Most scenic part of the trip!

Our favorite part of the journey so far, dropping into Haines Junction, riding the Haines Highway to Haines, taking the ferry to Skagway, and climbing back out to Carcross. If we had to tell anyone doing a tour or adventure in Alaska and Canada what to make sure and see, it would be this section for sure!

After fattening ourselves up on the best bakery food ever at Village Bakery, we headed over the Haines Highway where we hit some pretty spectacular weather and views that were like a never ending fireworks show! Ville had this really great idea to stop at this big lake and take a quick bath and when we parked the bikes and walked down to it, we were mauled by flies and then a super pissed momma seagull came out of no where and dive bombed into the back of poor naked Ville's head! I was so shocked I didn't see it coming either, but she would not let up and kept bombing us until we left. So much for a relaxing swim :)

When we neared Haines, we were blessed with over 15 miles of flying down hill while watching the mountains sour above us on both sides. We actually had to hit the brakes and slow down at the border crossing into Alaska again, and the last 30 or so miles were pretty meandering road that followed a huge swollen river that eventually dumped into the bay. Right before hitting Haines, there was a 20ish mile stretch along the river that was a bald eagle reserve and we were able to see a bunch of the eagles hanging out and watching us ride by, I am sure thinking, "now why the hell would anyone want to ride theirs bikes when they could just sit here on a branch and fish? Idiots."

Haines was awesome! Cool little town, with a very healthy food stalked grocery, friendly locals, and unbelievable views of the bay and massive mountains towering out of the water. We got a camp site on the water the first night in an RV park to shower and catch up on laundry while watching the eagles and chatting with RVers.

We met Nolan and Kyle, guys living and working in Haines for the summer, and we met up with them at the Haines Brewery for beers and Kyle gave us 6 jars of canned salmon!! Kyle, you are our hero! We bought bagels, cream cheese, and feasted!! What a treat. Hope we get to see you both again on future travels. It was really nice to finally get a couple days off to walk around, eat, take off our diapers/bike shorts and feel like real live human beings again. The second night we were able to camp on the water in this very nice WarmShower host's yard, Tracey. The weather cooled off and we were deep in the trees right next to the ocean and share touring stories over ice cream and her picked berries. It was beautiful! Thanks Tracey! We also got a quick tune-up of the bikes by Sockeye Cycles.

The next day we took a fast ferry from Haines over to Skagway (only a half an hour or so ride) and were pleasantly surprised to see 3 giant cruise ships docked with thousands of touristy cruise goers everywhere. It was pretty wild. But we happened into the Sockeye Cycles shop and met some of the coolest kids on the block! Paul and Anna are also living in Skagway working for the summer and let us stay on their couch and took us to Paul's soccer game with all their friends. It was so dang fun! Rare moments that we love so much meeting great fellow travels who help out other travels and make us feel welcome as friends. Thanks so much all the people at Sockeye who looked out for our stuff and helped us out while we were there. I hope to see you also along your many journeys as well!!

Heading out of Skagway, we were able to get on the cool little train that wound up through the hills and along the river and ended at the border of Canada, Frasier. From there we hopped back on bikes and pushed on to Carcross and cut over to Jake's Corner where we ran into 2 rad couples who are running the entire route we are riding! They are both from Belgium and have 2 small RV's that the wives drive while the husbands take turns running a marathon each day down the same route, Alaska to Argentina, we are going. Check out their blog at: http://viapanam.be. Ville was busy stuffing his face with a Nutella cinnamon roll when we met them and when I glanced over at Ville his face was completely covered with Nutella. It really is hard to take him anywhere! Not sure why they allowed him out of the nuthouse. Poor guy. :)

Back on the AlCan and heading for the Cassiar Highway. We have about 200 miles before we will head south on the Cassiar and the next big stop will be Smithers, B.C. Onwards and upwards!