We
awake at 9AM after our dinner last
night. It is sunny and warm, near
70. We had intentions of walking the brew
fest 5K but we didn’t. We walk into town
and visit the Visitors Center. It’s not
a good sign that the attendant on duty who grew up in Haines got lost hiking
and almost didn’t make it home for her job.
She is unable to give us good directions in this tiny town. We walk near the beach and find another tent
area for the youngsters. They are camped
in all the in town campgrounds and on the beach. We find the fish shack with outdoor picnic
tables from the local cannery. The
halibut and local shrimp melt in the mouth.
We stroll back to the fairgrounds for the 1-5P brew fest tastings. We get our tasting glass with special event
decal and head to the various brewers’ tents.
It’s a mob trying to get to the taps.
Everyone is friendly but it’s a solid block of people in a sold out
crowd of 1200. The crowd is mostly 20 -
30 so we are the oldies. Meet some folks
our age from Naperville and Grand Junc. Co.
We run into the 2 women from Fairbanks who make the drive every
year. There is a very good band playing
and they are selling food and t-shirts etc. It’s good they have food and water because the
beer is flowing freely. We are located
on the main street of the movie set built for White Fang. So it’s fun to be surrounded by ‘historic’
buildings. There is a high cloud cover
but we stay warm with nice breeze. Some
of the past events have been so hot it was stifling or hard rain. So this is good. We try as many brewers as we can of the ones
we don’t know. Interesting that Fat Head
from Ft. Collins Co and Sierra Nevada are here. Hear they are distributed by Alaska Brewing,
so that may be the reason. The Fat Head is good and Ohio is one of the 31
states that get it. There are many of
the beers we don’t care for and we water the plants with the remainder. Kenai Brewing has a raspberry Lambic and
other very different beer concoctions.
We try the Scottish and the raspberry.
Mostly we return to our old favorites; Alaskan Brewing is always
consistent. We only saw one Anchorage
brewer, Glacier brew. Not our
favorite. We missed the Anchorage
group. We decide after 2 hours there is
only so much beer you can drink (shock and horror) especially at midday and
fighting the crowd was not worth it. We
walk back to the RV and unplug and go for a drive up to the Haines Packing
Company, an old historic cannery. It’s
not doing actual canning right now but processing fresh seafood. We buy some shrimp, huge scallops and a piece
of halibut. They allow us to view the
prep area but they are done for the day.
The cannery has been in operation since 1921. We head out to Chilkat State Park. The road is gravel and some snow on the sides. We stop at the camp host cabin for an
incredible view of the Chilkat Inlet.
Small islands, mountains rise, the Rainbow and Davidson Glaciers are
clearly seen. Active bear signs are
out. We then take the drive out past the
Ak Ferry to Chilkoot Lake Campground (state).
We ride along the shoreline and there is a mountain wall with at least 8
waterfalls coming from snow melt. We
came to the Chilkoot River. Incredibly
beautiful, one of the all-time best we have ever seen. It is clear why bear watching is so good
here. There are eagles everywhere. We pass a fish weir where a Fish and Game
person is dipping out the year old salmon fry and counting them. The count is a best estimate and helps record
the quality of this wild salmon run. The
river comes out of Chilkoot Lake and we are not disappointed by the grandeur of
the sight. A couple are fishing for
Dolly Varden and not having any luck. It
begins a light drizzle, just in time for the end of the brewfest at 5PM. By the time we start back into town it is
clearing and the sun is coming out. We
decide to treat ourselves to dinner at the Halsingland Hotel which is one of
the historic buildings at Fort Stewart.
This is a lovely place and we get the best table in the house. A table in the corner window overlooking the
old parade grounds and the harbor. This
is an incredible night for weather and views and the young people who are
camping are getting a treat. So far they
are in good behavior mode even though the alcohol is still flowing. The police are around to keep a watch. We have shrimp, liver pate for starters and
wine, enough beer. Our entrees were
fresh halibut sautéed with a potato pancake and fresh King salmon with an
edamame succotash. Heaven! This chef should have done our dinner last night. Finish with a shared cinnamon chai creme
brulee. Wonderful all around. The sun is setting and we take a quick walk
on the downtown pier. Great pics. Watching the tide come in. Back at the RV and time for bed. There’s a sign on the campground dumpster
saying the bears are around so are locking it down at 10PM. It’s probably not a good idea to sleep walk
tonight. It’s been a great day but busy.
We leave for Kluane Lake tomorrow.
Leaving civilization for the great quiet wilderness.
Nighty
Night.
Miles
traveled by RV 44 Miles
Total
RV Mileage 3593
Total
miles traveled 4523
Total
RV travel time 1.5 hours
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