Chilkat State Park

With the weather marching ever onward toward winter, most days here are cloudy and cool. It rains a lot more now, too. Although this summer in Haines has seen more than the typical amount of precipitation, even those rainy days don't quite compare to the rain during autumn. It is still pretty here, even without sunshine, but I miss that handful of bright, beautiful days from my first couple weeks here.

Case in point: the beginning of August, when Rigby and I were just starting to explore the area, we had a week of gorgeous sunny days and warm weather. That was when we did the Ripinsky hike, but we took the opportunity to explore Chilkat State Park, too. I didn't have the chance to go through and post those photos, but I've been yearning for some sunshine so I decided to remind myself what it was like!

Chilkat State Park covers nearly 10,000 acres, situated on the tip of the Chilkat Peninsula southeast of Haines. There are only three hiking trails in the park. The Battery Point trail, the easiest of the three, covers two miles along the north side of the park, and is frequented by cruise ship tourists. The Mount Riley trail is a little tougher, climbing nearly 2,000 vertical feet along three or four miles, depending on the direction of the approach, to a stunning viewpoint overlooking the Chilkat Inlet. The jewel of Chilkat State Park, however, is the Seduction Point trail, a seven mile hike that winds its way along the coast to the tip of the Peninsula, offering some gorgeous views of Haines' glaciers, Rainbow Glacier and Davidson Glacier, along the way.

Rigby and I haven't made it up to Mount Riley yet, but we've hiked the Battery Point and Seduction Point trails.

Here Rigby and I are on the trail toward Battery Point, our backs to the northeast, looking up the Chilkoot Inlet.

Here is the view from Battery Point. There are remnants of an old lighthouse here, but I don't know anything about the history of the area.

This is a view of the Battery Point Trail on the way back to the trailhead. Pretty, isn't it?

Not too long after we hiked the Battery Point trail, Rigby and I headed out to the other side of Chilkat State Park to the Seduction Point trail. We both enjoyed this trail a lot more than we had Battery Point. It was longer and there were fewer people using it. Plus, we had some great views of the glaciers. Here is Rainbow Glacier:

And this panoramic image shows the Chilkat Inlet on the far left, then Davidson Glacier, Rainbow Glacier, and a view up towards Letnikov Cove on the right. The water is so pretty in this area-- very blue.

Ah, those were the halcyon days, back when the sun shone and the rain was intermittent! :D

Autumn

This past Saturday, the 22nd, was the official first day of autumn. Having grown up in Colorado, autumn has long been my favorite season. Autumn days in the Rockies are mild, sunny, and warm, a wonderful relief from the blisteringly hot days of summer. Nights are crisp and cool. And the colors! Aspen, cottonwood, willow, and maple turning stunning shades of yellow. I missed autumn a lot when I moved to California.

Fall weather in northern California is nice, too. Sunny, not as much fog in the mornings, and warm. But most deciduous trees there keep their leaves year-round, the evenings aren't cool, and there is no nip in the air that suggests impending snow. It's just doesn't feel right. :\

Luckily for me, Alaskan autumns are a lot like Colorado (except with more clouds, humidity, and rain). Gorgeous colors, blankets of yellow, orange, and the occasional red, have spread across the landscape these past few weeks. Temperatures have dropped. Some afternoons, when the breeze is right, you can stand in a shower of gold as leaves falling from trees catch the pale sunlight.

I love autumn.

The eagles are arriving! Each day more and more eagles appear along the Chilkat, staked out on the river flats to feed on the first of the Chum. What makes for a better photograph than golden cottonwood leaves, blue mountains, and an eagle?

For a couple weeks, the weather here was overcast and rainy almost every day. We literally did not see the sun shine for ten days or more. A bit depressing, and a sure sign of the winter to come. Luckily, late September has been kind to us, and we've hit a string of wonderfully sunny days. It's nice to see some blue sky again!

Before the snow travels low enough in altitude to make mountain travel tricky, we decided to make one last trip up to the alpine tundra. Here is a view of the Klehini River from Flower Mountain. Autumn colors make their way into the highest reaches here-- just look at those deep reds of the low-growing plants. Tundra soils are thin (four inches or less in some places), but vegetation still manages to take hold. Alpine berries, willow, lichens, and scraggly, stunted spruce make their homes here, providing food for mountain goats, moose, songbirds, and alpine ground squirrels.

Quite a view, eh?

With a string of sunny days, we've also been making good use of the raft. Rafting down the Klehini affords us opportunities to set trail cameras south and west of the Chilkat, where we see evidence in tracks of moose, wolves, and the ever-present bear. There are plenty of eagles on the Klehini as well!

Mountains, river, blue sky, and birch, cottonwood, alder, and willow changing colors? Alaska, you are wonderful.

And eagles! More and more eagles! The yellow background of these cottonwood leaves may be a bit distracting in this photo, but the colors sure do make it stand out.

Alaska isn't the only pretty place this time of year. Canada has its fair share of gorgeous locales, too. How about this view of Dezadeash Lake, in the Yukon Territory?

Or this lovely little trail, on the route back from St. Elias Lake in Kluane National Park?

Not enough autumn for you? Oh, all right. Here's one last picture: The Tatshenshini Valley.

Be honest now-- who's in the mood for pumpkins, cider, sweaters, or a bit of Halloween fun? Butternut squash ravioli? Homemade applesauce? Pumpkin-spice latte?

Or how about, for those of you lucky enough to live in places where there's an actual autumn, a bit of time spent outdoors enjoying the leaves.

Mt. Ripinsky

Last week, I decided to do some scouting of the area and try to get a better vantage point of the layout of Haines, the Chilkoot and Chilkat Inlets, the Chilkat River, and the various surrounding mountain ranges. The easiest way to do this (aside from renting a plane for a flight-seeing tour... which would be awesome, but too expensive), was to climb Mt. Ripinsky.

Mt. Ripinsky, a 3,650 ft. peak directly north of the city of Haines, is the southern terminus of the Takshanuk mountain range. Although not the highest peak in the range, it's easily the most accessible. There are three different hiking trails that lead to the summit-- two that converge and approach from the south, and an additional trail that approaches from the north. All three trails vary in length and steepness, but the entire trail system is fairly well-maintained and very popular with residents and the more adventuresome tourists that visit the area. Since it's frequently used during summer months, there is also a lower likelihood of encountering brown bear* while on the trail.

Low likelihood or not, I definitely brought along bear spray for the hike. This was one of my first purchases after getting into Haines. I carry it around everywhere I go hiking, even if I'm walking the roads around my neighborhood. Brown bears don't typically frequent human-inhabited areas, but a young, sick, injured, or habituated bear may at any time start checking out the dumpsters, grills, and casts-offs around housing developments for easy food. Better to have it on hand then get caught in a dangerous situation without it.

Rigby and I, along with a friend we met at the State Fair, hiked the trail to Ripinsky from the southern edge of the range, beginning in town. This 8-mile out-and-back hike took just just over six hours from start to finish, with time spent on the way up taking plenty of photographs and breaking for lunch.

The beginning of the trail lies in temperate rainforest that covers the Chilkat Peninsula. This area sees a lot of precipitation year-round, and so, much like many tropical rainforests, has forested areas with dense undergrowth and many different species of plants, trees, and fungi, as well as numerous creeks and drainage areas.

The trail eventually climbed past tree line, and opened up to gorgeous views of the Chilkoot Inlet. This region is often cloudy and overcast, but I wish the sunlight would have been just a little better-- there were some gorgeous wildflowers blooming once we hit the alpine meadow.

Even during the summer, the area around treeline stays cold. Without trees to buffer winds, temperatures are lower, and even at an elevation of around 2,000 ft., there are snowfields year-round. Rigby, having grown up in California's Central Valley, hadn't ever seen snow. I should have taken a video of his first experience. He went wild for it-- dancing around, digging, sliding on his belly, prancing around like a madman. I can't wait until some of the fresh stuff falls. If he likes the dirty, old, hard-packed stuff this much, I'm sure he'll love it when it's wet and powdery. I'm really looking forward now to snowshoeing with him this fall.

Another thing Rigby hadn't ever seen before was moose! We came across this cow moose and her calf in a pond a few hundred meters off the trail. We were able to watch them feed for a few minutes before they sighted us and moved back into the forest. We weren't close enough for me to get a very good picture, but I'll post the one I took, anyway. If you squint, you can almost tell what they are. We also saw a mountain goat near the summit, but it was definitely too far away to photograph. It blended in too well with the snow.

Once we got up high enough, we had a nice view of Haines from the trail. Here it is!

You can see the cruise ship dock and the harbor in the bay on the left, and the golf course (yes, Haines has a 9-hole golf course) is on the lower right. I live just downhill from this spot, to the right!

Here we are not too far above treeline, with Haines in the background.

Here is a picture looking NNW, up the Chilkat Valley at the Chilkat River. This valley is where we'll be doing most of our research.

And, finally, the summit! You can see the summit marker on the left-hand side of this panoramic photo. The Chilkat Peninsula stretches south out in the middle, and Haines is below, blocked from view by the hillside. On the right-hand side is the Chilkat Range, to the west, and on the left-hand side, the Coast Range, to the east. Even with the clouds, it's a great view!

Rigby was even good enough to pose for me at the top. :)

*Brown bear, grizzly bear, and Kodiak bear are all the same species-- Ursus arctos. Bears that live inland and in mountain ranges are called grizzlies. Coastal bears, like those around Haines, are referred to as brown bears. Kodiak bears live only on Kodiak Island. Some scientists consider them subspecies because of differences in their genetics, diets, and body sizes/coloring. Many people are more familiar with the term grizzly when talking about the species; Regardless, they are all the same species, but since we're on the coast, we'll refer to them as brown bears here.

Welcome to Haines!

Hey everyone! Thanks to Yiwei for posting pictures of my journey north. The ferry left from Prince Rupert, British Columbia on Tuesday afternoon. It stopped Tuesday night in Ketchikan, AK. Then it made two stops the next morning: very early morning in Wrangell, and again a few hours later in Petersburg. From Petersburg we had a long eight-hour trip to Juneau, where we were in port for almost two hours. Rigby was glad to get off the ship. We walked around near port until it was time for the last leg of our trip.

After we left Juneau, it was another four and a half hours to Haines. We pulled out of Juneau right as the sun was setting, so it made for a very pretty evening.

Just an hour or so outside of port, look what we saw-  a pod of six gray whales! They were very close to the ship, and we passed them very quickly. I only had time to snap a couple pictures with my phone. Too bad I didn't have my DSLR on me.

After that I went to sleep. The ferry didn't get into Haines until 1:00 AM or so. Four days driving and another two on the ferry, and Rigby and I were worn out when we got up here. But not so worn out that we didn't immediately begin appreciating all Haines has to offer. Just look at the view from our campsite the first morning:

Thursday morning Rigby and I began exploring Haines. We made a trip to the visitor's center to see what sorts of information they might have there. We were treated to yet another gorgeous view.

Turns out Haines isn't short on pretty mountains.

About midday, I was able to meet up with an individual I'd contacted through the Haines Community Website, who offered an apartment for rent near town. I went to see the place and accepted it immediately, and was fortunately able to move in that afternoon. It's not a bad place. It's a studio, with a small kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. Rigby has plenty of space to run around. There is water, electricity, and heat. Oh, and it has a pretty nice view, too.

After that, we made a visit to town for groceries. Yikes! Food is EXPENSIVE up here! It makes sense, since Haines is small and relatively isolated. Although one of the few towns in Southeast Alaska connected to the interior by highway, it's still 250 miles from the nearest city, Whitehorse, Yukon. Most of the goods travel here by ferry, so the expenses of transport really add up! There are three grocery stores here, including one small organic market. Produce is hard to come by, and sometimes trips to all three stores are necessary to get the ingredients for a single meal. Cereal up here, even the cheap stuff, is almost $6 a box! I can't decide whether I'll eat healthier here, since I won't be able to afford things like chips, or worse, since I'll have to buy the cheapest food I can find.

Ah, well. At least I can look forward to seeing this every morning!