Since being to Alaska last summer, my ultimate dream/fantasy here was to see a moose.
Maybe it’s from all those Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons that I watched when I was a
kid. It perhaps slipped into my unconscious mind and are now re-emerging and giving
me the strange desire to see a moose. So when I saw that Haines, Alaska is one of the best
places to spot a moose in the wild, I had to go and take a chance.
At 7am I walked off the ship to see wonderfully eerie sight. The port town of Skagway was covered in a great morning fog like something out of a Halloween tale. The neighboring cruise ships were engulfed in the soft, smeared clouds. I met with my guide who led me to the express boat that would take us the 45 min through the Chilkoot inlet into the town of Haines. I boarded the boat and as we left the dock and trotted along the inlet, we were able to see some great views of waterfalls and misty mountain formations being caressed by the early morning fog. After a short while we made it to the dock of Haines.
Walking off the pier, I was faced with the town in front of me. A quiet little town which had simple houses with simple coloring. It was almost spooky how neat and quite it was; something almost out of a Tim Burton film or something. I proceeded to the end of the pier where the buses were there to take me to the location. I was met by “coronel” Karen who I was told by my Skagway guide to salute when I saw her. I looked at her and she said to me “Didn’t someone tell you to salute me?!” I gave a quick two fingered salute and then she laughed and pointed to my bus. The buses were old; from the 70’s probably. I definitely saw them in some old 70’s horror movies and now they have come to Haines to apparently retire and die. I got on the old piece of scrap metal and took a seat.
The bus got going and as we passed through the sleepy town, the driver gave us some narration and history as well as the way of life of the people in the town. The deeper we got into the wilderness, the more excited I got. I just had a feeling that today I was going to see a moose. I kept my eyes on the side of the road, scanning frantically hoping to see a large brown figure on four hooves or even better, some antlers. We drove alomg side the Chilkat River and were explained that it is the most shallow river in the world. The driver joked that If you fall in, don’t panic, just try not to get your life preserver wet and just stand up. The river in most parts is only 9 inches deep!
Finally we reached the site that was nestled along the river. We got off and met Sierra, a young 30 something year old guide who I was going to get on a flat bottom boat with and she was going to
show me along the Chilkat river. After putting on some cold weather gear, I got onto the boat and we
took off.
From the boat I could see the amazingly rugged skyline. The mountains ripped into the deep blue of the sky and the heavy clouds masked the rest. This day out of most days I was told was
unreal. They rarely get days like this. They also told me that all of last night It poured rain. The thin frail trees whistled in the ice-cold wind. On top of a few of them, were bald eagles resting. They perched there, majestically scanning the land and water for food. They would fly off when we got too close and it would soar to some far off destination. After being wowed by the views, I remembered my true purpose of being here: the moose.
I tried looking through the brush to see something that resembled a moose shape. We floated by some open fields and hills where I thought for sure we would see something- a moose, a bear, a sheep.... Something! But we saw nothing. She pointed out a part of the bank where moose commonly eat and had eaten the grass down to the nubs; but they were gone now. My hopes were dwindling about seeing a moose. I was getting ready for the eventuality of failure.
We got a great glimpse of the near by Takshanuk Mountains which had two small valley galciers on them. The glaciers had a light blue hue to them which gave the colossal mountains some character.
At 7am I walked off the ship to see wonderfully eerie sight. The port town of Skagway was covered in a great morning fog like something out of a Halloween tale. The neighboring cruise ships were engulfed in the soft, smeared clouds. I met with my guide who led me to the express boat that would take us the 45 min through the Chilkoot inlet into the town of Haines. I boarded the boat and as we left the dock and trotted along the inlet, we were able to see some great views of waterfalls and misty mountain formations being caressed by the early morning fog. After a short while we made it to the dock of Haines.
Walking off the pier, I was faced with the town in front of me. A quiet little town which had simple houses with simple coloring. It was almost spooky how neat and quite it was; something almost out of a Tim Burton film or something. I proceeded to the end of the pier where the buses were there to take me to the location. I was met by “coronel” Karen who I was told by my Skagway guide to salute when I saw her. I looked at her and she said to me “Didn’t someone tell you to salute me?!” I gave a quick two fingered salute and then she laughed and pointed to my bus. The buses were old; from the 70’s probably. I definitely saw them in some old 70’s horror movies and now they have come to Haines to apparently retire and die. I got on the old piece of scrap metal and took a seat.
The bus got going and as we passed through the sleepy town, the driver gave us some narration and history as well as the way of life of the people in the town. The deeper we got into the wilderness, the more excited I got. I just had a feeling that today I was going to see a moose. I kept my eyes on the side of the road, scanning frantically hoping to see a large brown figure on four hooves or even better, some antlers. We drove alomg side the Chilkat River and were explained that it is the most shallow river in the world. The driver joked that If you fall in, don’t panic, just try not to get your life preserver wet and just stand up. The river in most parts is only 9 inches deep!
Finally we reached the site that was nestled along the river. We got off and met Sierra, a young 30 something year old guide who I was going to get on a flat bottom boat with and she was going to
show me along the Chilkat river. After putting on some cold weather gear, I got onto the boat and we
took off.
From the boat I could see the amazingly rugged skyline. The mountains ripped into the deep blue of the sky and the heavy clouds masked the rest. This day out of most days I was told was
unreal. They rarely get days like this. They also told me that all of last night It poured rain. The thin frail trees whistled in the ice-cold wind. On top of a few of them, were bald eagles resting. They perched there, majestically scanning the land and water for food. They would fly off when we got too close and it would soar to some far off destination. After being wowed by the views, I remembered my true purpose of being here: the moose.
I tried looking through the brush to see something that resembled a moose shape. We floated by some open fields and hills where I thought for sure we would see something- a moose, a bear, a sheep.... Something! But we saw nothing. She pointed out a part of the bank where moose commonly eat and had eaten the grass down to the nubs; but they were gone now. My hopes were dwindling about seeing a moose. I was getting ready for the eventuality of failure.
We got a great glimpse of the near by Takshanuk Mountains which had two small valley galciers on them. The glaciers had a light blue hue to them which gave the colossal mountains some character.
As we headed back to the site and the tour came to an end, I gave up hope. It looked like once again I came to
Alaska for the second year in a row and have missed seeing a moose. I will say though
that all was not lost. I still had an amazing time boating the Chiltak river and
experiencing its very wild scenery. -DB
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