June 29th - Returned to Skagway to Ride Steam Engine #69

We returned to Skagway to ride Steam Engine #69 on the White Pass Yukon Route. The history of this notorious railroad is mentioned in a previous post of May 19th.

As we climb the old White Pass Trail we can see Lynn Canal in the distance.

When we rounded the bend two very large bears were on the track. It is easy to read his mind:

"HOLY #%&#*! THE TRAIN IS COMING!"

"NO KIDDING DUDE! I AM OUTA HERE!
They both ran for their lives and disappeared into the bush.


We chugged our way up the trail toward the summit.

We stopped to re-fill water.

When we continued over the summit into the Yukon we encountered a Caribou family resting in the afternoon sun.

The steam engine chugged through the mountainous rocky terrain of the Canadian Yukon.

Before the railroad was completed, it is difficult to imagine how the Klondike "Stampeders" in 1898 climbed up the Chilkoot or White Pass approximately 35 miles from sea level to the summit 2,900 ft. They then had to travel this rocky mosquito infested terrain until they reached the head waters of the Yukon River. They built boats to carry the mandatory one ton of food and supplies necessary to cross the Canadian Border. They traveled the Yukon River to the gold fields surrounding Dawson City a total journey of over 600 miles. The Gold Rush was essentially over by the time the railroad was completed in 1901.

June 26th - Auke Bay to Haines

As we motor-sail up Lynn Canal we see a "Hanging Glacier". The thickness of the ice is visible.
In February 1898, the three-masted passenger ship Clara Nevada, loaded with 800 pounds of gold and an illegal shipment of dynamite, ran aground and exploded at Eldred Rock, 20 miles southeast of Haines, Alaska. Congress viewed the incident as sufficient evidence that a lighthouse on Eldred Rock was needed. The Lighthouse Board approved plans for the lighthouse in May 1905, and the lighthouse was activated June 1, 1906, making it the last of 10 lighthouses constructed in Alaska between 1902 and 1906. The lighthouse became automated in 1973.



We arrived in Haines 7:00pm after our 9 hour passage.
We rafted to a fish boat. It is a working harbor and there is not a lot of room for pleasure boats.


John the assistant Harbor Master was very helpful and offered me a quick tour of Haines in his pickup truck. We went to the movie set where "White Fang" was filmed.

The Haines Brewery is located in one of the buildings and we went in for a taste.

The population of this Alaskan borough is 2,257 and a total area of 2,726 square miles. You do the math!

The Brewery is a hot spot!
The menu consists of:
Lookout Stout
Eldred Rock Red (after the lighthouse)
Spruce Tip (taken from the recipe of Captain Cook's Crew of 1778.)
Black Fang (surely to turn your white fangs black!)

The brews are available in re-fillable bottles or re-fillable litre jugs.

I purchased two jugs, one of Black Fang and one of Spruce Tip.

That evening on the boat I cooked a delicious dinner of:
Herb Garlic Roast Pork Tenderloin With Applesauce
Mashed Potatoes
Fresh Green Beans With onion and bacon
and:
A hearty mug of "Black Fang"
WE ARE REALLY IN ALASKA!

Whales of Lynn Canal

We turned in off of Lynn Canal near Chilkoot Inlet for a closer view of Dickinson Glacier.

In the distance we could see the familiar mist from the "blows" of Humpback Whales.

The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is the baleen whale most frequently seen swimming or feeding close to shore along the southern coast of Alaska. When beginning to dive, animals often lift their flukes out of the water thereby exposing the pattern of black and white which characterizes the ventral side. This pattern varies with each whale and is used by biologists to identify individual animals. Humpbacks may stay submerged for as long as 30 minutes although most dives do not last longer than 15 minutes. When resting near the surface between dives, whales may blow every few seconds.
With Dante's telephoto lens we could see the blowhole and the "hump" surfacing.

After a deep breath the huge fluke appeared. Notice the texture of the vertebrae in the tail.

As the whale began to dive the fluke began to rise out of the water.

Volumes of water dripped from the slick surface of it's skin.

The patterned underside is unique to each whale and it can be identified by the marking.

June 22nd - Our Adventure to Tracy Arm

We departed Auke Bay and headed for Taku. We spent a restful night at the dock and in the morning continued on to Tracy Arm. Having been there with Daniel and Melanie in May we were fascinated to see how the scenery had changed. Huge icebergs were present as we entered Holcomb Bay. Bald Eagles

were scanning for food upon their icy perch.

Eerie forms seemed to rise and stare at us as we glided by.

Sea monsters imprisoned in blue ice floated by us as we navigated through the mystical maze.
Lacy waves captured in time appeared but did not break.

Frozen cliffs of ice seemed to rise from the from the ocean floor.

Bald Eagles rode the icy ships as they hunted for food.

Dante captured a mythical monster escaping the confinement of it's river of ice.

As we entered Tracy Arm, Dante was vigilant on the bow directing Captain Lou through the ever increasing ice field.

Captain Lou intensely watches every move of Dante's directions

When the channel became too ice choked our adventurers climbed into Wings armed with a boat hook and continued up the channel. In the lower right hand corner notice how small they look in comparison to their surroundings. Click on the photo to enlarge after viewing click "back arrow" to return to the blog. Deborah and I stayed on Seventh Heaven and manuvered around the icebergs until they returned.

Dante and Lou could go no further. The glacier had calved so much ice that it was impossible to continue closer to the head.

They returned to Seventh Heaven and we headed back down the channel. Dante again was on bow watch and guided us safely through the ice.

We were happy to be in the peace and safety of our anchorage in "No Name Cove".

Deborah helped assemble our home made pizza.

We had a lovely dinner of Fresh Dungeness Crab Salad (caught by the infamous "'Crab Louie") and our freshly baked pizza.

Another unforgettable day in this frozen paradise!

June 21st - Aqua Blue Iceberg, Mendenhall Glacier

Icebergs are forever changing! Notice the huge chunk of on the left that has broken off of the glacier.

In this photo the iceberg flipped over and the clear aqua blue underside is exposed.

Dante and I hiked as close as we could to photo this natural wonder

There were many wonderful bergs floating in the lake in front of the glacier.

June 18th - 19th Coot Cove in Funter Bay

We departed Auke Bay with sun shining and a gentle breeze all the way to Funter Bay. Dall's Porpoise played in the wake of our bow and humpbacks spouted in the distance.

We anchored in Coot Cove within Funter Bay. Lou put a crab pot out.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset in pastel colors. In the morning we explored the bay and retrieved one large Dungeness Crab.

We returned to Auke Bay to prepare for the arrival of Dante and Deborah.

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June 13 - Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau

We returned to Auke Bay to have our charging system checked. As you approach the harbor you can see the looming Mendenhall Glacier in the distance
I re-visited the Glacier. It is ever changing depending on the weather and light.

On this day much blue ice was visible.

It is the most dense ice and only allows blue light through from the color spectrum.

Large icebergs calve from the face of the glacier.

If you are in the right place at the right time the cracking sounds called "white lightening by the natives" is spectacular!

If you look at the little white speck near the middle top of the cliff, just below the tallest tree you will see a long haired mountain goat and her two newly born "kids".

This is a very poor telephoto picture of the mother goat. She was so far away.

I enjoyed standing in the mist of the glacier water fall.

When Bald Eagles Fight!

"She has been worried about him all day. He always goes off and leaves her!"

"Whoa, I'm late!"

"Where have you been?"

"Never mind!"
"You know it hurts my feelings!"

"She just flew away!"

"I better go get her!"

"Honey, let's not fight!"

June 1st - Glacier Bay to Pelican

As we look out at Cape Spencer a Humpback surfaces very close to our boat.

We departed Bartlett Cove and when we reached Point Gustavus we made our obligatory call to Park Headquarters informing them that we were exiting Glacier Bay. We continued down Icy Strait hesitating at every opportunity to watch the Humpbacks feeding. We entered South Inian Pass and stopped at Elfin Cove for a quick visit. The boardwalk village was in the process of preparing for summer visitors. We then entered Cross Sound which is open to the Gulf of Alaska. We passed the Boussole Arch. This is a natural arch created by the pounding winter seas.

To our starboard we could see the Brady Glacier which is actually a huge icefield. It is 24 miles long and extends 46 miles northwest from Hoonah. It is part of Glacier Bay National Park.

We sailed in the Gulf of Alaska until we reached Lisianski Inlet turned to port and sailed 26 miles to "Pelican". High snow capped mountains and pristine wilderness line both sides of the narrow fijord. Pelican was a vision of an early entrepeneur Kalle Raatikainen looking for a location to build a fish cold storage and cannery in the 1930's. Previously fisherman had to brave the long passage to Sitka to process their catch. Pelican, named after his boat, is stratigically located near a glacier fed river. A small hydro-electric plant was built and Pelican was in business.

Pelican is only accessable by floatplane, Alaskian State Ferry every 2 weeks or private boat. It is a boardwork community and vehicles are limited to less than the width of the walkway so golf carts and ATV work well.

Vintage homes line the boardwalk.

At the heart of the community is the infamous "Rosie's Bar".

The walls are lined with dollar bills and signatures of visitors. See if you can find "Lou and Mary Aubert, Seventh Heaven" in the maze. I personally crawled up onto the bar to place it on the ceiling at the encouragement of Rosie herself to immortalize our visit!

We enjoyed hearing stories of Rosie's fascinating life in Alaska. She is 75 years old and has sold the bar 3 times always having it returned to her because of lack of payment. She and her "boyfriend" as she calls him, run it now.
She is of Tlingit descent and her first marriage was arranged by her mother within her tribe. Eleven children and four husbands later she sold her tugboat which she used as her home as well as fishing and bought the bar 35 years ago. Rosie laughed when she told us that she was such a good fisherwoman that her rivals called her "Greedy Squaw". THIS IS THE REAL ALASKA!

This is the heart of Pelican's business district. The general store is well stocked and Pelican Seafoods is the major employer of the town of 118 residents. We met a wonderful couple Mark and Karen in Rosie's Bar. He is the chief engineer at Pelican Seafoods. They invited us to their home which is above the General Store and Post Office for a lovely dinner.

"Thank you Mark and Karen!"

A somber reminder of hope for the future of these unique Alaskian communites on the far reaches of this incredible state.

May 31st - Is this the wilderness?

Fresh Seafood Linguine with:
Fresh Local Salmon
Fresh Local Halibut
Fresh Local Mussels
Fresh Local Clams
Prawns
In a rosemary scented white wine and tomato broth.
Simply Amazing!!!
On our final day in Glacier National Park once again in Bartlett Cove we had dinner in the Lodge.
(and Louie had a hamburger?)

When in Alaska do what the Alaskans do! Make a Halibut Pizza!

Whales and Porpoises

Off of Point Adolphus we encountered a pod of Humpback Whales feeding.
Dall's Porpoise joined us in icy Strait and played for miles at the bow. They may be the fastest small Cetacean on the planet. They have been clocked at doing 30 knots through the water.

The Humpback's enter Icy Strait to feed in the rich waters of Southeast Alaska. They are on their way to the North Pacific for the summer. They will return to tropical waters in winter to give birth