Haines Makes You Happy!

Just 17 hours drive from Anchorage, backtracking on the Alcan, is the beautiful laid back coastal town of Haines, AK. This was one of the cities that came highly recommended before our trip. Thanks Matteo, it was awesome!

Its a small town where you can park anywhere and walk within the 10 block grid system to the local bakery, hippy grocery store, library, and bar. It has an extremely relaxed atmosphere. One thing that helps Haines keep its small town charm is that it receives less massive cruise ships, which means about 3000 less octogenarians sporting fanny packs and visors walking around the town at any given time. Many of the other cities along the southeast have several cruise ships dock daily, so you have to play the game of timing your trips into the town to avoid the slow walking, jewelry seeking, perfume drenched cruisers. Ok, we're being harsh, but it really does make the towns feel quite different. Don't get us wrong...we're anxiously awaiting cruising in our twilight years but sans fanny packs, visors, and perfume.

We stayed in a cabin being built by one of Luc's friends about 25 miles north of town. Luc is a new Achorage frisbee friend and nature/adventure junkie; this guy is hard core and either just finished or is currently still doing a ~130 mile trail run (check out his blog at thingstolucat.com if you want to feel lame). The mosquitoes were viscious, but thankfully it had a completed roof, floor, and windows with screens to keep them at bay.

After a long day of driving we woke up to the most beautiful blue skies. We took advantage of the gorgeous day and after buying a sandwich at the Mountain Market we headed to the Mt. Ripinsky trail. The following photos are from this hike. The trail was well defined and after two hours and four miles we reached the summit and gorgeous 360º views of the mountains, ice fields, and glaciers surrounding the city. The weather held and after eating our lunch we relaxed and napped before heading down.















A picture of Haines from above.
















Heading up the trail.















At the summit.















Alpine tundra makes a soft bed for napping.















The wildflowers are in bloom! Turns out Texas doesn't have sole claim over Lupines. These are Artic Lupines (part of the same genus, Lupinus, as bluebonnets which are Lupinus texensis), and they are bigger than Texas Bluebonnets. They are also everywhere! Along the road sides, trail sides, covering alpine meadows. Makes us feel at home.















This photo was taken while driving into town. We call it a lazy man's waterwheel fish catcher. No idea what they are really called, but these were used by the natives and are ingenious inventions. You anchor it in the river and the fish are scooped up and slide into buckets on the side. It's much more impressive in real time watching the arms slowly rotate with the force of the running water.

Our journey south on the ferry system begins. First stop is Juneau, then to Petersburg, and Ketchikan which is our last stop in Alaska.