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Ketchikan and the Trip Home - August 12 - 14

12/10/2013

Day 11 of the Cruise
We arrived in Ketchikan about 7 AM, making our first stop at the Ketchikan Airport. The airport is on an island across from the city and is accessible only by ferry. About a third of our passengers have early flights home so the Captain will dock at the airport so that they can catch their flights. For those of us staying over, the cruise company provides free ferry passes.

Ketchikan is by far the most touristy port we have visited. During our two day layover six different huge cruise ships will be in port, disgorging at least 20,000 shopping crazed passengers. We've booked ourselves into the Cape Fox Lodge which sits on a hill above the port area. It's very nice and is accessed from town via a funicular.

Along the way up the coast we encountered an active seiner fishing. It was very interesting to see the whole process from initial deployment of the net to reeling in the catch.

After the cannery tour we boarded a large tour bus for the ride back to Ketchikan during which we got a taste of what the large cruise ship passengers experience. The boat ride to the cannery was conducted by Alan Marine, the parent company of Alaskan Dream Cruises, and was just as interesting and enjoyable as the rest of our cruise had been. The tour bus was contracted by the large cruise lines. The narration was vapid, the information sketchy, and the focus almost entirely on shopping opportunities. The cannery tour was so good, and the bus ride was so ordinary that we appreciated even more how friendly, knowledgeable, personal, and professional the Alaskan Dream staff is.

Alaskan Dream gave us tickets for a tour of an old, now defunct, cannery. It was interesting and educational. We boarded a small cruise boat for the long ride up the coast from Ketchikan.

Once at the cannery we were guided through the whole process, from the arrival of the fish to the final sealed cans. The cannery's equipment is being restored so that all the machinery will function just as it did in its heyday.

The experience reinforced that the big ships are not for us.

We did stop on the way back at a totem display which was pretty interesting.

Well, this is the end of the trip. We boarded a plane for the flight back to Anchorage, passing over the wilderness that makes up most of southeast Alaska. We got a couple of photos from the plane's window which gave us a different perspective of the area through which we had cruised.

As much fun as we had, we were glad to finally get home. We had a lot of information and experiences to digest which writing these blog entries has helped us to relive. Thanks for coming along.
Mike & Jan

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Misty Fjords National Monument - August 11

12/9/2013

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Misty Fjords Photo Gallery

Day 10 of the Cruise
Today, our last cruising day, we will be traveling through the Misty Fjords National Monument. Tomorrow we will disembark in Ketchikan.

We travel through the wilderness on the Behm Canal. It is more than 100 miles long and is renowned for its length and depth the latter being as much as 2,000 feet. Included among Behm Canal's many scenic wonders is New Eddystone Rock. This is a basalt tower rising 230 feet from the water's surface, just south of Rudyerd Bay. It is believed to be the core of an ancient volcanic vent that survived the glacial scouring that formed the Behm Canal.

We spent several hours around New Eddystone Rock to give passengers a chance to kayak or ride in the DIB around the island.

Misty Fiords National Monument is 22 miles east of Ketchikan. It is a spectacular collection of sea cliffs, steep fjords and rock walls rising as much as 3,000 feet straight out of the ocean. It gets its name from its nearly constant precipitation and is covered with thick rainforests that grow on nearly vertical slopes from sea level to mountaintops. Waterfalls in numbers too many to count plunge into the salt water through narrow clefts or course over great rounded granite shoulders fed by lakes and streams that absorb more than 150 inches of rainfall each year.

As we continued down the canal we enjoyed a sumptuous farewell dinner and a final Orca performance.

Not to mention a beautiful crescent moonrise bisected by a sunset-colored contrail.

Tomorrow morning we will arrive in Ketchikan and our most excellent cruise will be over. It has been a great trip, one that we may choose to repeat.

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Thorne Bay and Kasaan - August 10

12/9/2013

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Thorne Bay and Kasaan Photo Gallery

Day 9 of the Cruise
We are making two stops today. The first is Thorne Bay, a former logging community. It is a tidy little community where the Captain and crew will re-provision the Alaskan Dream. At its peak in the 1980s and 90s, it had a population of over 1500 and was the largest logging camp in the world. Today its population of 405, more or less, are seasonal residents and the major employers are the National Forest Service and public education.

The main stop for the day is the Haida village of Kasaan. The village has 49 residents, a small school, and an Indian clinic run by a nurse. The nearest medical facility is Ketchikan about 30 miles to the southeast, and mail is delivered from Ketchikan by a contract carrier once a week. Kasaan is home to the Haida people who are culturally related to the Tlingit natives. The principal focus of the population of Kasaan is the preservation of Haida culture and is manifested in the Totem Park and Son-I-Hat Whale House renovation.

Michael took a hike through Totem Park and visited the Whale House. Totems are dispersed throughout the heavily wooded park and the Whale House is nestled in the woods overlooking the bay.

Another of the community's activities is carving traditional canoes from the trunks of the indigenous Western Red Cedar trees. While Michael was soaking up the local history Jan visited the wood shop and spoke to the father / son team of craftsmen who were working on a new canoe.

Like most of southeast Alaska Thorne Bay is only reachable by boat or air and while we relaxed on the upper observation deck, two air taxis came and went.

Stormy Hamar and his son create the canoes using only traditional hand tools. They also teach local children how to use the tools as part of the children's cultural education.

Stormy's wife, Bonnie, came by the workshop and introduced herself. When she learned that Jan was on her own she offered to take Jan for a tour around town including a most welcome cool beverage at Bonnie's home. Bonnie, mayor of Kasaan, showed Jan some of Stormy's traditional paintings and other work.

We met up late in the afternoon and Bonnie gave us a ride back to the dock. We repaired to the forward lounge to compare notes.

Our next destination is Misty Fjords National Monument.

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Wrangell and Stikine River - August 9

12/9/2013

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Day 8 of the Cruise
Today we dock in Wrangell, at the north end of Wrangell Island. Wrangell was a major Russian settlement for trapping sea otters in the early 1800s. The Hudson's Bay Company leased the rights from Russia until the sea otters were hunted to near extinction. After Alaska was acquired by the U.S., it became an entry point for the Yukon gold rush and a center of commercial fishing. Today its economy is based on fishing, logging, and tourism. One of the two major sawmills in southeast Alaska is located in Wrangell.

Once the fog had lifted just enough, we boarded our jet boats and headed out for the River. The pilots are intimately familiar with the route and sped along to make up for lost time (click on the short video). Along the way we were treated to some wildlife sightings, although it was difficult to catch them on camera clearly. We did manage to get a fair photo of this bald eagle, though.

We headed into the Lake, passing loads more icebergs, and ended at Shakes Glacier. After waiting around to see if it would calve (it didn't) we headed for a brief sojourn ashore in a picturesque alpine valley. Then we headed back down the lake to the iceberg barrier. Well, the floater had, in fact, returned to its original position blocking the gap we had come through. After much discussion and thought by our pilot (another tour operator had apparently been in the same position and had taken more than three hours to get free), he determined that he could nudge the berg just enough to get the stern of the boat up against the cliff with the bow touching the iceberg, which he did. This boat has no propeller but, rather, the motor forces water through turbines much like a jet engine pushes air. The theory was that the cliff would provide resistance for the water to push against, giving the boat enough power to shove the iceberg out of the way. It worked! By way of unexpected consequences, though, Jan, and I to a lesser extent, enjoyed a brisk surprise shower of near-freezing water. The jet of water hit the cliff, flowed up the cliff face, made a perfect wave curl and broke right on top of us. It was quite a laugh. The pilot was horrified, probably because he thought we would complain, but we assured him it would just make a unique memory. We were right.
We made it through the gap and headed back to Wrangell harbor, the boat's speed making for a nice, clothes-drying breeze.

Tomorrow, on to Thorne Bay and the very small native village of Kasaan.

Our adventure for today is a jet boat ride up the Stikine River to Shakes Glacier in Shakes Lake. We arrived in Wrangell harbor in dense fog which delayed our departure until visibility improved. The mouth of the Stikine river is braided, meaning that there are numerous, shifting, shallow channels to navigate before getting into the river proper. Here's a video of a small boat coming to the dock in the fog.

The Stikine River originates in Northwestern British Columbia and runs about 379 miles to the Eastern Passage of Frederick Sound in Southeast Alaska. It is the fastest navigable free-flowing river in North America. Our trip covers about 35 miles up the river to Shakes Lake, a body of water originating at the Shakes Glacier, which flows into the river. There are a number of rental cabins along the river some on the shore and some on floating platforms. The ones on shore are controlled by the US Forest Service while the floaters are run by the state. The two videos below show some of the icebergs we encountered once we entered the lake.

Partway up the body of water that flows out of Shakes Lake the is a narrow section which is almost entirely blocked by icebergs. The water depth here is about 90 feet and these huge, blocking bergs are resting on the bottom. There is a gap just a little wider than the width of our jet boat which is blocked by a smaller, floating iceberg. Our intrepid pilot decided he could move the berg so that we could continue on our way to Shakes Glacier at the northern end of the lake. The next video is our boat pushing the iceberg out of the way and the other boat coming through the gap he just cleared. It was a slightly scary, very interesting experience. The floating iceberg was on the lake-side of the barrier and, once we entered the lake some of us wondered aloud what would happen if the iceberg floated back into the gap. More about that later...

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Petersburg - August 8

12/8/2013

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Petersburg Photo Gallery

Day 7 of the Cruise

Petersburg was settled by Norwegian fishermen more than 100 years ago. It's named after Peter Buschmann, a Norwegian immigrant who arrived in the late 1890s and homesteaded on the north end of Mitkof Island. The cannery his family built has operated continuously since about 1900. Petersburg is one of Alaska's top fishing communities but has retained its small town feel. Its harbor is too narrow for the large cruise ships so Petersburg is unspoiled by the usual tacky gift shops and trendy eateries so common in many other Southeast Alaska ports.

We disembarked and headed for the Sons of Norway Hall for a demonstration of traditional Norwegian dancing, performed by local kids aged 6 to 14. This wasn't really a tourist performance, it's sponsored by the town as a way to give children some exposure to being in front of groups of strangers. This is such a small community, about 3000, that there is not much opportunity for interaction with people they don't know.

We met our driver / guide, Hapi, for the ride to the William Musson Memorial Pathway. We learned that most homes in Petersburg are built on pilings due to the high water table. All building materials come from outside by barge which makes for some expensive housing.

Across the harbor on Kupreanof Island is the town of Kupreanof. It consists mostly of a few homesteads, with no infrastructure. There are no roads, no gas, no electricity, all by the choice of the residents. Alaskans can be seriously independent.

The harbor was packed with commercial fishing vessels including the famous Time Bandit from the TV show, "Deadliest Catch".

After a great show and some light, authentic Norwegian refreshments, we headed out for a drive to a nature hike through a moraine preserve. On the way to meet our driver we spotted a small herd of Sitka deer.

Our hike through coastal moraine, the land left after a glacier has receded. It ranged from forest to open fields.

Back in downtown Petersburg after the hike, we found a hole-in-the-wall Mexican food vendor. This was no restaurant, just a trailer with a wood framework covered in clear plastic sheeting to keep out the rain. The food, however, was very good. A pleasant surprise in this small town.

Back aboard in time for dinner, a bald eagle perched on a dock piling, bid us adieu as we set sail (so to speak) for our next port of call, Wrangell.

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Hobart Bay - August 7

12/6/2013

Hobart Bay Photo Gallery

Day 6 of the Cruise
Today is a play day in Hobart Bay, site of a former logging camp about 50 miles south of Tracy Arm, east of Sitka and north of Petersburg. In its heyday (1990) Hobart Bay had a population of about 40, most of whom worked at the camp. By the 2010 census there was only one full-time resident who acted as caretaker of the few remaining facilities.

Hobart Bay is currently owned by one of Alaska's 13 native corporations, Goldbelt Incorporated. Alaskan Dream Cruises has an exclusive arrangement for the use of Hobart Bay for its passengers.

Hobart Bay

The day dawned clear and cool as we gathered in the forward lounge for a briefing about the day's activities. Four adventures were on the agenda: exploring the bay by kayak and Zego, and exploring the shore on foot and by RTV (rough terrain vehicle).

All four activities occurred simultaneously with a quarter of the passengers engaging in each, then switching to another activity at intervals throughout the day. As with other aspects of the cruise, there was a lot of flexibility and passengers could participate or not in any of the offerings or repeat an activity if the wished.

Getting into, and out of, the kayaks was easy using the Alaskan Dream's kayak launching ramp. Getting in was accomplished out of the water (no danger of tipping over), then kayak and passenger were rolled down the ramp into the water. The process was reversed for exiting the kayak.

While watching the first group head off on their Zegos, we saw an interesting phenomenon; silver salmon leaping in the lake. No one is sure why they do this, with theories running the gamut of, "preparing for swimming upstream to spawn", to "because it's fun!" Whatever the reason, it was both interesting and fun to observe.

We donned our life jackets and gingerly climbed aboard our Zego. We backed away from the mother ship and took off like some Zego synchronized drill team. A crew member led the way into the bay and we were off. What was envisioned as a leisurely trail ride turned into a watery free-for-all as Zegos struck out on their own (many were piloted by Texans, so...). We cruised across open water and into secluded coves. The scenery was fabulous and, in many places, reminded us of coastal Maine.

The second waterborne adventure involved a small, outboard-motor powered, pontoon type craft called a Zego, built by a company in New Zealand. They can accommodate two passengers on a motorcycle-style seat. While ours were powered by relatively tame 15 horsepower motors, the ones operated by the crew had 75 horsepower motors which could practically take the craft airborne.

There was no shortage of wildlife to view although catching them on camera from a moving Zego wasn't successful. At one point we thought we saw a brown bear but, after enlarging the photo, we realized it was just a boulder. Alas.

Brown Bear?

After a couple of hours cruising the Bay we headed back to the Alaskan Dream to share our adventures over a bite of lunch.

Alas, just a boulder.

After lunch we climbed the ramp from the dock to our RTVs. These are two-passenger, four wheel drive vehicles designed for serious off-road use. We took a long drive into the hills above Hobart Bay, enjoying some great scenery and wildlife. We finally got to see our bear!

Here's our black bear fishing for his/her afternoon snack.

Adventures over, with all passengers back aboard the Alaskan Dream, we settled in for another relaxing evening while on our way to our next destination, Petersburg. Along the way we were treated to another humpback whale show.