Aug 8

Today we took the ferry from Skagway to Haines. ( All of these places are mentioned in the book that Dan and Julia gave us as a bon voyage gift.) When you arrive at the town of Haines, you are greeted by a welcome sign and two totem poles. A totem pole stands sentry at their school, and another is stationed at their memorial park. The influence of the Tlingits is everywhere.I love the sense of history here, and Imlove the First People's art. That is what the Indians are called here. When you think about it, it makes total sense.

The people here are nice. When we were down walking on the dock, one of the fishermen chatted with us. When his cell phone rang, he didn’t answer it. That’s polite. Haines’ population is 1811. Not the town, of course. That is the population of the entire burrough that is the size of RI! I read somewhere that a local author wrote a book called, If You Lived Here, I Would Know Your Name. I bet that is true.

Steve and I visited their local museum where the woman in charge of the gift shop is from Warwick, RI. I bet my mother knows her mother. Everywhere we go, we meet someone from home.

We ate supper at the Lighthouse Restaurant looking over the glaciated mountains and the Lynn Canal. Guess what I had? Salmon! While I am in Alaska, I am going to try to eat salmon at least once a week!

Aug 9
　
This morning we left Haines driving through the Chilkat Eagle Preserve. We were rewarded for our vigilance by seeing six eagles. In a few weeks thousands will be here, but we won’t. Seeing six was good. I know I am going to see a lot od places, but I really think Haines will remain my favorite.

We saw a lot on our drive. One interesting place was Burwash Landing which is know for its black spruce burl bowels. Steve and I learned that burls start as an irritation in the spruce tree. To save itself, the tree sends more sap to the infected area. That creates the burl. Many of the log houses have railings with these burls in them I like that look. i know you all have seen this, bit here there are many examples of them. I find this interesting.

Another one of the interesting sights today was a church made from a Quonset Hut. It looked pretty with lots of flowers around it! (On my mother’s street in Misquamicut, someone still lives in a Quonset Hut.)

Saw a lot of smoke in the distance from the fires up in Fairbanks. Because of this, we have decided that we will head to Anchorage first. It’s fun to have the flexibility to go whichever way we want. I never knew it, but Alaska has a lot of forest fires. The authorities just let the fires burn. I guess these spruce trees are so scrawny they aren’t worth saving. They figure letting the fires burn is nature’s way, but I wonder about the Alaskans who have to breathe that smokey air.

We also saw a lot of reddish-brown and dead spruce trees that have been infected by the spruce beetle.

Mostly we saw gorgeous scenery such as glacial valleys and bodies of water like the Yukon’s Kluane Lake. (It’s pronouced Kllo-WA-nee.) Oh, did you notice that we started our day in Alaska, poked into British Columbia , jutted into into the Yukon before returning to Alaska! We just kept our watches on Alaska time which is four hours different from Maine. That was the easiest way.

Our campground tonight is really woodsy with big quiet areas that are surrounded by trees. That’s nice. Thanks for being with us on or cool journey. It's fun to be connected in this way

Aug 10

When we got up this morning in Tok (pronounced Toke), it was 40 degrees at 8:00. Luckily, by afternoon the temperatures rose to the 60's. From what we understand, this is fairly typical.
Our drive today again was a beauty. At lunch we pull out our soccer game/ softball games chairs and a little folding table and eat our sandwiches at a scenic turnoff. I think Leona would approve of this arrangement. (Yesterday a traveling New Yorker who also was traveling and stopped to view the scenery said he liked the way we lunched.) For lunch today, we stopped where the Gakona and Copper Rivers flow and where we could see Mount Drum and Mount Sanford. At first we couldn’t tell what was mountain opposed to clouds.

About 3:30 we came to the Matanuska Glacier which is the largest Alaskan glacier that is accessible by car. First of all, we drove by Glacier View Elementary School. The name gives a hint; this school really does overlook the glacier. Steve and I looked at each other and then turned around and drove into the school’s parking lot. Luckily for us, the school’s very nice secretary was there at school picking cranberries on the school’s property. ( Doesn’t it seem that all school secretaries are nice?) Did I mention that this little school also has a wonderful flower garden right by the front doors. That says a lot about a school, I think. These children are fortunate to be living in such a vast, land filled with so many God given gifts. Their parents and teachers are also.

Anyway, when we got talking, she explained that the school has children from grades one to twelve with five teachers and one teaching principal. She told us that all the windows face the glacier and that in the winter, the wind howls down the valley. I bet it does, too! This nice lady is, herself, a graduate of Glacier View! She also told us that two miles down the road we could actually walk out onto the glacier.

That was all we needed. We were off. Two miles down the road at Glacier Park Camping, these enterprising owners operate a campground, a gift shop, and sell tickets to access the hike to the glacier.

We drove out the first two miles or so and then parked the camper and truck. Because we are slow pokes, the walk out and back took us about 50 minutes. It was worth the effort. It felt as if we were walking on some obscure planet. Actually, in the beginning it is just dirty ice, but once we got out to it, the ice was clean and white and it felt cool.

The glacier is big – 27 miles with the average width two miles. At its end it is four miles. 18,000 years ago it reached all the way to Palmer which is just before Anchorage and is miles from us. It isn’t an easy walk since the glacier is uneven and has some moderate inclines. Luckily for me, my crazy hip held out and Steve’s knee did as well.

Walking out to it was an adventure! Oh, I have to mention that while we were on the glacier we talked with one young couple – just about the only other people out there when we were. Guess where this woman is from? You guessed it – Rhode Island! This is just too funny....