The Juneau Diversion

As mentioned I was hoping to avoid some dodgy weather up north by doing a U-turn and heading South to Juneau for a few days… but ended up riding right into some nasty cold and wet along the Haines Road which from all reports is surrounded by magnificent mountain scenery - but I am unable to confirm those reports.   It did dry out by the time I arrived in Haines and have to say does have some magnificent scenery surrounding it.   I can also confirm that you can order a mighty fine plate of fish and chips in the harbor side restaurant/bar where conversations with the locals can be interesting.

The ferry down the coast from Haines to Juneau has to be one of the great transportation deals around.  Where lots and lots and lots of folks pay thousands and thousands of dollars to "cruise" those same waters ensconced in their behemoths of luxury the Alaska Marine ferry costs only a few hundred and the scenery and destinations are the same.

A couple of nice days in Juneau turned into one that was nice enough for walking around the town and the second reserved for museums and other inside pursuits.   And just like in Haines a very good plate of fish and chips can be had at the harbour side restaurant/bar.  Although the conversations were most definitely missing any local flavour and not all that interesting. For future reference I think I might look for a cheaper hotel back towards the airport or ferry.  While the location of the cheapest room I could find close to downtown was great it was spendy.  The local bus service is probably good enough to get one in and out of the center without too much hassle.   Putting on my tinfoil hat, I find it suspicious that the local bus service has a stop over a mile away from the glacier (a glacier within the city limits btw), and I am sure that that has nothing to do with the huge number of tourists operators offering bus excursions out and back.  Excursions that I’m sure cost far more than the $2 bus fare.  Tinfoil hat off.

A 5AM check in Sunday morning had me in line at the Juneau terminal waiting for the ferry to Skagway and then from there back up to Whitehorse for the night.   Once again I had been madly watching the weather forecasts and while on Saturday things were looking good by Sunday morning maybe a little more questionable.  I think one of my issues is that I needn’t look at ALL the forecast sites but just settle consistently on the same one or two.  I just have to trust that I have landed on the correct one or two forecasting resources.  Plan is to ride up to Dawson City Monday and see how much the forecast has changed with Tuesday being the first possible day on The Dempster Highway.