September 1 - 15, 2001

Saturday, September 1, 2001                                                    Eagle River, AK

We hooked up with my folks once again and spent the morning at the Anchorage Farmers’ Market.  Then we dropped them off for their bus ride down to Seward where they’ll catch their cruise ship.  It was great getting see my parents for a couple days and having them spend time with us in Alaska.  We hope they have a great cruise.

Christine and I spent a quiet afternoon back at Craig’s house.  She’s busy now getting her final projects organized for this term.

Sunday, September 2, 2001                                                                Eagle River, AK

We slept in and enjoyed a quiet Sunday morning before heading out to catch a matinee movie.  Back at Craig’s house Christine returned to her studies.  She took a long enough break to bake up two delectable blueberry pies with the berries we picked up on the Denali Highway.  One of the pies was reserved for Craig.

Monday, September 3, 2001                                                                Soldotna, AK

We departed today for several days on the Kenai Peninsula.  The Kenai is considered to be Alaska in a microcosm.  It has a variety of Alaska’s geography in a relatively small area.  We had a great drive along Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet through party cloudy skies.  We stopped at the small community of Hope to walk around before lunch.

We stopped at a roadside turnout along the south side of Turnagain Arm for lunch.  As we were finishing up our meal we watched a pod of beluga whales pass by on their way west.  Belugas closely resemble a large dolphin, and are milky white in color.

We continued down the Sterling Highway to Soldotna.  We found a nice campground right on the Kenai River.  We bought ourselves a fishing license for the next three days to try to catch some silver salmon.  The day had turned into a beautiful one with dry blue skies.  We could only hope that it would stick around.

Tuesday, September 4, 2001                                                                  Homer, AK

We weren’t so lucky with the weather.  The rain came in during the night and kept us company all day.  We started out with some fishing from a boardwalk right near our campground.  We were the only ones standing out there in the rain fishing, but it was still great.  I landed a small silver early that we threw back in hopes of catching something bigger.  Christine hooked a keeper that snapped her line as she was about to pull it in.

We decided to move on, so we did a bit of shopping in Soldotna (we needed more lures) before driving out to Kenai, located at the mouth of the Kenai River.  The rain varied between a steady drizzle and a solid downpour.  We stopped to check out the fishing at Cunningham Park.  I joined a dozen men fishing the bank there while Christine whipped up a hot lunch of tuna melts in the RV.  There was little being caught there so we moved on down the road toward Homer.

We stopped briefly at Deep Creek, but saw no action.  We finally set out in the rain again at Anchor River.  We found some casting room between the trees along the bank while four or five fly fishermen were wading in the shallows.  Christine tolerated the rain for a while before heading back to the RV.  I was engrossed in the pursuit as the high tide was bringing in a fresh batch of silvers.  I hooked two nice ones that both got away; one let go of the hook, the other snapped my line.  After nearly two hours I returned to the RV empty handed but excited about the experience.  Fishing is still so new to me.  I have much to learn.

With the afternoon gone we drove into Homer to find a spot for the night.  We found a great campground right on the Cook Inlet with a great view of the Chugach Mountains across Kachemak Bay.  Before parking for the night we drove on down to the Homer Spit.  This is a very narrow four-mile long protrusion of land jutting out into Kachemak Bay.  The spit makes Homer what it is: Halibut Fishing Capital of the World. 

There is a seawater fishing hole in a bight on the spit that is stocked with salmon (silvers and kings) by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.  Salmon eggs are raised in a hatchery to smolt size and then are transferred to pens floating in the fishing hole.  They are held captive in those pens to both increase their size and to imprint them to that saltwater location that will attract them back home to spawn several years later.  This creates an interesting phenomenon in the fishing hole.  Salmon need freshwater to spawn, so none of the eggs laid in the fishing hole will ever become viable, but the fish don’t know that.  They leap out of the water slamming themselves on the water surface to break loose their sperm and egg sacks before discharging them.  This is usually accomplished by merely swimming the demanding courses up the freshwater streams.  The jumping salmon are a real oddity to watch when they have nothing to jump up.  The other source of their jumping may be the occasional predatory sea lions that swim into the hole for any easy smorgasbord. 

After sitting and watching the jumping fish for a while we went out hunting for a place to have dinner.  Christine read in one of our travel guides that Homer had a new brewery, so we decided to hunt it down.  We finally found a knowledgeable local that disappointed us with the news that Homer’s brewery is just that … a brewery, and nothing more.  Not a brewpub, nor a bar.  We finally ended up having some very tasty halibut at a local Irish pub before returning to our campground for the night.

  The Homer Spit

Wednesday, September 5, 2001                                                                Homer, AK

The rain died out last night and the wind moved in.  We awoke this morning to the RV rocking in the 25-30 mph winds coming across Cook Inlet from the west-southwest.  It blew in some clearer skies and some heavy seas.  It was a beautiful day.

We started out with some fishing down at the fishing hole.  It’s amazing how there can be so many fish jumping and swimming around that hole, yet so few actually being caught.  They seem to have a one-track mind focused on reproduction.  So few take the time to think about food, even when it’s dangled right in front of them.

It wasn’t too crowded as Christine and I settled into a spot with our backs to the wind at low tide.  We got pretty frustrated as we were losing lures to snags on the bottom or to our lines snapping when we hooked a big one.  I finally learned another lesson today that one must have line of ample strength for the desired catch.  Our 6-pound test was no match for these fishing conditions.  We took a break to walk along the spit and find some lunch, and I decided to look for a tackle shop to replace our line.

We had a great lunch and walked around talking to some of the charter services about going out to catch some halibut.  The water has been so rough that nobody’s been going out the past few days, and it looks pretty questionable for tomorrow.  We found a tackle shop on the way back and I had some new 12-pound test line spun onto our reels.  The heavier line doesn’t behave on the reel as nicely, and we still lost a couple lures, so we stopped our fishing for the day, no catch.

We drove around the outer areas of Homer and climbed up the bordering hill to Skyline Drive.  The views across the bay were magnificent.  We meandered around and made our way back home for dinner in and a quiet evening.  We sat in our warm quiet RV looking out at two soaring bald eagles angling into the wind as they scouted the shoreline.

1) The Fishing Hole; 2) The Homer Docks.

Thursday, September 6, 2001                                        Cooper Landing, AK

We awoke to the continued presence of wind buffeting our RV.  This forced us to cancel any idea of jumping out of bed early to go catch an all day halibut charter off of the spit.  Lying here warm and cozy—we felt only mildly disappointed about our fortunes for the day.

We decided to head back up the peninsula and try some more fishing back in Soldotna, on this the last day left on our 3-day fishing license.  We picked up a couple young women hitch-hiking on the way out of Homer.  They were from Scotland and had come here to attend a friends wedding on Kodiak Island, a Jewish woman marrying an Eskimo man.  I would have liked to been part of this diverse wedding celebration.

We had a beautiful day to drive up the peninsula.  The volcanoes and mountains were all in clear view on the west side of Cook Inlet.  We dropped the women in Soldotna where they continued to hitch their way toward Seward.  Christine and I picked up a few more lures and some lunch before finding a fishing spot on the bank of the Kenai River at the Soldotna Creek City Park.

They had a nice boardwalk along the river from which we could fish.  Here it was in early afternoon on a sunny day—not a common time for fish to be biting, but we had to give it a go anyway.  The current was moving with great force in front of us, so I ventured up river in search of some calmer pools where the salmon tend to rest.  I finally found an inlet where the Soldotna Creek flows into the Kenai River.  There were a lot of aged and colored salmon swimming slowly in their final moments after spawning, but I also spotted some fresh chrome-colored silvers that had just come up river.

I hooked my first fish on my third cast there, and was dragging it onto the shore after a lively fight when Christine finally found me.  I pointed out that this spot looked good, so she returned to get her rod and we continued to fish.  It was some time later that I hooked a second much larger silver that Christine helped me drag onto the bank.  Two fish was my legal limit for today, so I went up to the RV to get what I needed to fillet the fish while Christine continued fishing.

After losing a second lure to a snagged fish she stood by to watch me fillet my first fish.  I grew up in a very enriching environment that exposed me to lots of varied experiences, but hunting and fishing were not included in my youth.  Fishing, and now cleaning fresh catch for a meal was totally new to me.  They weren’t the prettiest fillets that I carved off those two fish, but they were certainly satisfactory for my first effort.  We skinned them right there so that all the fish remains could be thrown back into the river to decompose, and thus enrich the river.

Christine cleaned up the final results and bagged the fillets for the freezer.  She set one portion aside to bake up for dinner tonight.  We packed everything up and continued a bit further along the road to Cooper Landing, a small settlement back amongst the mountains, further up the Kenai River.  Christine baked up the salmon with some rice and zucchini for a very satisfying meal.  Additional satisfaction came from knowing that the fish had been swimming in the river just a few hours earlier.

  The proud fisherman.

Friday, September 7, 2001                                                                Eagle River, AK

It had rained on us last night in our campground, but the higher elevations were coated in a blanket of termination dust as we made our way back up to Anchorage.  We got back to Craig’s House in plenty of time to clean up before going out to a concert tonight. 

We had made plans with Craig over the phone this week to get tickets for this band that was recommended to us by a friend.  We were disappointed to learn that the show had long been sold out.  So Craig put together alternate plans for us all to have dinner at the home of his friends, Pete and Jane.

Pete and Jane recently purchased a lovely home high up in the hills overlooking Anchorage from the east.  The views from their home were amazing, especially on this interesting night.  We watched some early evening rain clouds move across Cook Inlet and soak downtown Anchorage.  As the clouds left the area we were greeted with a gorgeous sunset over the Alaska Range, and views all the way to Mt. McKinley.

Pete cooked up three dishes of Thai food for us all.  One of them was made with some of the Dall sheep that Jane shot last year, served in a red curry sauce.  It was an excellent dinner with very relaxing conversation.  Several other people were there, including Jim and Cindy, neighbors of Craig.

I got wind of plans that Jim and Craig were going moose hunting again this weekend, and expressed my interest in tagging along.  They were very receptive to my company, so I planned to leave Christine to herself for the weekend and experience my first hunting trip.

Saturday, September 8, 2001                Somewhere up the Talkeetna River, AK

We finally got out of town this morning after working through a few small delays.  The weather was immaculate with not a cloud in the sky.  I was really looking forward to getting a closer view of a clear Mt. McKinley as we headed north to the town of Talkeetna.  Jim was driving with his trailered johnboat in tow.

We stopped at a pullout as we entered Talkeetna to take in my best view ever of Mt. McKinley.  Also commonly referred to as Denali, translating into Great One from a native Alaskan word, Mt. McKinley is close to having its name officially changed to Denali.

We put the boat in on the Talkeetna River just above where it empties into the Susitna River.  From there we had a very leisurely boat ride upriver to a ‘super secret spot’ where Jim and Craig like to hunt for moose.  It didn’t yield one for them while they were hunting last weekend, but we were returning to the same spot for another try.  We beached the skiff at our campsite to unload all our gear before heading out to look around.  The bear tracks and moose droppings at our campsite were encouraging signs of wildlife.  Both Jim and Craig were prepared to take a bear if we came across one.

After unloading our gear we hopped back in the boat to cross a side channel of the Talkeetna and explore what ended up being a rather large river island.  I was unarmed as I walked between Jim and Craig, each carrying high-powered hunting rifles.  This made me slightly more comfortable in light of the fact that there were bear tracks everywhere.  And I mean EVERYWHERE!  They were mostly black bear of varying sizes, but we identified the tracks of at least one large brown bear (grizzly).  The salmon running into these channels to spawn had brought the bears down for a feeding frenzy.

We walked along the riverbank in the heat of the afternoon, clearly a poor time to hunt moose.  We were mostly out to have fun exploring, but the guys were ready to shoot a bear if we could find one.  Some of the bear tracks were very fresh as we alternated our hike through the brush and along the river.  It was difficult to be stealthy over such rough terrain, and ultimately our noisy progress stirred a bear from his spot among the flattened ferns where he was about to dine on a freshly caught salmon.  We heard the bear leave the area but never got an actual look at it.  After crossing several half-eaten fish carcasses, I was a bit tense when I saw the very fresh salmon kill before me.

We finished our perimeter circuit of the island and returned to the boat.  We then headed down river a short ways to explore a tract of land up for sale.  Moving through the undergrowth in the dense Alaska woods in this area was a lot of fun.  It’s pretty slow going since the footing is so precarious.  The only real hazard is a nuisance weed called devil’s club.  This is a broad-leafed plant that grows to about waist-height.  The stalk and stems are covered in irritating needlelike burs, and the leaf edges also sport these minute thorns.  If they prick your skin, then they leave small bur imbedded that can be annoying for days.  We were all well covered and wore thick gloves to defend against the devil’s club.

Later we returned to our campsite and setup the tents before scarfing down a rudimentary meal of mac-n-cheese with tuna.  After a brief period of relaxation we hopped back in the boat to reach the area that they hunt moose.  Once we were out of the boat, we spent the next 45-minutes quietly moving a half-mile back into the woods to the ‘secret spot.’  We were fortunate to have a game trail on which to travel.  This permitted us to see our foot placement and carefully avoid stepping on any twigs that could announce our presence with a snap.  The hike in was comprised of slow quiet forward movement in unison, broken up by periods of standing still in complete silence hoping to hear the movement of a moose somewhere in the woods.

We finally reached the ‘spot’ and quietly stood there looking and listening.  Jim and Craig began occasional moose calls into the silence.  The calls were intended to simulate a moose cow, thus luring a horny bull into view.  Moose, like deer go through a mating period in the fall known as rut.  The hormonal activity in male moose makes the bulls very unpredictable and dangerous as they aggressively pursue mating opportunities.  We were still a couple weeks early for the rut, but the calls could still be effective.  They actually sounded pretty good to me, though for all I know the bulls may not have found them very appealing.

Jim relocated to an area about 100-yards behind us to increase our area of surveillance.  Meanwhile Craig and I just stood there in the silence and listened.  I got a headache after a while as I tired of straining my eyes and ear for a sign of a large animal in the area.  We nary spoke a word as we stood there for an hour in the long Alaska dusk.  It was a beautiful evening and an incredible experience.  The sensory input was invigorating as I turned off all my outgoing babble and just let my surroundings overtake me.  The sights, sounds and smells were no longer a blurry cacophony of background.  The movement of each leaf became identifiable; and the birds, insects and small wildlife carried on distinct contributions to the music of the night.

As darkness set in, Craig gave up the hunt for tonight and we quietly returned to the boat joining Jim there, he having left his spot just five minutes before us.  We fired up the motor and headed back upriver to our campsite for the night, but the fun was not over.  As we made our way up the fast moving main channel of the Talkeetna River the boat ceased to move forward under the power of the 50hp Evinrude outboard.  Something was amiss.  We had just enough forward drive to drift out of the fast current and beach the boat nearby.  Initially the diagnosis centered on a foreign body being sucked into the impeller of the jet attachment.  The final outcome was a sheered key that keeps the impeller from spinning loosely on the drive shaft.

With darkness fast approaching, Craig and Jim began disassembling the jet attachment as they squatted in the muddy riverbank.  The only light was a mini-flashlight with very tired batteries.  The new key was successfully installed and the jet attachment was reinstalled by feel as the flashlight emitted its final rays of light.  We finally returned to camp and enjoyed the clear night sky as the temperature took a nosedive.  We all turned in for the night with plans for an early morning start back to the secret spot.

1) Craig, Jim and the tents at the secret hunting spot.  2) Mt. McKinley.

Sunday, September 9, 2001                                                          Eagle River, AK

We woke to a cold morning with a hard frost all around.  It was comforting to not see any fresh bear tracks around our camp this morning.  We filled up our travel mugs with hot coffee and jumped back in the boat.  We saw a busy beaver scurrying along the riverbank in the morning light.  We were back in place at the ‘spot’ before 8:00 AM in hopes of some morning moose movement.  Moose are most active in the early morning and late evening hours as they move about grazing.

Jim searched for a different perch to watch for moose while Craig and I took up the same position as last night.  The morning light made this a new area to explore with the eyes, as everything now appeared slightly different. After another hour or so of silent observation, we mostly gave up the hunt and did a little exploring.  We came across a porcupine starting his climb up a spruce tree.  Our noisy descent off a steep ridgeline got Jim excited, thinking his moose call had lured in a big lumbering bull.  His disappointment was our good fortune since we avoided being shot at.

We went back to our campsite for a late morning snack and another pot of coffee.  We broke camp and prepared all our gear for the trip down the river, but we decided to have fun with the spare time on our hands.  With Craig at the controls we motored farther up the river and encountered some great views of Mt. McKinley rising above the river.  The low water level eventually halted our progress forcing us to turn around.  We picked up our gear and returned to the landing in Talkeetna where the truck was parked.  It was another beautiful clear day and I had thoroughly enjoyed my outing, though moose had again eluded the guys.  They believe that the overwhelming presence of bear in the area is keeping the moose traffic down.  They’ll try again next weekend, always hopeful.

Back in Eagle River we showered and cleaned up before regrouping at Jim’s house for dinner.  Our wives, Christine and Cindy, had put plans together for a great dinner.  Christine did up some of her great appetizers, and she made a scrumptious bread pudding for dessert.  Cindy cooked up two big dishes of lasagna and she baked a cheesecake.  Pete and Jane came over as well as some others and we enjoyed a very casual evening together.

Monday, September 10, 2001                                                    Eagle River, AK

I left Christine at Craig’s house and left early to take the RV into town for some new front tires, a front-end alignment and a brake job.  I ended up not needing a brake job, but it took all day to get the work done.

Christine cooked up an excellent dinner as we spent one of our last evenings with Craig and Leslie.  We’ve been busy making arrangements to get back on the road for our journey south.  We hope to leave Anchorage Wednesday morning.

Tuesday, September 11, 2001                                                    Eagle River, AK

Christine and I slept in this morning and enjoyed the beginning of our last day in Anchorage.  As I was in Craig’s house later taking a shower Christine turned on the television and had the horrible news of the terrorist attack come crushing in on her day.  She shared the news with me while I was making some coffee.  We spent the next couple hours glued to the TV to learn more of what happened.

Christine and I spent the rest of the day working through a punch list of chores we wanted to complete before leaving Craig’s house.  Craig got home early from work and we all sat around in a gloomy milieu with very little to say.

Craig had made reservations for us at Simon and Seafort’s restaurant downtown, with plans to meet Leslie and her friend Suzanne for dinner.  It ended up being a very effective way to get our minds off the horror of the day and enjoy the company of close friends and family.  The food there was again fantastic.  We all lingered over our meals and ended up being one of the last parties to leave the restaurant.  It was a great last evening in Anchorage.

By Christine: I haven't written much in  this part of the log, Joe has done a pretty good job.  I would like to say though that I really really enjoyed this visit in Alaska with my brother.  We haven't been able to spend this much time together in a long time and it was pretty special.  I know I've said this before, but I know all of you who live away from family would agree with me that a very special part of this trip is spending 'real' time with family and friends.

  Craig and Christine

Wednesday, September 12, 2001                                                                Tok, AK

We collected up the last of our things and said goodbye to Craig’s house as we began our trip east.  We stopped near Palmer for Christine to pick some fresh vegetables on a self-serve farm.  We drove up the Glenn Highway listening to the ongoing news coverage on the radio.  We occasionally got choked up by the stories, but we mostly sat quietly taking it all in.  The human tragedy began to sink in for me today as the scale of loss started to take shape.

We stopped at the Matanuska Glacier again for lunch and enjoyed seeing it now in the autumn colors.  The birch and aspens were burning bright yellow against the darkness of the abundant black spruce.  We continued all the way to Tok Junction where we will again pick up the Alaska Highway. 

As I was driving up the Tok Cut-Off from Gulkana I saw a large animal cross the road ahead of me.  At first it appeared like a wolf or large dog, but as I got closer I could that it was a cat—a lynx.  I had to look up the description of lynx in this area to make sure I was right about what I saw.  I was so surprised to spot one of the elusive wild cats up here.

In Tok we rented the video “Billy Elliot” to give us a diversion for the evening.  Christine whipped up a great salmon salad for dinner and we relaxed after the long drive.

By Christine:  The Pick Your Own farm was great!  I got potatoes, radishes, squash (spaghetti and something like acorn), broccoli, beets, kohlrabi, and red and green cabbage.

  Matanuska Glacier in fall, that snow on the top of the mountain is fresh!

Thursday, September 13, 2001                                              Haines Junction, YT

We crossed over back into the Yukon Territory today.  We waited in line for thirty minutes at the Canadian customs station.  The interviews were very thorough, but I didn’t see any vehicle inspections occurring.  Christine used the time to whip up a lunch for us.

We approached overcast skies as we continued eastbound.  The autumn colors gave us an entirely new experience driving down the Alaska Highway.  The wind picked up as we pulled into a campground at Haines Junction for the night.

Friday, September 14, 2001                                                                Skagway, AK

We had a beautiful day today making our way down to Skagway, Alaska.  We took a brief side trip through Whitehorse before turning south onto the Klondike Highway.  This whole area is heavily steeped in the history of the Klondike and Alaska gold rushes dating back to 1896-1904.

We stopped for a history update in the town of Carcross, YT.  This town sits at the point where lake Bennett feeds into Tagish Lake.  These are the headwaters of the Yukon River, forming the primary water route for the miners to get to the gold near Dawson City.  The prospectors would arrive in Skagway by steamship and then haul their requisite 2000 pounds of gear up over the Chilkoot Pass or White Pass.  They would spend the winter camped at the southern end of Lake Bennett, assembling small boats for the voyage to Dawson City.  The miners would set out on the water after the spring break up of surface ice.  The trip on the water would take about three weeks to Dawson City.

Of the tens of thousands of men that made this great effort in 1898, very few found any fortune.  They arrived in Dawson City to learn that all the claims had been recorded already, most for over a year.  The interests that wanted to develop Alaska and the north country had pulled a big con on the gullible fortune seekers.  Even though most of the prospectors returned to the south, enough stayed behind to permanently populate many towns in Alaska and the Yukon Territory.

We crossed back into Alaska at White Pass and descended into Skagway.  The U.S. Customs Station was far more thorough than we have previously experienced.  The border agent actually came inside the RV for a brief inspection.  The scenery up and around the pass was spectacular.  The pass elevation is only 3,290 feet, but the appearance was very much that of high alpine.

Skagway has converted itself into a tourist town, and the economy is sustained primarily by the cruise ship business.  We were surprised to see the town rushing to an early end of season.  The fear of cruise cancellations (due to the bombing) had most of the businesses taking advantage of the last cruise ship in port by having massive markdowns in an effort to sell down their inventories.  Christine and I were so surprised by the amazing discounts that we couldn’t pass on the opportunity to do some early Christmas shopping.

The good deals even extended to some restaurants.  After paying a visit to the Skagway Brewery we ended up at a restaurant selling everything on the menu at half-off, and all beers were only $2.00 a pint (good beers).  We enjoyed our evening amongst the odd mood generated by the premature end-of-season.

By Christine: Joe wasn't kidding about the deals in Skagway.  Most stores had everything in the store at 50% off and some more.  Even if your not an avid shopper, you have to take advantage of that!  It was interesting talking to some of the locals and  season workers.  Many locals wait for these sales every year to buy their clothes and presents for the year.

1) A view off the Klondike Highway; 2) Skagway Visitors Center

Saturday, September 15, 2001                                                                Haines, AK

We walked through Skagway again this morning and it felt like a ghost town.  Since the cruise ship left port late last night, most of the shops did not even open today.  If we stuck around long enough we might have seen people roll up the sidewalks.

Christine and I boarded a late morning water taxi that would take us the thirteen miles down the Taiya Inlet to Haines.  Skagway and Haines are the only ports of Alaska’s Inside Passage that are accessible by road (except for Hyder, which is at the terminus of Portland Canal at the southern end of the Inside Passage).  Though Haines is only 13 miles from Skagway by water, it is 359 miles by road.  The water taxi takes less than an hour and it can take time to observe wildlife.  Shortly after leaving the dock in Skagway we were among some humpback whales.  The taxi circled for a while as we watched the whales gently surface and dive repeatedly.

We continued our trip toward Haines and began counting bald eagles.  We saw five of them in the short time we were on the boat.  One was even flying in the same direction as the boat, soaring beautifully off the starboard side of the boat for over a mile before landing in a treetop. 

Once we arrived in Haines we walked into town and checked into a motel for the evening.  Haines is much less of a tourist town than Skagway.  The environmentalists have a strong voice in Haines and have successfully discouraged the growth of the cruise ship business there.

Haines is home to the world’s largest annual congregation of bald eagles.  Over 3,500 eagles collect along the Chilkat River to feed on late runs of chum and coho salmon.  The hydrothermal activity in the area keeps the Chilkat River from freezing over until after the salmon runs.  The density of bald eagles during this time is hard to imagine.  Photographers have pictures with over 50 eagles in a single tree.  The opportunity to view the eagles has led to an annual festival in early November.  And the government has set aside the 48,000-acre Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.

We visited an excellent museum at the American Bald Eagle Foundation to learn far more about these majestic birds.  Christine and I were both amazed by the great size of these birds when viewed up close.  The museum had several stuffed eagles in various positions of flight and rest.  The exhibits were excellent.

We searched out and found the new little start-up Haines Brewery.  We had a great chat with the owner; brew master, and lone employee, Paul.  He shared his story with us while we sampled his products.  The beers were very nice and he let us know where we could find them on tap in town.  Later we enjoyed a few games of pool at the Pioneer Bar and dinner at the Bamboo Room.

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