YUKON TERRITORY Part 1 - Ferry to Skagway.

Went to Whitehorse with some friends a week or so ago. took the car on the Ferry to Skagway, crossed into Canada, thru Carcross and into Whitehorse, which is only about 150 miles or so from Skagway.  The weather was great.    Of course we saw Orcas on the way there - the dorsal fin of a male can be 6 ft tall!

My new camera is proving to have been a worthwhile investment, eh?
Skagway is a cute little old gold mining town.  That thing is the front of a Snow digging train!

I love this fountain!

The HATCHERY

I just found this unfinished post I started late last summer when the mass salmon orgy and death frenzy was at it's peak!   This is one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life.  To read about it in books and see it on nature documentaries on TV is one thing - but seeing it in real time is phenomenal.  First the salmon are fighting and literally dying to get up every freshwater stream in town.  They flop so frantically they'll flop themselves onto shore and not be able to get back in the water.  The sea is a swarming mass of salmon.  Then, after they do their spawn thing... they die, and carcasses are everywhere.  The entire Juneau smells like dead fish and the eagles and bears are everywhere gorging themselves.   I stood in a stream that was about 12 inches deep at the deepest and the salmon were moving past my legs, and crashing into my legs to get upstream.  It was cool!  This whole thing drives home so intensely the urge that these animals have to mate and reproduce. 

Kasaan

I went to the Village of Kasaan on Prince of Wales Island last week for work.  Kasaan is a Haida (Indigenous Alaskan people) village.  We had a meeting there and after the meeting they took us to see the last original standing Haida clan house in Alaska.  It was Chief Son-I-Hat's house.  We also saw his burial site. The house was near the shore and the totems would be visible from boats on the ocean. 

The setting was just beautiful - very isolated and peaceful.  I wish I had taken a pic looking out at the ocean - an incredible view of mountains and islands, with absolutely no visible sign of human activity. It must look close to the same as it did 200 years ago.

We were told not to hold on to the railings on this bridge (that they give a false sense of security because they're about to fall off).  The village of Kasaan is desperately trying to raise funds to maintain this place.  If you're feeling generous, go to their website - you can buy a tee-shirt to help with the fund-raising (I bought 2 while I was there). 



 This bridge was in Kasaan, but in a different place - our meeting had to walk to look at the site of a proposed Magnetite mine. (Our souvenir magnetite rocks did not go over very well at the security in the airport).  And this was the most beautiful rainbow ever we saw from the Inter-island Ferry, which goes from Ketchikan to Hollis, on Prince of Wales.

Winter to Spring... and a Glacier Wedding!

Well it's been a while since my last post.  The winter here was pretty boring compared to the spring,summer and fall.  I just could not get into doing too many outdoor things for some reason - I bought snowshoes but never used them.  Didn't see the light of day much - and it snowed or rained almost constantly.  But here it is spring now and today was beautiful and clear sunny!  The buds are starting to leaf out, the magpies are gone back north and the varied thrushes are buzzing again in the woods.  I did go on a few winter hikes - the trails were icy so it was hard walking.  They sell these things here that you clip onto your boots to make it easier.  Here's some pics I took of a nice walk out to a beautiful desolate beach.  The tide was going out so got some nice pics of the tide channels in the salt marsh.

 Also went to David & Shelly's wedding at Herbert Glacier!  About 10 of us hiked out there (5 miles ea way!) with champagne, salmon spread, cameras, and Shelly had her wedding dress in her backpack.  It was a long arduous hike, through ice and packed snow, and boulders, but a beautiful spot to get married - then a long hike back.   I had the worst blister on one toe - almost the size of my toe! 

  I think Sadie will remember this day the rest of her life!