Hello Mr. Grizzly Bear

After a pleasant 5 hr ferry ride, we arrived in Haines, where the road north begins again. Only a few thousand people live here (half that in the winter). It feels like the Fjiords of Norway to us - a sliver of ocean penetrating up the steep walled valley. Fortunately for us, the Sockeye Salmon are running locally - this means there might be bears at the river fishing. Bear watching trips are a big business in Alaska, and the guided tours/lodges cost $500-$3000/pp. But here in Haines, the locals directed us to watch from the road along the Chilkoot river. We find the river full of fishermen, wading in up to their waists. Then... A Grizzly bear just walks out of the dark woods and into the river - Wow, he's big - his head is huge! At first we watch from the safety of the van, but eventually step outside for a closer look (still within a few paces of the door). He's only about thirty feet away, but he's thoroughly engaged in the pursuit of salmon. He swats at the water and comes up with a fish, which he then proceeds to tear apart and eat. He does this five or six times before making his way down the river and out of sight. We go back to this spot to watch a few times, and we've seen five or six grizzlies total, including one orphan cub still trying to figure out (by himself) how to get fish. It is remarkable how unperturbed they are by humans nearby. We'll pick up a canister of pepper spray to carry with us on hikes in the future just in case.

Before leaving Haines, we did an 11 mile paddle down the Chilkat river. This is a fast moving river (but no significant rapids). It was very wide, with lots of snaking channels running in and out around mud flat islands. While there were no significnat rapids, the colliding currents would swirl into each other, making the water boil in very strange ways. The scenery was stunning, jagged mountains with a patchwork of snow and glaciers. We shuttled ourselves by bicycle.
Everything here is about fish and catching fish.

The strangest new thing we've seen is a "fish Wheel." It is like a water wheel turning in the current of the river, but with each rotation, a giant basket next sweeps thru the water capturing whatever happens to be there at that moment. It lifts up with the water wheel and dumps it's contents into a receptacle for later collection. Amazing ingenuity - no power, no bait, just free fish at the end of the day.

Would you camp at a lake called "Mosquito lake?" We did, and won't ever again. Stepping out of the van, a swarm of hundreds of mosquitos descended upon us. Any exposed skin would be bitten right away. We weren't prepared for that so had to jump back in the van and get more clothing (hooded) on. It was no fun, so we stayed inside the van - thank god for screens. And left promptly the next morning. Skip this stop.

The drive thru Chilkat pass was spectacular (I'm running out of adjectives and we haven't even gotten to the interior yet) - endless jagged peaks all virtually every direction. By the way, almost every vehicle we see on the road is an RV, but they're few and far between. At "Chuck's Creek" we found a trail to mountain bike on. It climbed up into the high alpine (treeless) terrain - it was kind of surreal to be mountain biking in such a remote place high amongst the jagged peaks. Eventually we turned around when we encountered a lot of large bear prints in the muddy trail. The brush was head high at this point and we'd read that this area has the highest concentration of Grizzly in the entire Yukon territory. Since we hadn't gotten pepper spray yet, it seemed foolish to continue deeper into the thicket. Later in the next town (Haines Junction), we learned that there has been an unusual amount of bear-human encounters lately. Wise choice.