August 19 – Haines

No word on when our trailer will be back on the road. Yesterday I was on the phone with the repair place 6 different times. First time, in the morning we received word the axle is in Anchorage and was ready to be sent to Fairbanks that day. A bit later in the day the story morphed to, “Well, we are not sure it’s the right axle. We have two different part numbers and only one should be correct. Later in the day the story changed once again. There is a possibility the correct axle is in Alaska, yet we will not know until Monday (or Tuesday, or Wednesday, or … my thinking). We’ll call back on Monday for an update. Once they have the axle it’s another 2 to 3 days before it can be completely repaired. That leaves us plenty of time to get to Fairbanks when we need to be there.

While in Anchorage we met up with Ben Eastman and his twins once again. They were ready to leave the next day for the lower 48. Twins school starts soon so they needed to head home. We took a day and drove down to Hope, Alaska which is a funky little place off the beaten trail a bit under two hours south of Anchorage. The entire time in the Anchorage area we stayed at a state rec area 12 miles outside of the city in Eagle River. We traveled to a sweet place, Eagle River Nature Center and did a bit of a hike. Hiking for me is still a slow process as I continue to deal with foot issues.

After a few days we decide we have more time to spend before we even know when parts will actually arrive, so we decide to hightail it Haines which is about 800 miles south and east.

Driving to Haines includes getting to the Alaskan Highway and head back towards Whitehorse, Yukon. Before Whitehorse in Haines Junction one road heads south on a 100 plus miles dead end road where the end point is Haines. Located 90 miles from Juneau via water it’s 14 miles from the end of the Lynn Canal, a long fjord finger of water that terminates at Skagway. Skagway, famous for the Klondike Gold Rush days as the principle starting point in getting to Dawson City and the gold fields was a notorious lawless town where many lost their lives as the prepared to haul their 1100 pounds of supplies up either the Chilkoot Pass or White Pass getting to the Yukon River where they needed to build a water craft to float downriver to Dawson City. This is the area of which Jack London (Call of the Wild) and Rober Service (Cremation of Sam McGee; and the Shooting of Dan McGrew) wrote.

Upon leaving Eagle River we set our sights on Tok where we plan on showers and laundry. Showers come infrequently while tent camping so that was high on priority list. We enjoyed both a supper and breakfast the next morning at Fast Eddy’s in Tok. The road from Tok to Destruction Bay is in terrible condition this year with potholes, pavement breaks, along with miles of construction. We finally arrived in Haines Junction, Yukon. The road south of here to Haines passes through 3 different time zones, as the road passes from the Yukon to British Columbia to Alaska. We camp at a nice Yukon Territory campground, Million Dollar Falls, before pushing on the final 100 miles to Haines the next day.

In Haines we luck out in the Chilkoot Lake State Rec Area and score a lakeside site with what a view. The road into the campground follows along the Chilkoot River where there are bears fishing for salmon. We’ll stay here for the next few days until we get an update on trailer parts availability.

South of Anchorage on the way to Hope

South of Anchorage

Sheep Mountain

Now what dance position is this?

Bears near Haines fishing at a fish weir

How do you smoke a salmon?

The view from our campsite

Another campsite view.