One thing we have surely come to realize on this trip, no matter where we go Our People are there… and they can usually be found at the farmers market or the brewery. In Haines the market was over, but the Fun-guy was still there in the parking lot a couple days a week. We learned a lot from him and got some really lovely dried mushrooms. We also got the coolest emergency fire starting kit ever. Just a piece of old saw blade run against a slice of magnesium glued into a small piece of wood. You could set the fuzz from your pocket on fire. It was pretty remarkable how that burst into flame with the spark. We enjoyed just hanging out and talking with him about Haines, fungi, eagles and burls. And bears. He told us about a spot on the river outside town where the bears go to feed on salmon running up the river to a lake about 5 miles past the ferry terminal. Sounded like a place we’d check out the next day before our midnight departure. Somewhere along the line we assured him the next day would be sunny, like it always was when we were preparing to leave a place. He smiled skeptically and said, “it’s been a while, but you never know around here”.

The Haines brewery was out at the fairgrounds, on what appeared to be an old Alaskan main street. Turns out it’s a set from the White Fang movie, filmed here a while back and set to be burned down until the town laid claim and turned it into a pretty sweet tourist area. Paul has been providing the good citizens of Haines with a local brew for the past 10 years. He makes a fair selection of beers and a good barley wine, too. We stayed and visited a while, enjoying the sample platter and the photos and notes sent from people all over the world who leave AK with a growler then take pictures of it from wherever they go. It’s quite a fun collection. By the time we were ready to leave it was dark and, being disinclined to drive all the way back out to the Eagle Preserve, Jim asked if we could park right there. Paul responded that he was on the Fairgrounds Board and could not say one way or the other. We took that for a good sign, pulled over by the woods at the back of the parking lot and settled in for the night.

Of course October 2 dawned as clear and fine a day as you could imagine. It was so lovely just driving back into town. Haines lies at the end of the longest & deepest fjord in North America----just at the upper tip of the Inland Passage. Again with the mountains vaulting from the sea, tipped and flowing with glaciers down to forest and wetlands filled with wildlife and back in to the sea. Like the other coastal places we’d visited it is hard to fully describe the extraordinary beauty of water meeting land in Alaska. Lunchtime found us parked by the boats, sorting out things for the ferry journey. As we were finishing up a familiar vehicle pulled alongside us by the dock.

Philippe and Marie! They had gone to Denali, seen the mountain, spent a night in the snow and decided to make a B-line from Fairbanks to Haines to see if they could make the ferry that night. There was a chance of a cancellation on an unpaid reservation. Wouldn’t it be fun camping out on the deck with our traveling friends! Of course, we’d been shut out of the ferry ourselves in Valdez so we hung out for a while catching up

before deciding to meet later out by where the bears go fishing. As we were getting ready to go, a woman came by and told us a shrimp boat was just in and selling off the dock, if we were interested. Why, of course we were. We’d been waiting for off the boat food the whole trip and here it was our last night on “Alaskan soil”. Just to sweeten the deal, turns out this was the boat Jim photographed coming in a bit earlier. Love that real-life foreshadowing! Down to the dock we went to find a couple guys cleaning shrimp. That they had done this before was clear from the casual way they were ripping heads from bodies. It would take a while

for them to get through this boatload so we arrange to return later and get 5 lbs, which we’d share with Marie & Philippe, hopefully having a little bit extra to freeze for some future meal.

Then off we went our separate ways to get those prelaunch errands done. For us that included laundry, showers and a trip by the library to post a story or two through their internet. We couldn’t resist swinging by the Fun-guy to say goodbye and he was smiling big at the cloudless sky. By the time we actually got out the Chilkoot River at the end of the bay there was orange in the sky and an incredible full moon was rising. Eagles soared over the water across a background of cedar and black spruce trees climbing the hill on the other shore. Completely stunning beauty on just another day in Alaska.

Almost the moment we pulled past the closed ranger booth Jim spotted a Mama Brown bear and two cubs crossing the road ahead, up into the woods. As they disappeared we watched the river down along our right side for signs of others. It took a few turns of the road, but there was the tell tale stopped vehicle with binoculars looking out the window. A BIG brown bear was fishing right across the river. He looked very healthy. And oh man! Nothing has ever been cooler than watching this critter wander the side of the river, occasionally swatting at a salmon and inevitably catching it between his paw and the rocks to add a few more pounds to his already autumn sized frame. So casual and oh so powerful, he was the undisputed king of this extraordinary place. His fishing spot was just where the river flowed out of Chilkoot Lake. Another striking blue-green expanse surrounded by gorgeous trees, which hugged the shore as the mountains shot up into the darkening sky.

Stars were visible as we drove back down river to our dinner spot. For several days we’d been planning a feast of local scallop to celebrate this point in the journey, so despite the vast quantity of shrimp chilling in the fridge, we once again busted out the Skaryd girls’ favorite holiday recipe. Alaskan scallops were as incredible as we’d been told and went down easy as we watched the moonlit river flow by. Since we had a couple hours before the ferry loaded we couldn’t resist cruising back up to the lake in hopes of one more bear sitting. Lucky us! The “king” was still fishing and though there was not enough light to really see him well, we could easily hear him on the other shore, snorting and splashing. Jim decided this was a prefect opportunity to take a night sky photo and got the camera and tripod set up down on a small beach near the parking area. We heard a bit more splashing and snorting, suddenly realizing that the king was swimming, rather quickly, across the lake straight for the beach where Jim was set up! In the surprise of the moment it took Jim a minute to grab the gear and something in that set off a flash of light, which caught the bear’s attention. He popped his head up, starring at his projected landing site, I suppose trying to figure out what the heck was up there. Fortunately this resulted in a change of course and he came out of the water about 50’ further down the shore. We both just stood there in amazement as he ambled off toward the campground. Who knew a bear would swim like that? We had heard a story about a bear being spotted almost a mile off the coast near Seward, but that had seemed, well, so unlikely. Now we know. And with that last exhilarating wildlife experience we set off to the ferry in hopes of finding our friends would also be passengers.