Sunday, July 13


Our raft trip on the Chilkat River was definitely the high point of our stay in Haines . This was hardly a shooting-rapids raft trip; at least where we were, you would rate its rapids as anywhere from -1 to -3. At times the Chilkat looked like it does in the picture with us in our life jackets. (You can see that mine is labeled "Raven;" what you can't see is that, by pure dumb luck, Dick's is labeled "50th Anniversary." I have a picture to prove it, but it's not that interesting, so I won't post it.) At other times the Chilkat acts like its true glacial-river self, dividing into braids and constantly changing course. When we got hung up on a gravel bar, all seven passengers had to bounce up and down while our guide, Tom, rowed madly to get us loose; if that did not work, he had to get into the river and tug while we bounced. We saw lots of eagles flying overhead, and at one point we were able to get out and walk on a gravel bar while admiring an eagle sitting on a log and preening itself.


We returned to our lovely campsite at Salmon Run Campground on the Chilkoot Inlet (we finally got Chilkoot and Chilkat straight after a while) for our last evening in Haines.