The Battery Point trail (Jillian Rogers)
The Haines Assembly approved two new commercial tour permits this week. One permit is for a cruise company, that plans to conduct independent hiking tours in town.
UnCruise Adventures is new to Haines this year. UnCruise wants the opportunity to have its own guides take passengers on guided hikes of Mt. Riley, Battery Point and Mt. Ripinsky.
Former Haines Tourism Director Leslie Ross spoke in favor of the permit.
“Working with them professionally and personally, they are an amazing company to work with,” said Ross. “Their guides are extremely professional and well trained and I support this.”
The company won’t offer the tours to the general public, only its own passengers. That means they won’t be charged borough sales tax. Instead, Uncruise will pay $5.00 per person for each guest that hikes on the trails.
Uncruise also offers its passengers river rafting tours through the local company Rainbow Glacier Adventures.
The assembly also approved a permit for SEAK Expeditions. The locally-run company plans to offer sea kayaking and stand up paddle boarding in Lutak Inlet and along the Chilkat Peninsula.
SEAK Expeditions will also offer guided hiking on the Seduction Point and Battery Point trails.
Joe Oesterling is one of the company’s owners.
“Those two trails are really important at least in my view in that they add a sort of an aspect of safety,” said Oesterling. “As we all know, things change pretty quickly here. Conditions change. Being able to, at the drop of a hat, get the folks off the water and make sure they have a safe trip is pretty important. And then to actually be able to offer, to not cancel a trip on days when conditions are not appropriate — and, or do a combination of the two.”
Both permits were approved unanimously by the assembly.
