Well, it's been close to 2 weeks since I left Fairbanks, but you might be surprised to know I'm not actually in Utah yet. I'm taking my time visiting both friends and family on the way down and should be there on Sunday. But the fun started on Memorial Day.
The day before, I drove a soul-crushing 14 hours from Fairbanks to Haines, through Canada. The trip started off a bit ominously as I passed out of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, and promptly ran over the back legs of a rabbit. Hoping that someone behind me would finish the job in the time it took to pull a U turn was fruitless, so I found a good stick and ended the poor thing's suffering. Trust me, if you ever have to do something like this, you only want to hit once, so I actually hurt my shoulder a bit swinging the stick, but it proved to be enough, and I wasn't forced to go ape on the thing trying to help it.
After that was fairly easy, I saw my first black bear, and was glad that I had hit the rabbit instead, I can just picture running over a bear's back legs and then having to beat it to death with a stick, it might have proved more difficult.
The Rabbit was an omen though.
I got to Haines at about 11pm and simply parked by the water, grabbed my blanket, tilted back the seat in my 4-Runner, and slept. I woke at about 5 for a bit then slept again until about 9:30, which is when the fun started. I got breakfast, a pretty decent good old country breakfast with pretty good coffee, I only drink coffee on the road, then headed to the Alaska Marine Highway Office.
I had plenty of time to spare, it was 10am and the ferry was to leave at 8pm with me boarding at 6, I just wanted to get all my ticketing over and done with. This turned out to be a very good idea. When I got to the counter, I noticed that all the other window people were on the phone and apologizing. I heard 'electrical problem' and 'Juneau' and I figured I was about due for an apology, which was exactly right. The guy at the desk told me that the MV Columbia had an issue and was in Juneau being fixed, and that while this might cause a 1-Day delay, it shouldn't be too bad. I was asked to check back in at about 3, so I decided to go climb a mountain.
Mt Riley is a beautiful place, and the trails, even the hardest one which I chose, are pretty well maintained, if not saggy in May at the lowlands. It was a beautiful and grueling climb, and I got to find out firsthand that the trail was still snowed over enough to be easy to lose, and had to turn back before summiting. Disappointment to the max. so I made my way back down, twisted my ankle and swore a lot, and went back to the AMHS office.
"Well, you can drive to Skagway and maybe catch another ferry, drive to Prince Rupert and catch another ferry, or just drive." I took the refund and just drove. I saw far too many families who were moving their entire lives sitting around the terminal in tears to want to stay there. So I got a hotel room that night (overpriced for a place that doesn't provide shampoo in my opinion) and had a semi-okay night's rest before heading out the next day.
*In the next journal: John encounters a creepy-ass border guard, more bears, and discovers that BC drivers are total A-Holes*
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3 comments:
sounds like a grand old time! Lots more driving than expected though, huh? And I didn't know you took the 4-runner. How about those $700 fillups? #%*&ing exchange rate! And they might be being assholes because youre on the wrong side of the road. I told you it wasn't right-hand drive. This isnt England!
Dang, sounds like a rough trip. Where are you going to cross back into the US? Are you still going to visit Portland?
John, you left your nasty Rockstar in my fridge. It'll still be here for Twin Peaks...you can collect it then. ;)
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