Petersburg -1

We had to be at the ferry dock in Wrangell at 3:00 am for a 4:00 am departure. This early morning event cause us to pack up early and move to the ferry parking lot around 5:00 pm the night before. After a walk around town, of course nearly everything was closed by this time but it was a nice evening for a stroll. The four of us decided on eating at the Stikine Café for dinner. I ordered the first raspberry lemon aid and then Sue and Susi did the same after sampling mine. It came served with real raspberries and was special. Everyone ordered dinner and we could not believe the portions. I thought they were going to have to roll us out of the café. This meant more strolling around the city. We just could not go back to the RVs until we let our meals settle a bit. At 3 we were up and loading on the ferry for the relatively short trip(three hours) to Petersburg. The ferry has to go through the very narrow Wrangell Narrows. This means the ferry has to do a lot of turns but not to fear the water was like Glass. We even got to see a humpback whale. I was surprised to see how many houses there were along both shores.  As it turns out there is a road that runs the entire length of the island. Petersburg is on the north end of the island. When you drive to the South end you can see Wrangell on the other side of the water. Did not know that it was that close.

   

When we arrived we spent the day sleeping off our disturbed night sleep from the night before. Sue did get to visit the local quilt shop and I visited the two local hardware stores. The to the grocery and back to the trailer for dinner. We are staying at the Trees RV Park with water and electric. Had to pay for WIFI but it has been very good. Cell service is spotty.

Our adventure have been traveling the Three Lakes loop road. Along the way we have seen black tail deer mostly around the residential area, a mink(no pic), 3 bears (no Pics), and a number of eagles but only one would pose for me. Again we had a great day weather wise. Sue and I did to hikes one to Sand Lake and the other to Crane Lake. Both hikes were on board walks with lots of up and down step but easy. It continues to amaze us the lack of wild life. We see very few birds or squirrels. We do not know why that is. Maybe we are just a little to early in the season.

   

The rest of the pictures are here.

Wrangell–Day 2

Wrangell is a charming community that has only 14 miles of paved highway and boats outnumber cars.  There are no traffic lights. This is really a working town and not a normal tourist destination.  For us it is a great stop. Lots of back road to explore a no traffic. It was a little disappointing that we did not see more wild animals.

We are spending three nights at Shoemaker Bay RV Park.  It has electricity and we are once again parked with a view of the water.  There is a paved walking and biking path that begins at the southern edge of downtown and parallels Zimovia Highway and continues on past the RV  park where we are staying.  We enjoyed cycling on it and watching for eagles and blue herons along  the coast.

Vicky of Parks and Rec was the person that Sue and Susi talked to about camping in Wrangell. Turns out that she and her husband Rick are interested in Airstreams.  She stopped over one evening to chat and see our unit. It also turned out that she is the life guard and water aerobics instructor at the local pool. Both Sue and Susi were excited about this but the pool hours and ours did not work out.

On our drive on the logging roads lead us to a beautify forest service cabin(Middle Ridge) that you can rent. It come complete with wood stove, wood, and row boat on the lake. We could see our selves spending a few days here. Not a place to bring the trailer however because most of the grades were 18% with lots of very tight turns. It’s a single lane road with and occasional pull off. Had trouble getting Sue to look at the scenes rather than the road. The road surface was really quite good and had been graveled in the last couple of years.

See all the pictures here.

Ketchikan to Wrangell

Before leaving Ketchikan we had one more hike to do around Ward Lake. They had just redone the trail. It was an easy stroll in the woods around the lake.

 

I must mention that we got our first whale sighting even thought it was at a great distance.

Our stay here in Clover Pass has been great. I should mention that the tide here at this time is around 23 feet. The pictures show what it looked like at low tide. At high tide the water would be up near our RVs. The ramp down to the dock would be nearly level.

  

The ferry left Ketchikan at 3:15 pm for a 6 hour trip to Wrangell. We were the last vehicle to load. We did get to drive on but when we arrived in Wrangell we had to back around the deck to turn around and get off. The deck hands are really good at helping you maneuver around. The cruise was as smooth as glass. We were treated to a beautiful sunset with overcast skies. We did see some whales in the distance but got no pictures. There were a number of porpoises along the way but never got any good shots of them.

   

We are camped at the Wrangle city park at Shoemaker Bay with a lovely view of the bay.

We have reservations with Alaskan Water for a jet boat up the Stikine River. The Stikine is 17 miles wide at its mouth which is braided like most of the rivers in Alaska. Captain Jim gave us some great views and some thrilling turns in the jet boat. We were told the story of this dairy farm that made a go of it until they began bring milk in on the barges from down south. It was to be a 4 hour tour but turned in to a 5 hour trip as it was a beautiful day and everyone was having a great time. By the way the extra time allow us to see our first moose.

    

 

  

 

As usually more pictures can be found here.

Misty Fjord National Monument

Today is our trip to Misty Fjord National Monument. When we got up in the morning we found this eagle right behind the trailer.

See all the pictures from our trip here.

Ketchikan, AK

After a dinner of Halibut we drove down to the ferry terminal to await our scheduled check in time of 3:00am. It rained most of the time but unlike others we slept in the trailer to the soothing pitter patter of the rain on the roof until time to get measured and check in. Now we had to wait until our departure at 6:15am but could not go back to sleep because we had to go through customs and board the ferry. It is a 5 hour trip from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan. Today that was in the rain nearly the whole trip. Sue got a little green around the middle of the trip but Dave took here to the center line of the ship which reduced the amount of pitch and roll she would feel. All went well and we are camped in Clover Cove Resort. Really it is just a parking lot with a great view. Harbor seals and Eagles just feet from the rear of the trailer. Now this is living.

Went in to town to visit the Visitor Center and explore the downtown. This included a walk down the famous Creek Street. Four cruse ships were in town and made the area a bit crowed, especially when we were trying to find a place to eat. Two of the ships left right after lunch which left the place somewhat deserted. I expect the other two were also preparing to leave. We were told that on Tuesday there would be no ship in the harbor. Should make it more pleasant!

Our first adventure was to drive to the Northern end of the road and stopped at Settlers Cove Park. We took the Lunch Creek Falls trail. This was a fantastic trail through the rainforest with a lovely water fall to kick it off.

  

On the return trip from our stroll we found our first black bears. It was a mom an her yearling cub. It was to bad the mom had a left front paw that had been injured and she could not use.

  

Next up was a trip up Revilla road. First stop was at Ward Lake. We have to come back here to make the hike around the lake.

  

Now we drive to the southern end of the road which ends at a Hydroelectric plant and an old cannery. Stops along the way were at Rotary Beach. The snorkelers looked mighty cold. The stop at Herring Bay was to have bears but again we were to early in the season. If you look real close you may see the zip line in the distance. We were not brave enough to give it a try.

  

In addition we found this lovely unnamed waterfall.

A visit to the Saxman Totem Park is a mandatory stop on this part of the road.

   

Last we have a view from from our trailer.

Obvious we have been blessed with great weather in a place that gets 13 feet of rain a year. See all the pictures here.

Prince Rupert

Our stay in Prince Rupert started with a tour of the North Pacific  Coast Cannery. On a rainy morning Sue and I were on the tour with our excellent tour guide Adam. He first took us through the process when it was only manual labor. The cannery operated with four groups of people Chinese, Japanese, First Nation People and the Europeans. The entire family would be employed including the children.  No child labor laws at that time. Some of the jobs were really brutal on the body. For instance a woman would deslime the fish by thrusting their hands in freezing cold water with out any sort of protection. We were told that a woman would only last for two years in this job. At that time here hands would have so much arthritis that she could not hold the fish. There were many other bad jobs along the line. Oh by the way the cans were sealed with lead, hard to imagine today.

 

When automation arrived thing got slightly better but the number of people to run the operation was dramatic reduction in manpower. I have some pictures of the equipment here. The butchering machine was the worst as far as I’m concerned. I guess it was blood and guts all over the place. No guards or anything.

 

Each of the groups lived in separate communities. The First Nation People would live in a single room that would house up to seven. It would have a hole in one corner for a bathroom. The room was around 8 by 12.  The others faired much better, with the Europeans living in more normal facilities.

Our next stop was to explore Diana Lake Provincial Park. Diana is a day use area that would be a great place to canoe. It had a picnic shelter complete with a wood burning stove.

   

Next stop was Purdomme Lake Provincial Park. Much the same but here there is camping. This picture from a campsite shows it is a little tight but lovely with no hookups. We would have liked to spend a couple of nights here.

  

Next stop is the place Susi was painting at. It was complete with eagles.

  

Final stop will be Butze Rapids. This is a location where the rapids only show up at low tide. The tide covers up the rapids as it rises.

 

I might add that Prince Rupert has a great story to tell about expanding their economy as a port to China etc. We had a presentation about this at the Port Interpretive Center. The would seem to have a very bright future.

See all images here.