Goodbye to dear Alaska

The bike finally repaired and tested, it looked like we were ready to hit the road and head south to Canada. It was a little sad as it truly felt like we were leaving Alaska for good and closing the first chapter of our journey. Not entirely true though: we had one more area to explore before leaving the Alaskan roads: the Inside Passage.

Summer is over and fall colors are out

The next day, we packed all our stuff, sad to leave Ali's place which has been our base camp for the last few weeks. He was truly amazing to share his place and welcome us like that. Before leaving Anchorage, we were a little worried about Caroline's right eye, which was itchy the day before and now red and swollen. Given that we were leaving "civilization", sort of, we did not want to take a chance and decided to stop at a nearby clinic. Good call since she was on her way to an eye infection and is now under antibiotics. Looks like we now have both Caroline and her bike “fixed”: we should be good to go.

As we started riding the Glenn Highway that we took on our way into Anchorage, we couldn't help but notice how different the landscape was. We were not even in September but the fall colors were already out; seasons turn so fast here! Mountains were darker and the bushes and trees fully green when we came were now yellow, orange and bright red. As rode on twisty roads in the forest and overlooking the plain, it reminded us of the fall beauty of the Shenandoah Park.

Crossing the border twice in a day

As we continued towards the Inside Passage, we got more and more rain but thankfully the temperature did not drop too much. We approached again the Wrangell – St. Elias Park, where there was a forest fire a few weeks ago, and from a distance could see what we though was a snow-covered peek, or was it a cloud? As we got closer, we definitively identified a mountain, big summit that reminded us of Mt. McKinley. Looks like that same road again had a couple of surprise left for us. A few miles down the road, we saw a car stopped on the side of the road, facing traffic. Intrigued, we stopped as well and realized that it was all about a huge moose enjoying dinner in the pond close to the road. She was walking in the pond, getting her big head into the water to grab these tasty bottom plants, raised her head back up, dripping water and chewed what she was able to get. It was a fascinating process to watch.

The next day, we finally crossed the border to Canada and continued towards Haines. The weather was getting worse, both rainy and cold, and as we were on the last stretch of road, we could hardly see anything given the fog. We were happy to make it to the US border, 40 miles outside of Haines: we were about to enter the Inside Passage. It was pouring rain and we were tired and looking forward to sleeping in a warm and dry place.

A beautiful community

The next day, more rain in Haines and a flood watch in Skagway. We decided to adjust our plans and not take the ferry to Skagway but rather stay in Haines, even given the rain, and hope the rain would stop the next day. Our intuition was right for that day: despite the rain, we had a great unexpected day in Haines.
The library was inaugurating a new Totem Pole, to recognize how the community had a strong heritage from the Chilkoot tribe. The whole town was outside in the rain, watching the pole being unveiled and the native carvers explaining their work of art. It was very emotional and after the unveiling, a show was given in the library, with dances and chants giving us a glimpse of the natives' culture. During the meal that the whole town shared together after the show, we got to talk to a few natives. They told us about their challenges, the loss of their culture and language, how they try to keep the community strong and raise their children well. It was such an open and candid conversation, where they told us about their joy for the new totem that represented an homage to their culture and also the concerns they had. Little by little, the community was making steps in the right direction and the natives and non native Alaskan are living in a united way, finally as a single community.

The rest of the day, we kept on thinking about how great a time we had at the library with the people from Haines. We decided to finish the afternoon by driving around with Kelly from Seattle, whom we met at the hostel where we were staying. She also just arrived in Haines and was hoping to see some of the sights around the town. We decided to drive to the Chilkoot lake and saw some Bald Eagles and a Black Bear. It was really raining the whole day but we were still able to enjoy Haines, even if we did not get the full glimpse of the grandeur of its surrounding mountains.