Ketchikan and Petersburg
Day 6 June 4, 2012Ketchikan, Alaska
At 6 am the street sweeper and accompanying vacuum truck in the WalMart parking lot, started up right next the trailer and proceeded to cover the entire parking lot. They made as much noise shutting down as starting up so it was a long ½ hour or so before we went back to sleep.
We finally got up at about 7:30 and had breakfast and got the rig ready to move. We needed to buy a new Sonicare toothbrush because we’d managed to leave home with both of our brush handles and no charger. So we went into the WalMart for that and hoped to also find some new leveling crates. They don’t carry RV supplies at the Ketchikan WalMart. After all, the clerk said, it’s an island. From there we drove into town to the Safeway to do our grocery shopping (produce, other perishables and wine). The Safeway is really upscale. They had a huge bakery and a deli with a big salad bar (bigger than I’ve ever seen and most of our in WA are now gone). The produce was expensive but not horrible. Apples were $2.49 a pound (no matter whether they were Pink Ladies or Galas or Delicious).
The sun was out and it was a simply gorgeous day. We both could have used a down day with showers and a nap but you can’t waste a sunny day in Ketchikan! So we opted to play tourist first. We couldn’t tell earlier if there were any cruise ships in port (there hadn’t been any the night before) but from the Safeway parking lot you could see that there were at least 3 of the huge things moored in in the south end of town. We stopped and took pictures of them and I was lucky enough to accidently get a photo of a float plane taking off while I was trying to take a photo of the view. Then as we started to drive out of the parking lot I noticed a group of ravens sitting on the roof of a nearby building sunning themselves so I had to stop everything to photograph them.
We drove south through town and things got more and more crowded and more and more crazy as we got closer to the cruise ships. There were 4 of them in port and they had disgorged all of their passengers it appeared onto the narrow streets of old Ketchikan. There were people with little electric cars (like upscale space-age looking golf carts), a trolley, tons of pedestrians and don’t forget all the vans and Grayline buses. We made it out of the old section of town and found our way to Saxman Park which turns out to be a Totem Park turned tourist trap crawling with folks off the buses. We were the only rig in the RV parking area and were informed we were supposed to find the guy with the hat and give him $5 a piece. We looked and looked and asked one of the bus drivers and she pointed us to the gift shop (full of tourists) where there were 4 registers and no clerks. We finally found a clerk who sighed and pointed us outside and across the road to a round older native man with a baseball cap on. We paid our money and talked to him for a few minutes and then roamed around the park and took pictures of the totems. The place has a cheesy feel to it probably just because so darned many folks crawl through it (they can have 10,000 people visit on the days there are 7 ships in town—900,000 over the summer). There was a presentation on carving going on in a big building by the parking area but the kid doing it sounded like a recording and we moved on.
I took photos of all totem poles and we went back to the trailer intent on finding a place for lunch. We drove south from Saxman Park and planned to stop at the Rotary Beach parking area to have lunch. But the parking lot was set up so we would have had lunch looking at the highway rather than the gorgeous view so we drove on until we found a turn off where we could set things up with a nice view. I took photos of the view (of course) and then we had lunch. There were an amazing number of Grayline tour buses (both full-sized and van-sized) going past us on the South Tongass Highway which made us think there might be more out that way than the Milepost indicated. In fact, there really isn’t much, though it’s a pretty drive. As we were finishing up lunch a small truck came up and began to unload gear. Then a small van came and a group of ladies in wet suits got out and began to put on weight belts. It was probably a cruise ship outing. On our way back we spotted them out in the water snorkeling in the water.
After lunch we drove on south, through the little town of Herring Cove which was very pretty (I slowed down and stopped in the middle of the road and took a photo)—clearly there wasn’t much traffic. The road turned to gravel but it was well surfaced a bit like Rimrock used to be when they oiled it each summer.
As we came up on the “scenic waterfall” that was listed in the Milepost and aid car and then a number of private cars with blue lights flashing sped by too. We came around the bend and the aid car was parked with the blue light cars and a tour bus. The aid folks were working on someone lying on the ground. We decided to drive on to the next waterfall and hope that they were done when we came back.
Of course, just past the aid car we met a grader working on the road. He took his half down the middle and we drove past to the next waterfall. It wasn’t very big and I didn’t even need to get out of the truck to take a photo of it. There was nothing more of interest on the road, though the buses continued on to the end of the road so they had somewhere to turn around. So we turned around just past the waterfall and slowly drove back towards the aid car. They had already loaded their patient and were clearing things away. So we waited for a little while and then I hiked up to the waterfall. It was much bigger than the other one but there were rocks to climb up and I suspect someone either tripped or slipped climbing up and got hurt. There was an older woman riding shotgun in the aid car and she didn’t looked distressed at all and the aid car wasn’t in a hurry so whatever it was, it wasn’t serious. I thought it was worth Walter’s while to see this waterfall so I made him get out of the truck and climb up and see it.
From the waterfall we drove back north, through town which was still crawling with tourists and on to Clover Pass Resort. It’s an odd combination of things—RV slots, motel rooms, restaurant, marina, boat rentals and fishing charters complete with fish cleaning, smoking and shipping. We’d called earlier in the day about a reservation and they said there was no problem. But when we pulled up there was no one in the office or in the restaurant (which had a sign that said it was open only on weekends until June 11th). We walked down the big ramp to the docks (full of cool boats that they rent out and charter) and found the staff dealing with some folks who had just come in from a charter fishing trip. They’d caught 2 huge salmon and 2 big (but no huge) halibut plus a yellow-eyed rock cod (which is one very weird looking fish). The staff got to clean and prep the fish for the clients who went off with the owner to town to return to their hotel. We finally found someone to check us in and we hiked back to the office. They wanted $39 for a waterfront site and we decided to do that because the non-waterfront sites were in a parking lot behind a big storage building and looked pretty awful.
We had to wait for the propane truck to finish filling a whole bunch of big tanks because he was parked in our spot. We waited a while and decided we’d take our showers while we waited. The showers were marginal at best. The water at Clover Pass Resort is the color of well-brewed tea. The toilets look like they haven’t been flushed since someone had done their business in them—dark brown. Ugh. There was hot water to start but once Walter turned his water on it turned lukewarm. But we got clean and it wasn’t drafty so it wasn’t too bad. But the laundry area smelled like mildew and I certainly wouldn’t want to do my laundry there. We finally got to park in our spot and set up and by then we were both ready for a nap. The trailer was warm since we were in full sun so we had the windows open. It was noisy since the staff was doing all sorts of stuff to get ready to open in a week. But we did fall asleep and were both happier after a nap.
After our nap we went for a walk down on the docks. There are charter boats with two 225hp outboards and one with two 300hp outboards. That’s a whole lot of horses to pull a not very large fishing boat. One of the charters had fishing poles all along three sides of the roof. That’s a lot of poles too.
While we were walking we noticed a bald eagle down on the shore. As we walked toward him we realized there was a lot of whistling, cawing (like sea gulls) and calling going on. We looked up in the trees along the shore and they were full of eagles. There were at least 12 of them in 3 trees alone and as we scanned the area we realized that nearly every tree had an eagle in it. Fish guts! Perfume to eagles. The staff at the resort couldn’t toss the fish guts out onto the shore or beach but guests can. The eagles have learned to hang out there and fight over what gets tossed.
When we first arrived water was lapping against the rocks right next to our rig. But by the time we took our walk late in the afternoon it was low tide and things had dropped a good 12 feet. The moon was full and they tend to have extreme tides here anyway. The gangway down to the docks was REALLY steep. Some folks came in while we were sitting on the deck watching the eagles. They’d rented a boat to go fishing and had instead spent 2 ½ hours following a whale as it fed and played in the water just past the small island in front of the resort. They picked up the spines of the big salmon caught earlier in the day and tossed them on the rocks for the eagles. A few juveniles came and sat on nearby poles and watched but none came down to feast. It was dinner time so we went back to the trailer and fixed dinner. After dinner I heard squawking and went out to see a few eagles still on the rocks. It turns out we had missed the appearance of 21 eagles not more than 100 yards from the trailer but our view was blocked by the big rig next to us! No matter, I got eagle pictures that night along with beautiful sunset photos too.
Day 7 June 5, 2012
Ketchikan
In no big hurry to leave the next morning we lay around in the morning and had a leisurely breakfast. It wasn’t as sunny and gorgeous as it had been the day before and there were little spits of rain but nothing serious. I went out to ‘say goodbye to the eagles’ and we got to see a bunch more along with a native couple who were fishing for little sunfish off the dock. I suspect they were going to use them for bait since he threw back the bigger one they caught. He was complaining that the very low tide was ‘too low’. I expect it meant that fishing wasn’t going to be real good.
We decided to camp that night at Settler’s Cove State Park at the end of North Tongass Highway. We motored up and the road got worse and worse in terms of pot holes the closer to the end of the road we got. By the time we got to the turn off to the park, there were holes the filled the entire lane! The park was basically empty. There was one tent set up in the small space next to the water and everything else was empty. We found a nice spot that was big enough for us and pretty level and set up camp. Fee for the night: $10. While waving my arms to direct Walter in parking, the mosquitos gathered so I knew that I’d need to apply some DEET before spending any more time outside. We self-registered and went to check the quality of the water at the hand pump. Crystal clear! We filled our water jugs and our big blue five gallon jug so that we wouldn’t be low on water again. Then we topped off our tanks with good water to help dilute the brown water from Clover Pass.
Having done that, we motored out intent on going to town to get gas at the Safeway where it only cost $4.15 a gallon and visiting the Totem Bight Park. We stopped at Totem Bight but it was full of tourists and busses so we decided we’d check back on our way back. We took the turn up the hill to Ward Lake to check out the campgrounds there. There are a lot of picnic areas in the first section of Ward Lake and then finally you come to the Three C’s campground which is only open for overflow when the Signal Creek Campground is full. We liked Signal Creek because not only was it near the lake but there seemed to be more light there than at Settler’s Cove or the Last Chance Campground which is further up the lake. Having scoped out the campgrounds we went back down the hill and on to Safeway. Gas was still $4.15 but we had $.20 off from shopping there so we only paid $3.95 to fill the tank. It will probably be the cheapest gas we’ll find for the whole trip.
On our way back we stopped at the Forest Service Office to get trail guides and ask about plant ID. We also got a great map of the Inside Passage. Then we went on to Totem Bight Park and this time there were only a few other folks walking the paths. It’s a very nice park, much better than Saxman as far was either of us were concerned. The Long House is open for you to go in and the totems inside are really cool. Everything is very tastefully done and I liked the style of these totems better than those at Saxman. We walked the path and read the signs and of course I took too many photos. At the end of the walk we stopped and read the signs about bald eagles and the fact that it can take until they are 5 years old before they manifest their full white bald head and tail.
Back at the trailer at last we had lunch and a nap. When we woke we took the Lunch Falls Loop trail from the trailhead in the campground. It’s a lovely trail made mostly of boardwalk with stairs covered with asphalt shingles to keep you from slipping. The falls are really a small fall with a cascade and very pretty. The hike is marvelous with wonderful rainforest plants and some of the biggest skunk cabbage plants I’ve seen anywhere. There were also TONS of bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) growing in bunches! Ah ha! That’s why they’re called that. The flowers were smaller than we’ve seen them in the Cascades but the numbers were amazing. It was a 1 mile hike but with all the stairs (there were LOTS) and all my stops to take photos it took us a full hour. Walter being the 'real man' that he is refused to put on any DEET. But he did remember to take his mosquito head net and half way through the hike he stopped to put it on. There's nothing like hiking through wet soggy rainforest and muskeg to bring out the mosquitos.
After dinner the sun peaked out and I went out to take few more photos. After taking some close-ups of the small kelp growing on the rocks (exposed by low tide again) I took a miss-step on the shale rocks and ended up with my foot in a tide pool. I had my sandals on and a pair of wool socks and the darned sock still isn’t dry after 2 days!
Day 8 June 6, 2012
Ketchikan
We decided once we got up that we might as well move to Ward Lake since there was a bit of sunshine and it would be brighter up there. We broke camp, refilled our jugs with fresh water and motored on to Signal Creek Campground. We drove the full round of the campground again looking at the spots and ended up in spot #2 because it had actual sunshine in the spot at that moment! We placed the trailer in the sun to soak up the rays—well when you don’t have power it’s good to warm the rig up any way you can so you don’t have to run the furnace.
The mosquitos were pretty friendly (though not particularly big) so I applied some DEET and we set out to walk the trail that circles Ward Lake. It’s a nice nearly flat 1.3 mile walk with a bridge over the creek that drains the lake and another bridge over the creek that feeds the lake. There were lots of Salmon Berries in bloom and the bunch berries were just as ubiquitous as the day before. They also had yellow wood violets in bloom even in our campsite. The false lily of the valley covered the side of the trail and were just starting to bloom in places. The sun peaked out off and on and gave us great views of the mountains inland from the park.
After lunch we sat and read and napped and had our first true down-day afternoon of the trip. I tried to work on the computer to update this blog in preparation of getting Wi-Fi on Friday but my battery ran down quickly and I had to pack up and just sit back and read.
Day 9 June 7, 2012
Ketchikan to Petersburg
We discovered last night that we didn’t need to be to the ferry dock until 1:45 pm. Even with needing to make dinner and lunch to take with us we had plenty of time. So after making breakfast, lunch and dinner we filled the water jugs one more time (the water at Signal Creek is also clear and fresh tasting) and motored into town. We parked at the Safeway because we needed a few things and then left the truck and trailer there while we took an hour walk into old town Ketchikan. There were 3 cruise ships in today and a ton of float planes to watch. First thing this morning we could hear them buzzing overhead while we were still at the campground. Some of them advertise a ‘lake trip’ so maybe they just fly them up the hill to see the lake.
We walked all the way down to the main cruise ship docks and mingled with the tourists and read the signs for all the tours. There was a Duck Boat Tour out on the water and then later I got a shot of one motoring along in the parking lot. There weren’t as many tourists out as on Monday when it was so beautiful but there were still an awful lot of people out. After resting a bit on a bench near a nice eagle carving we made our way back to the truck and trailer by a little after 1 pm. We motored back to the ferry dock and with a little trouble figured out which line we should be in. There wasn’t anybody at the gate when we came in to tell us which lane to park in but I found a guy standing next to his rig who was going to Petersburg so we parked behind him. They had had to off-load him to rebalance the ship before loading all of us. We went in and checked in and got the sticker for our car window and were told that we were indeed in the correct line. We turned off our propane and the guy in charge of loading said not to worry about having the red tape on it, just to tell them when we loaded that we’d shut it off.
We got our lunch out of the trailer and sat and ate it in the truck while we waited. They reloaded the fellow in front of us but then we had to wait until after 2 before they began to load the folks to Juneau and then at about 2:15 they loaded us. There was a fellow going to Juneau towing a 37 foot fifth wheel and they had him back down the gang-way into the ferry! Yikes. He and his wife were from Australia and had come to the states and bought the truck and trailer and were in their second year touring around. Next to us in the lane going to Wrangell there was a big diesel pusher towing a Jeep Wrangler on a full trailer. They brought him in forward but it was quite the process and they had to have him drive up on blocks to get his trailer hitch to clear.
We got seats near the window with a power outlet to charge the computer and we watched the scenery and I finished updating this and down-loaded and labeled my photos. We saw seals and dolphins off and on at first. But slowly the clouds lowered and by 7 pm we had light rain falling and the clouds were sitting nearly at water level. We came into Wrangell at a little after 9 and you could see the little town and it’s lights even though it wasn’t full dark. After unloading everyone and loading the 3 new vehicles they turned the lights off in the front cabin so we moved to the writing room so I could see what I was typing and Walter could read his Kindle. We’re due to arrive in Petersburg at 1:30 am. We’re planning on camping at The Trees RV Park to charge up the battery in the trailer and have some Wi-Fi and have showers. But we may wait to go there until morning and instead park in the holding lot in downtown Petersburg if we’re too tired to navigate to The Trees which is 10 miles south of town.
Day 10 June 8, 2012
Petersburg
The trip from Wrangell to Petersburg takes nearly 3 hours and we discovered why: the Wrangell Narrows twist and turn and the channel is very narrow. So the ferry goes really slow. We couldn’t see much from back in the writing room but as Petersburg’s lights began to appear we went forward into the dark front cabin and peered through the rain streaking down the windows as we crept past the signal buoys—red on the left and green on the right. There were folks who had been up there the whole time who said that at nearly every buoy the ship angled and turned—something like 45 times.
They got docked okay and we went down to the truck. I was set up to drive but as we watched the folks in the next lane (who were pointed the opposite direction than we were, I began to be concerned. There was a truck towing a boat in front of me and beyond him was a dump truck that had been in the lane going to Juneau. He was not likely to be coming off for us to make a tour of the ship and come up the other side and out the front. When the guy directing traffic came up all smiles at me, I lowered my window and asked, “You don’t want me to back out do you?” And he smiled and nodded. I said, “This lady doesn’t back up.” And thank goodness, Walter gallantly switched positions with me. They directed him very slowly and accurately to back down the lane we’d come in and then swing the trailer to the left so we were lined up to go forward up the side front ramp of the ferry. He was so good I might have been able to do it, but I was grateful that Walter did it and had so little trouble.
By this point we were pretty clear that we were not going to try to drive 10 miles south of town in the pouring rain and try to find a place to camp at the Trees RV Park. Instead we drove a few blocks into town and turned right up Haugen Ave for a block and then right again. The directions we had said that the city’s overnight lot was on the right so we turned into an empty lot full of big puddles and I got out and directed Walter to stop so we could get into the trailer without having to wade through a puddle.
It was 2 am by this point and we were both really tired. There was another lot next to it (just up the hill) that might have been where we belonged but there were no signs and it was pouring. So we locked up the truck and climbed into the trailer, brushed our teeth and went to bed.
Walter was awake early and heard at least one truck pull in near us and we began to hear voices. He got up and got dressed, much to my very muzzy brained surprise and distress and went out to see what was what. They were construction guys. We were parked in the lot where work was to start that day on the new library. Heavy equipment was on the way. We needed to move. So I got up and got dressed and we battened the hatches and drove south out of town looking for a place to have breakfast. We found a turn out with a pair of Sitka black-tailed deer grazing along the verge and pulled over. The male who was just starting to show his antlers stayed and posed for me before we climbed back into the trailer for breakfast.
After we’d eaten we drove the rest of the way down to The Trees RV Park and arrived shortly before 10 am. The office wasn’t open yet, but we cased the joint and then at 10 am they checked us in. We got a water and power site for a single night for $20. It’s a great site with trees separating it from the sites next to us and its own patches of bunchberry and skunk cabbage.
It was still raining and we decided to make it a down day. I signed into the Wi-Fi which turned out to be one of those systems where you have to pay Alaska Power and Telephone to use it. I paid $6.95 for 24 hours of very fast Internet service and we were good to go. Walter had a nap and I waded through my email and was happy to see that our friend who is watching my garden had sent me the serial number for my Photoshop so I could now start processing photos.
After lunch we had showers. They cost $1 for a little more than 5 minutes but the water was truly hot and the little shower areas were clean, had their own wall heaters and even had a bath mat for when you stepped out of the shower.
Once we were clean we decided that we would drive down to Ohmer Creek Campground and check it out to see if we wanted to move there for the next night or two. We stopped at all the turn outs and got sense of the lay of the land including the strange clearly not-active but new ferry landing down near the end of the island. It turns out that they opened it and the ferry operated for a year and then they closed it down. The ferry went directly to the town of Wrangell and local folks loved it. But clearly there hadn’t been enough traffic. While I was out taking photos of the view from here which was quite outstanding, I heard this eerie hahoo call across the water. It wasn’t quite like an owl and when I describe it to Walter he confirmed what I thought, it was a loon. I’ve wanted to hear a loon for years and now it had happened!
There were tons of very tall lupine in bloom along the roads edge much of it just opening. I put photographing it on the list for the next day when I saw a big patch at the Blind Slough Recreation Area. Ohmer Creek Campground was empty. It’s a very pretty campground with lots of spaces that are big enough for our rig. It only costs $6 a night this year so it would have only cost us $3 with our Golden Age Pass. But Walter decided that he didn’t need to stay there and that having power for the electric heater and nice showers was worth it to stay at The Trees. We continued on down the road all the way to Banana Point where they have a boat launch and a parking lot full of boat trailers—clearly the fishing is good someplace!
The road had turned to gravel a while back and then to chip seal but past Banana Point it looked like very basic gravel and there was only another 3 or so more miles of road so we turned back up island. Just after we left Banana Point we saw a bald eagle in the tree and slowed down and I got a nice photo of him.
About halfway up the highway on our way back there was a doe along the highway with a fawn. The fawn had to be brand-new since it could barely walk and kept stumbling over its feet. We slowed down and crept forward and the silly thing came walking towards us as its mother made her way down the bank. Then it stayed still while I took photos. When she was directly opposite my window and I had my photos she began the most pitiful cry—like a very unhappy kitten—and I made Walter drive off. Then the silly thing started to follow us. Finally her mother got her attention and then both got off the road.
I finally got my nap to make up for all that lost sleep and then worked on updating our website, processing photos and writing my first trip report email to family and friends back home. Walter went and paid for our site at the Trees for two more nights so we’ll be staying here for 3 nights straight, such permanence after moving every night for 10 days.
Day 11 June 9, 2012
Petersburg
We got up and had breakfast and I checked the email one more time before our 24 hour subscription ran out. Walter went and talked to the folks at the office about where the dump station was and discovered they’ve hidden the outlet in a pile of large rocks so that the snow plow won’t take it out. It makes it really hard to get to. But they say if any of the full hookup sites are open we can use them when we want to dump. They charge $15 to dump but a full hookup site is more expensive than that so it didn’t make sense to move. As far as we know there is no public dump station anywhere on the island so we’ll pay the piper.
We made a picnic lunch and loaded up for a day of exploring and motored off without having to hook up the trailer for the first time this trip. Ahhhh. We went south on the Mitkof Highway to Blind River Rapids and took the hike there. Blue sky was beginning to appear and we had sunshine most of the way. The hike is ½ mile of boardwalk that takes you through a muskeg bog and out to a nice riffle of a rapid where the Blind Slough is making its transition to empty into the Wrangell Narrows. It looks like a river in this area and is flowing north. We took the stairs down to the rocks where it was low tide and watched for fish jumping we saw quite a few silver flashes and splashes in a pool just past the main rapid before a little minor one. It’s amazing how excited you can get about seeing a fish. We don’t know what we were watching but since the fish were heading out to see they may have been juvenile salmon of some kind going out to sea. The rocks were the same shale that we saw on the beach in Ketchikan. It flakes into thin sheets that break pretty easily so you couldn’t make a blackboard from it but its surface is very flat and smooth.
There were flowers in bloom in the muskeg bog and of course I had to take pictures of them all. The bunchberry blooms amid the maiden ferns along the drier edges but deeper into the bog you can see Bog Laurel, Northern Labrador Tea and Starflower. The bog itself is clearly sphagnum moss. There are pools here and there where you can see the rich brown that I associate with very wet potting soil.
At the rapids we ran across a couple I talked to on the ferry from Colorado and we continued to run across them off and on all day. After the hike we drove down to Blind Slough Recreation Area so I could take photos of the wonderful stand of lupine there. The slough itself was mirror smooth so I took a series of reflection photos there too. The mountains where had had their heads in the clouds on Friday were fully visible today.
From Blind Slough we went back north on Mitkof Highway into downtown Petersburg itself. Our plan was to have lunch at Eagle’s Roost Park but it’s so small we missed the turn-off for it the first time and drove on with hopes of stopping at Outlook Park but once again we missed the little parking area there. At last we came to Sandy Beach and its parking area was right there on the road but it was full. We tried going to the parking area down near the beach but someone had cleverly parked their car in the circle of the turnaround so we had to back out. By then someone had left and we got a spot along the road. Later we discovered there is more parking just around the bend.
We took our lunch down to a picnic table right on the beach’s edge and watched the kids and adults in their Petersburg Sneakers (rubber boats) play on the mud flats since it was full low tide. It was perfect weather and still not a mosquito in sight. There weren’t even any in the muskeg at Blind Rapids. Amazing.
We then drove back towards town and stopped at Outlook Park to look for whales—no luck but we did see a few fishing boats through the binoculars they provide there. Then on to Eagle’s Roost Park where there weren’t any eagles but there was a nice little garden of non-native flowers that had a deer fence around it. Then we did our own little walking tour of downtown. We parked in the library parking lot and I went upstairs to the library to ask if their Wi-Fi was on during their off hours and it’s not. The rest of the building has Wi-Fi (it’s municipal) but I doubt the network is open so I won’t be able to check email on Monday morning before we leave that way.
From the library we headed for Sing Lee Alley and the Sing Lee Bookstore. It’s a great bookstore in a cool building on the alley. I bought a Nature of Alaska book and Wild Flowers of the Yukon, Alaska and Northwestern Canada which has nice photos of the flowers. That should keep me happy most of the trip in terms of flower ID. Then we walked the alley and stopped and looked at the Sons of Norway Hall and it’s painted shutters, the ship Valhalla and their fisherman statue and the plaques to fallen fisherman that line the railing on the dock.
On our way back to our car we were stopped by a local lady who asked if we needed directions. We asked her where best to get a view of Laconte Glacier. She really didn’t know but suggested that we take Haugen Ave back to Frederick Road over at Sandy Beach and go south on the gravel road. So we did just that. Haugen took us past the fancy new post office and the airport and then dumped us right at Sandy Beach again. We turned right and followed the 1 ½ lane road south as it wound along Frederick Sound on the east side of Mitkoff Island. We got views of the sound from time to time and while we didn’t spot to glacier itself we did see lots of ice bergs floating in the water at the mouth of the area where it clearly meets the sound.
It was a nice drive and it went through muskeg at a big higher elevation where I saw huge swaths of Starflowers just in bloom. They were growing in the ditches along the road so I stopped the car in the middle of the road and got out and took pictures of these happy daisies. If you step on the moss in the ditch it’s like stepping on a fully saturated sponge, squish out comes water. Fun.
Frederick Drive becomes Frederick Road and then finally is just a numbered Forest Service Road. It goes pretty far south and then turns inland and goes up hill to meet the Three Lakes Loop Road. When we got there the sign said it was only 4 miles to the Mitkof Highway so we turned to go that way leaving driving the loop road for tomorrow. When we met the Mitkof Highway we weren’t sure where we were and turned south only to notice right away that we were south of our campground so I pulled over at the radio tower turn out and turned around. The Trees is only a few yards north of the turn off to the 3 Lakes Loop Road.
We hit the sack for a nice nap and now I’ve updated this record of the trip and can make dinner. I hope to get a bunch of photos processed tonight –got to make hay while I’ve got the luxury of unlimited power for the laptop.
Day 12 June 10, 2012
Petersburg
We slept in and had a leisurely breakfast and talked about logistics for tomorrow when we’ll be setting off to Sitka on a 13 hour ferry ride. It was raining and had been since sometime during the night. We opted for a drive up the 3 Lakes Loop Road which starts just about ¼ of a mile south of The Trees RV Park and store where we were staying. Before we went we stopped off at the office to pay our $15 to dump tomorrow morning since the office/store doesn’t open until 10 am and we need to be at the ferry dock at 10:45. We talked to them about the drive and they said that there was an outlook off the 3 Lakes Loop Road where you could see the LeConte Glacier if the clouds weren’t too low.
The drive is 21 miles from start to finish, starting and ending on the Mitkof Highway. It’s a gravel road that’s in as good or better shape than the Frederick Road that we took yesterday. In fact, the Frederick Road ends at the 3 Lakes Road about 4 miles before the northern end of the loop road so we’d driven the first 4 miles once already.
The road takes you through a green tunnel formed by the overhanging trees. In the rain it made it seem as if you were under water. After gaining some elevation we broke out into an occasional area of muskeg where there were shooting stars in bloom. I of course had to stop and get out to take photos since these northern shooting stars are almost purple rather than the deep pink that I’m used to seeing in the Cascades. We crossed several very nice creeks on bridges that are marked as being narrow but which in fact are wider than the road’s 1 ½ lanes. There were also huge swaths of starflowers mixed in with the shooting stars—very pretty.
Just before the turn off for the LeConte Glacier Overlook we began to see evidence that one of those huge mowing machines we call road rapers had been through recently. Sure enough when we turned up the hill on the Overlook turnoff there he was, working on a Sunday morning! He pulled over in a turn out that turned out to be the area that the folks at the Trees said was the overlook. So we drove up the road a big and turned around at the next turn out and came back down. Sure enough you could see the glacier off in the distance. I’m not sure any of my photos of it will come out since the camera didn’t like either the rain or all the mist in the far distance and kept trying to focus on the trees or at least the hillside in the foreground rather than the glacier and mountains in the distance.
When we got down to the turn out we got out of the truck and were instantly met by a cloud of mosquitos. These were the first we’d encountered here in Petersburg. I guess they like the altitude and the rain. I quick took a couple of my attempts at photos and jumped back into the truck.
The LeConte Glacier is on the far side of Frederick Sound with an island sitting in the middle of the view of the ice field as it hits the water. I believe that I read that it is the southern-most tidewater glacier in the US. It’s one of the few glaciers around that isn’t receding and so it’s of great interest to the folks who study such things. I’m sure we would have gotten a much better view of it yesterday when it was sunny but you can only do so much on the one sunny day you get and I was frankly pretty tired by the time we’d driven Frederick Road yesterday. Besides Walter wanted to save the 3 Lakes Loop for today.
We got back down to the 3 Lakes Loop Road just in time to have to negotiate around the road raper once more time. Then we drove on through the rain. There are trail heads along the road with narrow boardwalks leading off into the trees that lead to each of the 3 lakes. If it hadn’t been raining and I’d remembered my DEET we might have taken one of the hikes but neither of us was invested in the idea so we skipped it. Along about here we actually met another car on the road. The side of their vehicle was black with mud and when next I got out to take photos of flowers I noticed ours was too. I made a plan to wash it off when we got back to the trailer but the water on the highway washed it off. How nice.
On the way back down I began to see little yellow flowers that I assumed were buttercups. But after a while I asked Walter to stop and I climbed out to have a look. This time the spongy moss in the ditch was wetter than usual and my tennis shoe sunk deep in water getting my sock wet. So once again the trailer smells of wet wool! But it was worth it because when I got home I spent some time with the flower book and discovered that the little yellow flower wasn’t a buttercup after all. It was a Large Leaved Avens which is a kind of geum. I also got some nice shots of Buckbean which is a bog plant I’d never seen before.
The rain was beginning to let up when we got back to the trailer. We subscribed to another 24 hours of Wi-Fi and Walter read his email while he had a cup of hot chocolate and I did plant ID with my cup of tea. After lunch we both had showers and I worked on updating photos on Facebook and sending out my second installment of my email trip reports. The rain has stopped now but it’s still gray. It’s supposed to rain again tomorrow. Too bad since it’s supposed to be a spectacular ferry ride.
Walter cooks dinner tonight and then tomorrow morning I will make a picnic dinner for us to eat on the ferry. Walter has announced that his is going to buy lunch on the ferry because he’s tired of what we have to eat for lunch. I’ll make myself a sandwich and see what else I can forage. It’s too bad the ferry is leaving as early as it is. Otherwise we could pick up something at once of the places that our friend Teresa recommended but we have to be in line at 10:45 and it’s too far of a walk to town to go there and back before we’ll be needed to load for the 12:15 departure.
Day 13 June 11, 2012
Petersburg to Sitka
We got up at a little after 8 am to get ready to go to the ferry. Walter went and checked to see if there was an open full-service site we could use to dump our tanks and I started making both dinner and breakfast. We had breakfast and then I made Broccoli Pasta Salad to take on the ferry for dinner. Walter had decided he wanted to buy his lunch on the ferry but I made my lunch and got together some protein bars and nuts and berries (read gorp) for snacks. We were all ready to go and dump our tanks before 10 and had finished dumping (and washing off the back of the pickup truck which was still dirty from the drive in the rain on the gravel road the day before) by 10:30. We drove out of the campground just behind the folks in the campers next to us who were also heading to the ferry.
We turned into the ferry terminal parking lot right at 10:45 when we were due for check-in. There was a slot behind the camper folks and we asked if they were going to Sitka and they said yes so we parked there. I went in and checked in and they told us to park in the lane before us (which turned out to be full) so we just pulled up behind the folks in the camper and called it good. In Petersburg a fellow actually came out and inspected our propane tank and put the red tape on it to say it was turned off. That happened about 11 am when they were unloading folks who had just arrived on the ferry.
Walter and I wandered around the terminal lot and looked at the view and the ferry. There were a group of middle school kids (all girls it turned out) who were gathered with luggage with a few adults in front of the terminal. Turns out they were a softball team who had been in Petersburg for the weekend for a tournament. When things began to look like they were getting ready to load, I went back to the trailer and packed the lunch and dinner into the cooler and got the computer and the Kindles together (along with the literature on Sitka). I’d just gotten that all together when they signaled that it was our turn to load.
This time we got to go into the ferry by the front door, drive the length of the ferry, turn at the bottom and go up the aisle so we were facing front. Clearly we were going to get to off-load frontwards when we arrived. Hurray.
This ferry was much fuller than the last two. It was not only all the kids but there were a lot of folks who were already on the ferry and quite of few who boarded with us both with vehicles and without. There is only one ferry a week from Petersburg to Sitka so everyone who wanted to go to Sitka from the south was on this ferry.
We had better than expected weather on the trip with an occasional sun break and the clouds moving slowly upward in elevation to reveal the mountain tops. So I took a lot of photos as we went along the way. The other fun thing that happened was that the captain spied some ice bergs an hour or so out and had 2 crew members do the exercise of taking the tender out (in their dry suits) to ‘rescue’ the ice berg. They ship slowed to almost a full stop and the men and boat were lowered down on ropes. Then once they were in the water and sped off towards the ice berg we began to move again. They motored to the ice berg and took many whacks at it with a very long handled ax to bring back several chunks of glacier ice. They were still working on it when we motored by them. Then we slowed and they brought their treasure back on board. They left it in a big metal dish pan out on the deck so you could photograph it, touch it, or buy a drink in the bar with the glacier ice in it.
I talked to number of ladies along the way. One was from just outside of Chico on her way with her husband and another couple to the Kenai to go fishing for the entire summer. The other couple had a house there and they all went there most years to fish. Another lady was a retired high school biology teacher from the New Orleans area. Late in the day we sat next to a couple from Vermont who had flown out to Seattle and caught the ferry in Bellingham. They were being foot passengers and then picking up an RV in Skagway for their trip in the interior. It is fascinating how many different ways there are to do this trip.
The ferry stopped in Kake on the way. It isn’t a very impressive place but it does have a lovely setting and some really neat little islands in their bay. Several of them had small cemeteries or memorials on them--anyway there were clusters of crosses on them. They are also supposed to have the tallest totem pole around. It looked like a tall snag that the bottom half had been carved on. It turns out that it actually was taken down, carved, taken to a World’s Fair and then brought back to Kake.
It’s a long trip to Sitka (13 hours) and the time sailed by talking to folks and watching the gorgeous scenery—having some sunshine off and on certainly helped. The mountains on Sitka’s island were gorgeous as we approached it and then motored up its eastern side. The passage through the Peril Straits was really interesting in the dark. It wasn’t raining nearly as much as when we went through the Wrangell Narrows so we got to see all the buoys and have the excitement of wondering when they were going to turn so we wouldn’t sail right into the island’s steep sides.
We arrived at last at 1:15 am. We were the second rig off the ferry and drove the short distance to the entrance of Starrigavan Recreation area. We had read several places that it was okay to camp outside the gates since they lock it up every night. The first gate we came to was the day use area and it said not to park there so Walter got out and walked up to reconnoiter and found the next gate that said it was to the campground and had no prohibitions. At about that point another large fifth wheel drove up and chose to park in the turning circle at the end of the drive. We parked, aired out trailer a little bit (it was hot and humid inside again from being in the belly of the ferry) and went to bed.
Click here to got to Part III of this blog