Haines Hiking

Today was our final day in Haines and decided to spend it on some local trails. Since our B&B was perched part of the way up Mt Ripinski, we asked if there were any shortcut trails that linked up to the trail to that summit. Our host enthusiastically confirmed that there was just down the road! We set off and found this shortcut trail to be well cleared and easy to follow, but seemed to head in a straight line up the mountain. We trekked on, eager to meet the real trail and planning to take the real trail on the way back down into Haines as well to avoid sliding down the steep pine needled trail we were taking up. After climbing ~1000ft over the course of a half mile, the trail seemed to end abruptly. We waded through some chest deep spiky leaved plants and some trampled plants, hoping to find the trail on the other side. No luck. So we turned around and slid down the mountain, deciding we'd rather not be lost in the Alaskan wilderness.

After getting back to our B&B, we decided on a more tame hike along the shoreline instead. It was a beautiful, mostly flat hike through the forest and was just what we needed after our morning adventure.Read more