Kluane

Haines and ferries  

We kept meandering south in between fantastic camp spots and fishing attempts (though with far less luck than i seemed to have in the Yukon and NWT).  We made our way to Haines, where we had a confirmed booking for a ferry to take us south. 

Most of the roads between here and Prince Rupert we have already covered/explored and we were excited early on at the prospect of combining the drive north with the chance to see the inner passage from the water.This ferry was three long days, and certainly more intended for true transport than comfort in living aboard, but we did book a stateroom (mostly just for the shower and a little privacy when we wanted it) and we enjoyed the ride south and the constantly changing views.  

It was certainly a bit colder than we anticipated once the wind was factored in, so we didn’t spend as much time sitting on deck and staring at the water as we might have imagined when we first dreamt this up, but we still had a few whale and dolphin sitings and from the first light onward the views on both side of mountains, glaciers and island were nothing short of breathtaking.

For us the most difficult part of the decision to ferry was that karma wasn’t allowed to come upstairs with us and we weren’t allowed to stay down on the car deck with her.  We hate anything that breaks up the band… but we also figured karma would just be sleeping most of the time anyway.  Every 4-8hours on board when the ferry would pull into another port we were given access down to the car deck and could pickup the dog, go ashore for 20-30minutes of a walk and time with her before a horn warned us it was time to get back aboard.

A nicely scheduled routine for walks...but not so nice when they came in the middle of the night (or downpours)!

As it turns out, the weather was pretty cold/wet/rainy at almost every port, so we weren’t terribly disappointed to hear the horn or head back aboard (and neither was karma). ;)

Kind of an odd pattern of sleeping and eating and walking the dog on the boat, but we got some good sleep and at some point took note as we got further south how dark it suddenly was at night.  In fact it was getting dark really early, and sunrise was getting really late… so weird.  What a waste of a day when so many hours of it are spent in darkness (our bodies have clearly adapted to the longer days up north).

In the end this was an expensive addition to our adventure to the great white north, but we are so thrilled we decided to do it.  A fun way to mix up the route…and a true feast for the eyes for all three days aboard.