Off to Haines, AK!

It was another early morning while on vacation (I really thought that vacation / Sumer break meant sleeping in and staying up late.. apparently not this year ). Today we’re off to Haines, AK for a sea kayaking tour at Chilkoot Lake.

We hopped aboard one of the Haines-Skagway fast ferries around 7:45am and made it into Haines about 30 minutes later. Our kayaking tour guide, Robert, arrived shortly after we landed and shuttled us to Chilkoot Lake where we had almost two hours on the lake touring around.

The lake was amazing. It was a calm day (wind wise) so the lake was smooth as glass and the sun was shining high up in the sky (which according to locals, is pretty rare in Haines as it tends to rain a lot during the summer months). We grabbed our gear and cameras and got settled into our tandem kayak. Luckily for me, all of my kayaking skills came back and there was nothing to worry about.

Chilkoot Lake

Robert our kayaking guide and the kayaks

My view of the lake from the front of the kayak

Halfway around the lake we decided to see if we could shuffle our return ticket to Skagway to the next day as we wanted more time to walk around Haines. Robert worked his magic and was able to get our return ticket to Skagway swapped to tomorrow at 1:00 pm. Whoo-hoo!

Snow-melt waterfall

We continued our paddle of Chilkoot Lake. Chilkoot Lake is glacially fed (glacier melt run off) by the Chilkoot Glacier (which was too far back for us to see) as well as by snow melt from the surrounding mountains, giving it’s emerald green color (due to glacial silt at the bottom of the lake).

 

Soon our time on the lake was coming to an end and we had to head back into shore. Although I could have stayed out there much longer paddling around basking in the sun, the wind was beginning to pick up and the water was quickly loosing it’s calm, glassy look.

We performed an A+ landing at the dock (one of the best that our guide has seen) and more or less elegantly skooched out of the kayak… it was at this time that my kayaking skills failed me and I almost wound up in the lake with my less than elegant but skooch out of the kayak.

Once out we helped Robert gather up gear and float the boats over to the loading ramp. At this point he felt that we had gone above and beyond the call of duty and handed us our lunches and told us to go relax while he loaded the kayaks onto the trailer.

We sat back at one of the picnic tables by the lake and enjoyed our lunch bag of goodies enjoying the sunshine discussing what we were now going to be doing in Haines since our plans changed on the fly. We figured we’d just play it by ear and see where the day took us. After lunch, we headed back into town and got dropped off at the visitors center to continue our now ‘see-what-happens-next’ adventure.

Haines Alaska sign at the docks

As the visitors center was closed for lunch when we arrived we went across the street to one of the many camping stores to browse around. Although there was many goodies available for camping (gear and other odds and ends) I restrained myself and only looked (now I need to cross my fingers that MEC will eventually carry some of the items).

We headed back over to the visitors center to get an idea about what there as to do in town. There is plenty to do and see in town, however, it was Sunday and many places (art centers, museums and galleries) were closed. Our main goal was to go see the glaciers – however we could. In Haines there is two main flying tour guides that will take you to the Glaciers: Mountain Flying or Fly Drake. We checked out both of the tours and decided to go with Mountain Flying as a) they were open b) they were cheaper and c) we’re getting some raving reviews from others who have gone on the flying tour of the glaciers. Then came the fun part – playing phone tag.

While we played phone tag we went on the self-guided tour of Ft. Seward, walked around town a little more, checked out some local art work in stores that were open and eventually found ourselves a place to crash for the night… and of course, we continued to play phone tag.

We were beginning to think that our chances of getting on a flightseeing tour at the last minute were pretty bleak until Paul (the pilot) called back and asked us how 7:00pm sounded. We were game!

Around 6:40pm we were picked up at our hotel and shuttled out to the Haines Airport were we met up with Paul. By this time I was just giddy with excitement. Last summer when I was down in Haines Junction I thought of going on one of the glacial flightseeing tours offered out of their airport but was unable to get booked on a flight as a single person (they tend to prefer groups of two or more to help with the costs).

The Bush plane that would take us on our amazing tour

The view from the Haines Airport

After the mandatory safety speech and the turning off of all cell phones we were up in the air. By this point, my eyes were huge saucers and I was vibrating with excitement. The tour that we were on takes us up and over and near the east and west arms of the glaciers located in Glacier Bay National Park.

I don’t know about you, but I think glaciers are just one of the most amazing things on Earth (right up there with northern lights, the midnight sun / 24 hour dark).

For the next hour and a half, I sat there, eyes wide open soaking it all in and madly snapping photos and video. I can’t even explain what I was thinking and feeling at that point other than the experience was mind blowing.

All throughout the night, after our flightseeing tour was done, all that I saw when I closed my eyes was that amazing landscape high up in the mountains that only a fraction of the world will ever see.