Four Days in Haines part 1

Note: I'm running behind. I entered some blog material while we were on the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry but there is too much stuff in my head to get it all down. This part 1 of 4 days in Haines may be the only part for a while. At the present moment I'm in Everett, WA at Bernadette and Jay's house. Bernadette is Monica's sister and I've stopped to have breakfast and to catch up on internet stuff. I'll be off on my own later today to connect with Loretta and the Bonneville gang. Don't know when my next internet connection will be but I hope to fill you in on the other 3 Haines days and the 3+ days on the Ferry as well as what happens on the way to Wendover, NV/Bonneville Salt Flats.

Four Days in Haines



As mentioned earlier crossing the border from BC to Alaska was almost too easy. Tomto is concerned that terrorists, at least ones that look like old Anglo bikers riding BMWs could easily sneak into the US at the this crossing. I suspect he is contemplating a call to Homeland Security and suggesting a more rigorous vetting of those crossing into the US. Never mind that Haines is probably 300 miles by road from the nearest US town or that one must pass through parts of British Columbia and Yukon Territory to get to that town which is the very strategic nerve center of Skagway.



Thirty nine miles from the border crossing is the 'Welcome to Haines' sign (we've got pictures). The Haines Highway splits to the right and continues on past the rather modest cruise ship dock to its end at Portage Cove where there is a small state park where backpackers and cyclist (pedalists) camp for $5 per night. The high school is out this way according to a recent grad who served us at the Lighthouse but we couldn't identify it. This tail od the Haines Highway runs along the Lynn Canal which is not really a canal but the saltwater passage that connects the Haines pennisula to larger waters to the south. Also above the end of the Haines Highway and the cruise ship dock rises Fort William H. Seward, once an US Army outpost housing up to 400 troops and dependents at the turn of the 20th century the fort was abandoned by the army after WWII and was purchased by a group of local veterans in hope of making it a tourist attraction. That venture failed, at least as a total entity. Many of the buildings have been purchased by individuals and some are used for residences and others as businesses. The two and three story white wooden buildings are on the side of a slope high above the Lynn Canal and surround a nine acre parade ground. On the street that runs parallel to the canal and the highway are the officers quarters, the commanders home, the surgeons home. At either end of this street are 2 perpendicular streets facing the parade grounds on which the hospital, recreation building, bachelor officers quarters, headquarters building, and the fire department buildings stand. At the base of the slope forming the fourth side if the parade ground is the surviving enlisted mens' barracks (the other barracks building burned in 1980's). All in all a remarkable private effort in preservation, the building all show signs of hard winter and advanced age and a so large that heating them in this climate must be a challenge.



The Headquarters building and the BOQ have been joined to form the Halsingland Hotel, probably THE hotel in Haines even though it needs paint and the chimneys are few bricks shy of a full stack. The hotel lobby is frontier shabby but the restaurant has quite an upscale menu at reasonable prices. Tomto and I shared a Swiss flatbread that was quite good and my haddock with sweet potato fries was OK (not up to the gold standard haddock and chips at the Bamboo Room). Locally brewed porter and Alaskan Ale on tap in the former officers room made for a pleasant last dinner out in Haines.



I seem to be writing the 4 days in some sort of reverse disjointed order. Tune in for more.