Haines & Over the top

Hello again. I have now arrived in Haines, Alaska, after a three hour delay because the Gyrometer on the ferry was not working and had to be repaired. The trip was uneventful with light following seas and a tail wind to boot. You could see whitecaps out on the water and the ferry had a slight roll but all-in-all, a great trip on the water. After unloading at the Haines Terminal, I headed out to the Chilkoot Park area to see if any of the grizzly bears were still around.

The picture shows the ones in which I was interested. They must have gone into hibernation as none were to be seen. I returned to Haines and found the city had been buried in the snow storm of Friday night when we came through on the ferry. After having supper, I found my camping spot for the night. Saturday morning, after breakfast, I took my leave of Haines and started up the highway back to Canada. I saw many eagles like this one watching for their opportunity to catch breakfast.

There is much competition amongst the visiting eagles for the salmon going up the river to spawn at this time of the year. More than 6000 eagles visit this hunting ground for the feed of fish which is available. From the beginning of November until the end of February, the salmon stock come into the Chilkat River to spawn.

This cow moose was trying to hide but there was enough open spaces between the trees to get a good image with my camera. She's very photogenic, isn't she? It's a good thing it wasn't hunting season. Just after I passed the highest part of the highway, I found this cross fox hunting for his breakfast, probably an Arctic Ground Squirrel, which burrows it's way under the snow looking for ripened grass seeds. 
I also had the opportunity to watch a grader/snowblower team clearing some of the snow from the highway as shown in the next photo. A highly efficient method of snow removal.

I will be leaving later this week for the rest of my winter trip. Hopefully I will be back about the beginning of February to follow the Yukon Quest 2012.