Saturday July 1– Day 29 of trip – ferry from Juneau to
Haines (also midpoint in our 57 day trip)
Woke early for the 8am ferry to Haines. Check in was at 6a,
so we got there at 5:30, requiring a 4:45 rollout by the family, which was not
entirely welcomed by anyone whose name didn’t rhyme with Pain.
The “Fairweather” ferry boat today wasn’t near as swanky as
the Metanuska we’d ridden before, but it got the job done. I had clam chowder
for breakfast, just cause it was an option.
My transmission problem (poor shifts between first and
second) hasn’t gotten any better, so I started troubleshooting it in
Haines. Unfortunately, Haines is a town
of about 1300 residents, so not the ideal place to work on a transmission…. I
headed to the local car parts shop and bought some tools to adjust the front
band on the tranny. Travis helped me and
while it “appears” better, I won’t know for sure til we make the haul up to Tok
on the 3rd. (fingers crossed)
After that, we headed up to Chilkoot River/Lake and Lutak Inlet,
where we’d been told to fish for Dolly Varden and salmon. Whole family went so Deanna could
sightsee. The wind was up and the tide
was coming in. The hike into the fishing area took us past 7 (we counted) piles
of bear poop, but fortunately, we never met the poop piles owners. J Unfortunately, we didn’t get any bites,
either. Saw more bald eagles, of course, and finally headed home for a dinner
of pan fried halibut, which is just fantastic.
All you really need to do is heat some oil, sprinkle on some Tony
Chacheres on those fillets and fry for a couple minutes. The meat tastes like,
and has the texture of scallops.
Fantabulous. Very little leftovers, and we cooked a bunch of it.
Also, for those of you keeping score at home…. 18 years is
the max life expectancy you should hope for on 5mm neoprene waders sold at Bass
Pro Shops under the Redhead name. Way
back when…. Art Hughes talked me into taking up fly fishing. On that day, in the spring of 1999 he (lied and)
convinced me that fly fishing was the best thing ever. He took me to BPS and coached me through the
dropping of $300 on misc gear, virtually none of which is any use other than fly
fishing. One rare item breaking that
rule was the neoprene waders, that I have, a few times since, taken duck
hunting (another form of outdoors misery).
On those occasional uses, the stitching at the seams would allow a few
drops of water through. No longer is that true….. at this stage, my waders are
merely a filter, keeping large particulate out, but providing a steady flow of
water into said waders. No surprise,
peak flow is achieved in the very last place you’d like to have it…. “the
netherparts”, as Shon would call it. You really have to love eating salmon to
have your netherparts bathed continuously in 33F water for hours on end. Alas,
I’ll do it all again in a few days.
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