Before my mind and attention gets caught by all the distraction civilization has to offer, I want to briefly summarize the last leg of this wonderful journey. The last leg, I had very initially not planned on doing — but I am so glad I did for it completes this journey in the best possible way.
From Skagway, the route along the Inside Passage (or at least the variation I chose and found most appealing in terms of completing the A-to-B scenario of that route) continues for another ~100miles, all the way to Skagway, where then — quite literally — there is no more (salt) water to continue the journey on. Below picture (taken from the mountains above Skagway, more later) shows that in the best possible way in my opinion (I also think every IP traveler should make their way up this mountain by foot to enjoy this view). Lynn canal, the body of water connecting Juneau and Skagway and also the longest and deepest glacial fjord in North America, ends! Just like that. (The old historic town of Dyea to the left end in the picture, Skagway to the right).
But I’m jumping ahead. Let’s review the last days in somewhat chronological order.
Jacob and me left Juneau after a refreshing rest day (the 8th on my overall journey), heading straight into Juneau’s “Wetlands State Game Refuge”, a narrow and shallow body of water (and mud) connecting Gastinau Channel to the Lynn Canal, which is best (and probably also only then) travelled around high tide due to its extensive tidal flats. A shallow and narrow channel leads through this area, only passable by small crafts.
Due to the opening hours of the Juneau Harbor Master Office (who had stored our kayaks thankfully), our schedule ok, but not perfect, meaning we hit the most narrow and shallow part of the Wetlands about 45 minutes after high tide. Ouch… well, I had expected this to suck, but maybe not quite as much as it did. Muddy, slippery, pulling our kayaks for about 2/3 of a mile, racing against the clock with a falling tide. I took a fall into the mud as my foot slipped trying to pull my loaded boat. Bummer— I had just done laundry the other day.
It felt good leaving Juneau with its noisy traffic (especially helicopters flying tourists around) behind.
Looking over our shoulders, we caught a brief glimpse of the Mendenhall Glacier. And this was basically the opener to the scenery we’d be able to enjoy over the next 4 days heading up Lynn Canal.
Wow, snow covered mountains and glaciers left and right of us. Turquoise water. Barely salty from all the glacier water runoff.
The subtitle of this last leg should probably be “glamping” anyways. Jacob bought a freshly caught salmon off a fishing boat (he was VERY happy), which we cooked over the next 2 days on the fire, just wrapped into foil with salt, oil and chili flakes.
Served along with some wine and whiskey, and bedded on the flattest natural rock plates our local beaches had to offer.
Well, this last leg was also a slow exercise in saying goodbye to what I had become so fond of over the course of the many last weeks: Lounging on beautiful and lonely beaches or meadows, experiencing the peace of camping in the woods, and watching the endless and late sunsets, enjoying campfires. And the ultimate freedom to (at least for the time of this trip) care about nothing else in the world than what happened in every very moment.
As we passed by the lighthouse sitting on Eldred Rock, we got invited for an impromptu tour by Keith, who is currently working on making the lighthouse safely accessible by the public (which means getting rid of poisonous asbestos and lead paint which had found plenty use when the lighthouse was constructed).
The last 20 miles to Haines feel hard. So much harder than expected. It’s “only” the usual headwinds and counter currents. But there are also horse flies. So many, that we cannot not paddle. And even with constant movement and away from shore, they manage to follow und bite. We develop some Kung-fu paddle technique but that doesn’t help either.
Jeff awaits us in Haines. He came by ferry from Juneau to paddle the last stretch into Skagway with us the next day. I’m excited to see him here again and share those last miles — over the last month our paths have crossed multiple times while he was sailing parts of the Inside Passage.
We take the last 15 miles from Haines to Skagway as slow as we can to enjoy the magnificent scenery a last time before hitting the finish line. Lots of waterfalls run into the fjord and cliffs seam part of it.
Some more fooling around, we end up doing roll practice — it’s sunny and now that we’re almost done, the question how bad it would be to fail a roll in glacier water comes up and must be answered…
Paddling into the harbor in Skagway feels grand. Wow, it’s done, all the way from Orcas Island. Im so excited I have to jump out of my kayak ;)
(I’ve used this pic before in a post, but I feel that it depicts well how happy we are to have made it here)
I’ve arrived in Skagway on July 14th. It’s July 17th today and tomorrow early morning, I’m gonna get on the ferry which will bring me all the way back to Bellingham in about 3 days. The ferry is basically gonna run through the Inside Passage and so in some ways this will be a reverse trip. Pretty stoked to see everything from a bit higher above the water (also, my route has diverged from the original Inside Passage in a bunch of places and I’m excited to see all the parts that I had missed on my way up).
I’ve spent a good amount of the last 3 days here in Skagway just eating and resting, and a bit of socializing with old and new adventure friends.
Also did a wonderful hike up to Devils Punchbowl, which overlooks the fjord and the valleys around Skagway and Dyea and also gives way to some of the glaciers and ice fields in this area. Stunning beauty. Amazing to get into Alpine vegetation with only 3900ft of altitude gain. Oh yes, my legs are complaining after 2 months of idle time. But look at those views…
It’s also time to do some cooking again. After over 40 days of freeze-dried food (or otherwise high calorie-not-so-healthy-bar-grub) it’s fun to test the limits my JetBoil. Not too bad, actually (just sunny-side-up eggs didn’t quite work, and were quickly scrambled).
Alright, time to finish this post now. Gotta pack up here and get ready for the ferry ride tomorrow.
