trip to Juneau we head over to the dock to catch the boat. It leaves Haines at 8:30, drops us off in Juneau around 11:30, then leaves Juneau for Haines around 4:30. It’s not a direct boat trip. On the morning trip the captain looks for whales and other sea life and on the return he wanders even more.

Dockside we meet a photographer, Kim, living in Haines for the summer who leads photo tours out of Haines. She doing a busman’s holiday. On her day off she’d heading to Juneau as well. 45 minutes out of port we are near shore observing some sea lions when the captain announces one of the engines has stopped working so we are turning around and heading back to port. Our Juneau trip is cancelled.

Back in Haines we arrange to try again for tomorrow. In the meantime we explore the greater local area. Kim and I talked photography and she told me a brown bear and three cubs were seen along a river outside of town yesterday. I saw a photo she had taken, one of the best photos of a mama bear and three cubs I have ever seen! WOW! Perfect lighting at two in the afternoon. Everyone else I had asked said don’t bother looking for any bear until dusk. Well, at dusk there may not be good lighting. Normally two pm would not be good either, but up here the sun does not get as high in the sky thus the good lighting. Marsha and I headed out to look for the bears but no luck. Besides, it was only 1 pm so of course, no bears. We explored a few other areas then headed out around 4 to look for her again. We were so lucky and observed mama and her three cubs for 20 minutes! Thank you Kim!!

We try for Juneau again tomorrow.