June 22 2008 Haines

I guess we must have passed some kind of test, because today the Road Gods smiled upon us! The road from Haines Junction down to Haines was one of the best we've been on since leaving Western Australia (those WA boys really know how to build a road, something I never appreciated until I left!). It was smooth with good wide shoulders and none of the usual tank traps. Well there were a few closer to Haines on the US side but overall it was a good road and so relaxing to drive.

About 50 kms out of Haines Junction I said to Lee, “What's that on the road, it's a grizzly, no, it's a moose, no it's a bison, no it's a big grizzly. Yup it's a grizzly.” He was a nice young fellow, probably a four year old as that is when mom tells them to buzz off and fend for themselves. This guy was busy eating the flowers in the national park. It seems nobody had told him not to pick the flowers. I certainly didn't! They say you can tell a grizzlies mood by watching his ears, but this guy's hardly poked through his prolific fur. If his ears are laid back he's expecting a fight and he is probably going to eat you. If they are forward and he is approaching in a non-cautious manner then he sees you as prey and he's probably going to eat you. I'm sure I'm forgetting something here, but the take home message seemed to be don't waste time looking at his ears, look for the door handle on your car!

Yesterday there was a cycling race along this road, which had we known about we'd have been here watching. You could ride the full 240 kms from Haines Junction down into Haines or you could do it as a relay team. Apparently one of the check points was visited by a grizzly, curious I suppose, or hungry, or perhaps just checking to see if Lance Armstrong had come out of retirement for the race. Imagine screaming down the hill at 70 kph and coming across a grizzly. You'd be thinking “all the bear warning signs say they can run up to 45 mph, how many kilometers per hour is that?” Or maybe, “what kind of stain remover can I use on cycle nicks?” Or “so what would Lance do here?”

The trip down into Haines seemed quite different to the one down into Skagway, even though they are not very far apart. There was much more alpine tundra with grassy meadows going into Haines whereas going into Skagway was kind of a moonscape, seemingly like the glaciers had just finished their work and buggered off to town for a quick cup of coffee and no vegetation had started to grow yet.

The two towns are quite different as well, Skagway literally had thousands of tourists when we were there, off 4 big cruise ships and the town and shops reflected the fact that there was a vast pile of tourist dollars there to be siphoned off. Haines is more like a real town where people have to earn an honest living, though they obviously get more than a few tourists here too. There is a great hardware shop here, where you can buy screws by the pound in brown paper bags (huge satisfied sigh). So now the drawer who's bottom fell out on the Tok road reminds me of a kid into body piercing, with it's bottom fairly bristling with screws. I can carry an anvil in there now!