June 26, 2008 ~ Thursday

Return to Haines
Total mileage for trip 895.4

John set the alarm for 7:15 and we rolled out to get our day underway. We needed to recover the boat early to avoid the 12:53PM low tide. We cruised wide open non-stop back to Haines. It took just over an hour to reach the harbor. We were all feeling a bit anxious over the recovery process. Unfortunately, Haines does not have a launching and recovery dock at the launch where you can tie up which makes boat recovery much more interesting/challenging. We pulled into the slip where we’d tied up several weeks ago to complete our getting underway preparations. John went to get the truck while Jeff & Shanna stayed at the boat to do “take out” chores. We let the air out of the dinghy, added water to the tank and got things “buttoned up.” John came back and prepared the trailer for recovery. He then backed the truck & trailer down the ramp and left the truck running while he came to get the boat . Jeff & Shanna walked to the ramp while John drove the boat there. John stabbed it on the trailer with one try! We left the extend-a-hitch out and slowly drove to the trailer parking area to finish securing the boat for the bumpy 900 mile ride home.

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We drove around trying to find the Laundromat and stumbled upon the gas station. A younger gal came to pump our fuel. Crap, we ended up at the “full service” station and paid a whopping $5.20 per gallon! Ouch! Next stop, the laundrymat for a much needed shower for all! We returned to the Haines Pioneer Bar for another $10 hamburger and Internet access. Shanna was a bit horrified to see that she had 35 emails waiting in her Alcohol Awareness e-mailbox (and only 3 were Spam). John suggested that she open them all and then work on them in the truck. Big green “the truck” and TomCat pulled out of Haines at 1:20PM. John drove until 1:30 in the morning when he finally had to pull over and take a nap. One hour later and we were back on the road again for Lake Louise.

At 4:30 AM we pulled up at the Wolverine Lodge on Lake Louise and found our way into our sleeping bags with the smell of gas fumes coming from the generator stowed under one of the boat seats.