Last weekend Maya, Martina, myself and about 1/2 of Whitehorse took off to Haines, Alaska, for the 17th Annual Great Alaska Craft Beer and Homebrew Festival. Yes, I went to the USA for the beer, which was outstanding, even after many tastes (the Haines Brewery Spruce Tip actually uses spruce tips in the brewing and it is the finest beer I have ever tasted). The festival was held at the fair grounds, which also happened to be the set for the movie White Fang. Amidst the revelling in beer was first a band that sounded like it came from the Kootenays and then a bluegrass band. Adults in overalls where out in full force. The police where there but only to keep an eye on girls passed out in the sun...I'm surprised they didn't stand so as to make shade for them they were so nice.

Our trip over was great. Spotted 3 grizzly bears by the road and saw Kluane National Park for the first time, it looks absolutely stunning. The Haines Junction, YT to Haines, Alaska, is probably one of the finest drives. There were a lot of superlatives and explicit language as well as some sheer silence to describe the views. Shortly after arriving at the summit, we dropped down into coastal forest and came to a screech at the border (who puts a boarder crossing station on a steep hill??). We were greeted by none other than a fine Mr. Allgood. Yes, it was his name and I am sure that he got drafted by the border service to work at that particular crossing based on his perfect name. After confirming that we did not have any ivory or firearms (I accidently lied about some apples and eggs for no apparent reason), we were in the USA, my first trip since I lifted my self-imposed travel ban when GWBush got re-elected. A few kilometers past the border was my favorite sort of business, the "Food Gas Beer" establishment, but we had just eaten at the Frosty Freeze in Haines Juction so rolled past.

Haines sits at the mouth of the Chilkat River at the end of the Lynn Canal, close to Skagway. They throw down not only a great beer festival but also a Hammer Museum, a great shop called the Mountain Market and a tiny Mexican restaurant. We found that nothing in Haines was easy to find...a restaurant here, campground there...but it made for great exploration (especially on tired hungry bellies).

On the way home from Haines, Maya and I stopped just inside BC to go for a hike off the road. Looked easy enough, just up to a nice ridge to see what we could see. Well, after a few hours of slogging through ankle/knee/waist deep snow we decided that maybe we'd come back later in the summer and brave the bears instead. The views were amazing though and it was a great day out in the sun beating the willow, crossing creeks, kicking steps into snow and looking at rocks and ice.

We also stopped at Million Dollar Falls to see if it really was worthy of its name. It is a pretty stunning waterfall with some exellent trail crew boardwalk installation and a really nice campground (for the Alaska-Yukon RV season).