Teslin to Skagway/Haines (23 May)
Today we crossed the border into the USA and wound our clocks back an hour. A 25 hour day.
This journey was interesting. We turned off the Alaska Highway and headed south. We saw Tlingit villages, often trailer homes, in the forest and by the lakes and streams. The roads were roughish so the going was slower; not a bad thing. We continued the drive past spectacular mountains, amazing forests, lakes - some frozen - but no animals today.
As we climbed, the trees became shorter and almost disappeared. The foliage cover was mostly low bushes, some just clinging to rocks. We are told this is tundra, a generic term for plants that grow alongside, and sometimes on top of, permafrost.
Near the top of a pass we saw Canadian Customs. Those entering from the USA had to stop but we, who were leaving Canada just drove through. We crossed the pass and drove several more miles down a pretty valley with the Skagway railway line visible on the other side. On reaching USA Customs, the Customs officer told us that there was water dripping out of our motorhome and he was right. Short story: part of our freshwater system was broken and we had lost lost all our freshwater. (More to come on this story.)
We made it to Skagway, wandered the town a bit, and parked our motorhome at the ferry terminus. We were loaded up and sailed for Haines, about an hour away and still in the USA. We made it to the Haines Hitch-Up RV Park at about 9pm. Once hitched up I pulled the covers off the water system so that we could see the pipes, put some fresh water in the tank and started the pump. We could see water gushing and realised that one of the joints had broken during our trip. The construction was crude and rough and likely to fail with vibrations - not uncommon on the roads up here.
I contacted Fred, the park boss, and explained the problem. He had a look and said it might be able to be fixed tomorrow. Fortunately we were booked for two nights. So our showers were in the common ablution areas.
This journey was interesting. We turned off the Alaska Highway and headed south. We saw Tlingit villages, often trailer homes, in the forest and by the lakes and streams. The roads were roughish so the going was slower; not a bad thing. We continued the drive past spectacular mountains, amazing forests, lakes - some frozen - but no animals today.
As we climbed, the trees became shorter and almost disappeared. The foliage cover was mostly low bushes, some just clinging to rocks. We are told this is tundra, a generic term for plants that grow alongside, and sometimes on top of, permafrost.
Near the top of a pass we saw Canadian Customs. Those entering from the USA had to stop but we, who were leaving Canada just drove through. We crossed the pass and drove several more miles down a pretty valley with the Skagway railway line visible on the other side. On reaching USA Customs, the Customs officer told us that there was water dripping out of our motorhome and he was right. Short story: part of our freshwater system was broken and we had lost lost all our freshwater. (More to come on this story.)
We made it to Skagway, wandered the town a bit, and parked our motorhome at the ferry terminus. We were loaded up and sailed for Haines, about an hour away and still in the USA. We made it to the Haines Hitch-Up RV Park at about 9pm. Once hitched up I pulled the covers off the water system so that we could see the pipes, put some fresh water in the tank and started the pump. We could see water gushing and realised that one of the joints had broken during our trip. The construction was crude and rough and likely to fail with vibrations - not uncommon on the roads up here.
I contacted Fred, the park boss, and explained the problem. He had a look and said it might be able to be fixed tomorrow. Fortunately we were booked for two nights. So our showers were in the common ablution areas.
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