Canada & USA Summary - 2014

The wanderings we enjoyed throughout Canada’s British Columbia &Yukon then Alaska are over and beginning to become part of our travel quilt of memories slowly built up over the years.  

Now we can put the total map into perspective by way of the trip map below showing the total route we travelled irrespective of method of travel (red lines) and one which shows where we went on ferries alone (yellow lines).

map of entire trip (includes ferries, planes, Homer etc)

ferry routes taken during trip

We have found each trip presents learnings experienced either through the planning and/or doing stages.  Perhaps a few of these learnings may be useful to others, which is simply the reason for this final post of 2014.

The Planning Learnings
The planning phase for the latest trip kicked off in late October 2013 having decided on both the destinations and duration.  There we two core objectives we wanted to achieve during this trip:

1. drive the entire length of the Alaska Highway (ALCAN)
2. travel as much of the coast of Alaska and British Columbia by local ferries

Other destinations had to compliment the achievement of these goals, including the timing of ferry timetables especially.

ALL of the accommodation, ferry tickets, small boat tours, domestic airline tickets etc were booked online either well in advance due to seasonal realities, more on this later, or booked online whilst travelling.  We booked international flights through Flight Centre.
We did not experience a single issue with any of the bookings made.

For 1-2 hours most days until the planning was complete, we would scour the net with our PC hooked up to the TV to make it easier for both of us to see maps, pictures of accommodation, small tour details and to double check credit card details.  As a booking was made it was entered chronologically into a simple spreadsheet to capture key details like:

• Activity description
• date(s)
• confirmation number/detail
• contact details - name(s)/number/email
• costs - total/currency, deposit paid, balance payment method (c’card or cash)
• special requirements - waterproof gear required, lunch supplied etc

Later, selected columns of the spreadsheet were used to create an itinerary for our family, enabling them to know where/when we would be in most places and how to contact us.

Alaska, The Yukon and BC Canada have terrific publications we either viewed online, downloaded or had sent to us for free, to assist both our planning and selecting additional places to visit and/or things to do.  For this particular trip, we learned from friends to obtain ‘the bible’ if wandering up the Alaska Highway and ferry system called ‘The Milepost’, a truly invaluable publication.

We were obviously planning to drive the Alaska Highway one-way and our preference to do this in something like ‘Homer’ quickly fell into place after searching the net and learning there were a number of companies offering one-way rentals.  RV rental companies need extra vehicles waiting in Anchorage during summer due to the demand from people who take cruise ships from Seattle/Vancouver north up the inside passage and then want to drive back by RV.

Catherine, our daughter in-law, put us onto a credit card called ’28 Degrees’ (Mastercard by GE Money) which has no annual fees and only charges the currency rate at the time of any purchase compared to many other credit cards where you are charged additional transaction fees and/or currency conversion fees.  This card both worked everywhere and also proved invaluable.

Now for some specific learnings, in no particular order, out of the planning phase:

• for Alaska, make sure you book early.  Alaska has a short summer season and many things book out very quickly.
• Alaska Marine Highway:
• seemingly convoluted web site BUT persevere, it will make sense and gets easier.
• on some legs, ferries travel daily, others don’t’ so be careful if trying to link legs as we did working your way up/down the coast.
• if travelling overnight and you want a cabin, book early as they do fill very fast.
• you can take own food onto ferries and cook using supplied microwaves.
• Hotel and motel prices climb very steeply in Alaska when their summer arrives which is why we stayed in more B&Bs whose prices were more reasonable.
• Rental vehicle insurance.  In the USA especially, you must have some sort of insurance to cover the vehicle before they will let you take the vehicle.  They can use their personal car insurance to cover the vehicle in many cases.  We were always hit with some sort of LDW (Loss Damage Waiver) insurance so build that into your budget if renting.
• If planning to drive more remote roads in either Alaska or Yukon, check with specific rental firms whether they allow it.  Some do, others don’t.
• Timing.  If planning on heading into The Yukon or Alaska especially, get the timing right otherwise you may be slowed up by weather or things simply still being closed.  Going later in their summer however will increase costs.
• If visiting Denali National Park in high season and camping, book online early as this place is very busy.  Check specific Denali weather forecasts before you arrive and book park bus trip for best possible weather.
• Most accommodation will require a deposit using a credit card number before you will receive confirmation details.  You will need to decide how you will provide c’card details securely.
• It rains a fair bit in that part of the world so take wet weather gear.
• Plan clothing in layers to cope with changeable weather, blizzard one day, sunny the next.
• The mozzies in the Yukon and Alaska are numerous and big - be prepared.
• Additional RV rental costs.  Pay attention to extra costs when renting an RV.  Most have a daily mileage allowance, charge on an hourly basis when using the generator, charge extra if going on certain dirt roads eg. Top of the World Highway… cost like this.
• Communication.  Think about how you want to communicate whilst over there, for example we bought a pre-paid AT&T sim when we arrived to give us voice and data capability in the USA.  Whilst it would work in Canada, it would be at a much greater cost but cheaper than using Aust. sim. We also got a Canadian sim whilst in Canada because of  the amount of time we were there.  They call it ‘Cell’ not Mobile by the way.
• Weight.  Pay attention if using domestic airlines in any country, to the baggage allowances on each flight, because they are most likely to be different to those available on the international flights.  We almost got caught badly when flying down to Dutch Harbour on the small twin propellor plane.

The Doing Learnings
So once we got into the trip proper, again these are some learnings we had as our meanderings progressed:

• You can’t pay much attention to weather forecasts except for the big cities (Anchorage etc) because Alaska and the Yukon have ‘micro-climates’.  Micro-climates are caused by the mountain ranges prevalent everywhere.
  Layers and having wet wether gear was the right advice
• Internet.  Most but not all places had the internet BUT the internet away from the likes of the big cities could not always be relied on or there were download/upload restrictions.
  Our AT&T service didn’t always work in the more remote towns.
• Buying a cheap GPS when you get to the USA will save many arguments and make driving on their roads a lot easier and less stressful.
• Canadian and Alaska food prices were similar to Australia.
• Most supermarkets have very good salad bars with very good choices and is a cheaper way of buying some meals if you are getting tired of eating out.
• RV parks we thought, were relatively expensive when only staying a few nights for what you get.  If self sufficient (power, water etc), the State and National Parks were excellent.
• If contemplating wandering along the Alaska Highway, there were plenty of places to buy fuel.
• Except in the more remote locations, petrol (gas they call it) prices in both Alaska and Canada were cheaper than Australia.
• We’re not usually B&B people but the B&Bs we used were very good and a lot of fun.
• Crossing the borders between USA and Canada were generally uneventful but you will be asked lots of questions about whether you are carrying food, weapons, length of stay, reason for visit and so on.
• The coastal ferries were good fun as were the people on them.  Those people noy in cabins for overnight trips slept on floors, across seats, in tents on the top deck, anywhere they could stretch out and came prepared for this.
• Beware the cinnamon buns!

So that’s it for 2014 and we hope you have enjoyed some aspects of vicariously travelling along with us.  Will try hard to write less next time.

At this stage, our planning for 2015 is progressing well but will leave all this for next year, presuming nothing gets in the way for what we have in mind.

Thank you and keep having fun!

Alaska to Canada - 2014

It was nice to be on a longer ferry trip this time as the map below shows, from Petersburg to Prince Rupert because it gives you time to  get into the lazy rhythm of this type of travelling, especially on the older ferries like the MV Taku.  Throughout the ship you can hear the slow melodic ka-thump of the motors and after a short while the sound becomes a pleasant part of the experience.

After leaving the ferry we had to clear Canadian Customs for what will be our last time before taking a taxi to our B&B in a part of Prince Rupert called Cow Bay.  We had heard mixed reviews of Prince Rupert from fellow wanderers and most of them not overly complimentary and after driving through the main part of town, we could understand.

our B&B - Prince Rupert

Cow Bay however was very pleasant indeed as was the Waterfront B&B we stayed in. We were lucky enough to have a spacious room with views out to the ocean.  The property is a little quirky, looking slightly like a lighthouse, in fact you climb up into the tower to have breakfast, everyone sitting around a large table and sharing stories.  Mary, the owner, was a delight in terms of not only the large breakfasts but her peaceful and warm interactions with everyone.

All around Cow Bay, the older part of Prince Rupert, were old little coffee shops, a great Japanese restaurant we went to twice and a great pub sitting out over the water.  Right next to the B&B is the boat harbour for the fishing fleet, so you could watch all the comings and goings, including watching fish being cleaned that were caught by tourists .

Prince Rupert was where I had planned to go fishing… BUT… discovered it was almost impossible at this time of the year.  The reason was pretty simple after visiting Harry’s On The Rocks and learning that each boat is chartered as a whole.  I could go fishing but would have to charter the whole boat at over $1,000!!  So serious fisherman come here and most other places in Alaska in groups and spread their costs that way.  At this time of the year with so many fish on the run into rivers, there were no boats free anyway.  Oh well.

sleeping humpback next to boat

We decided instead to go out on yet another whale watching tour, hopefully to see orca (killer whales) or more breaching humpbacks and because the price was right.  It was a public holiday so the Tasmanian designed catamaran was full with 100 people on board.  We didn’t see any orcas but did see humpbacks, managing to quietly sneak up next to one fast asleep, well asleep until the motors were started again.  Must admit, there are only so many humpback tails you can photograph, but did have a lady next to us crying with delight for about 15 minutes because she had finally seen whales up close, one of her lifelong ambitions… good on her.

Prince Rupert seems to us to be a place many people go to to go somewhere else, if you don’t happen to live there.  Don’t take this as a negative, Prince Rupert is one way of getting to coastal Alaska because you can drive to it from Canada then take a ferry northwards.  We rented a car for a day with the intention of heading towards a town called Terrace but were taken aback when we were told there were no unlimited ‘kms’, not even an initial allowance, we were going to be charged 35c per kilometre from the first one travelled.  Guess what, we didn’t get to Terrace.

We focussed instead closer to Prince Rupert and visited a nice lake, some tidal rapids and the old salmon cannery which ended up being very interesting.  The workers in the cannery back around the 1920’s had a tough time of it, either going deaf because of the loud equipment, getting arthritis due to having their hands in ice water for long periods, or risking lead poison.  Back in the early days, each can was soldered together using lead which meant the workers doing this were at risk as were all the end customers who ate the salmon afterwards.

real sunset at Prince Rupert

We ultimately enjoyed our time especially in and around Cow Bay before having to be at the BC (British Columbia) Ferries terminal at 5:30am to check in for our departure to Port Hardy.  It takes 16 hrs down the Canadian inside passage on a ferry which is both very modern and large, making the Alaska Marine Highway ferries look small.  We reserved seats at the very front with its large windows and with these reservations came checked larger luggage in the storage areas of the ferry so we didn’t have to look after them the whole time.

From the trip map below, you will see that the ferry truly does travel along an ‘inside passage’ staying well away from the open ocean most of time.  Unfortunately on the day we travelled, it was heavily overcast all day with occasional rain squalls blowing through, but despite this, the scenery was lovely.

it truly is an 'inside passage'

travelling down the 'inside passage'

Sitting one side of us was a lady from Ontario travelling with her husband who spent most of his time wandering around the ship whilst she tried to teach us everything she knew about where she lived and other parts of Canada she has been to.  On the other side were a Belgium couple on the final stages of their trip throughout Canada, who were also a delight to talk to and learn more about their country, including during dinner together.

We finally bid farewell to our new short term friends of 16 hours after arriving into Port Hardy, at 11.30pm.  Port Hardy is located at the very north of Vancouver Island.  They disappeared into the stomach of the ferry to collect cars, whilst we walked off and waited for our bags along with numerous others.  With all bags back with us, we boarded the old bright yellow school bus waiting to transport us to one of two hotels in town and a clean room, a good bed and a great nights sleep.

We were collected out the front of the hotel by our local bus next morning, well not really a bus, more like a shuttle van, for our trip southwards down the island, first to Campbell River where we transferred to another shuttle bus for the rest of the journey to Nanaimo located about half way down the island on the East coast.  

We planned to stay on Vancouver Island for 8 days and was a destination we had been looking forward to visiting for many years, after visiting one town at the southern end many years ago and having numerous people tell us how beautiful it is and beautiful it certainly is.  At the northern end of the island are very large snow capped mountains, dense forests of pine trees and delightful little towns we passed through like Telegraph Cove.

In Nanaimo we stayed in the Beach Estates Inn B&B run by Fran and Neil and what an interesting couple they are.  Fran bounded out to meet us, full of energy and enthusiasm to settle us in.  We met Neil next morning over breakfast after a great sleep in a really nice room.  

Neil is probably mid to late 60’s, has long hair below his shoulders and doesn’t shake hands, you greet by touching clenched fists together.  He also has a very inquiring mind, loves to make things and has strong opinions about most things.  They have been running their B&B for about 20 years, cook a great breakfast and for 6 months of the year live in their other home in Phoenix  We had some very lively and good conversation over breakfast before departing to collect our rental car for the next week.

Most people live on the east coast or at the bottom of the island, but there is a place we had heard a LOT about over on the west coast and that’s where we headed, then checked into the Tofino Travellers Guest House.  It was here some of the ‘Geripacker’ experiences kicked in as the term ‘guest house’ is really a slightly up market backpackers hostel.  We were in one of two private rooms and the rest of the rooms contain multiple bunks.  This place was full of young backpackers from all over the world and ‘mum & dad’… us.

breakfast table at the guest house - Tofino

Tofino, after a lazy walk around it in the sunshine, reminded us a little of Byron Bay in that there are numerous restaurants, coffee shops, arts & craft shops and surf shops, lots of surf shops.  During our stay in Tofino, we enjoyed the breakfast waffles each morning around one big table and chatting to all the young travellers who by now were quite relaxed with us.  We also explored the beaches, went for a walk amongst very large and old cedar trees on Meares Island and went for yet another bear watching trip, this time from a boat.

Rob and old growth cedar tree

The boat was an old ‘chugger’ which carries only 12 passengers with Mike as our skipper, a born and bred Tofino resident of 60+ years.  The black bears like to walk along the shoreline looking for crabs and it wasn’t long before we found them.  They had no fear of us at all and allowed us to come within 10 mtrs of them, so for us it was a very different experience.  We were no longer looking down on the bears from viewing positions, we were almost at eye level with them.  

The shores here are covered by bright green growth on the abundant rocks and it was the rocks the bears turned over with significant ease, no matter how large they were.  After watching them we certainly gained a significant appreciation and respect for the strength of bears.

looking for crabs

On our trip to and back from the bears, we spent most of our time talking to a young couple from Amsterdam who had been travelling throughout Canada with their two young kids and who have travelled extensively throughout the world already.  At one point whilst the husband and I were sitting chatting out on the front of the boat alone, I asked him, “what sort of job do you have that lets you travel so much?”.  He smiled and simply replied, “I’m in the marijuana business!”.  They employ 60 people and have warehouse distribution locations both in Holland and the USA.

It took us about 5 hours to drive from Tofino down to Victoria at the southern end of the island.  Victoria also happens to be the capital of British Columbia, not Vancouver as most people believe and we have visited here before.  It is a lovely city with that typical casual style of British Columbia.  Two things were on our agenda in Victoria, a visit to the Butchart Gardens and also our last chance to see orca.

We woke to pouring rain the day of the 3 hour tour out on the sea searching for orca, but it was meant to decline during the day and our boarding time was 1 pm.  Later as we walked to the docks, the rain had eased to a very light drizzle and right on time, we headed out to sea with about 30 others, many of them Aussies doing inside passage cruises to Alaska.  The sky was not looking too good and the crew informed us it would take around 40 mins before we were in the area they hoped to see some transient orcas.

Wildlife spotting is always a risk and you don’t always get to see what you’re after as it was this day and alas… no orcas!  By the time we had reached where the orcas should have been, the rain had started to fall again and out on the horizon, a wall of fog was slowly heading our way.

time for a rest and stretch on its back

We were however treated to the antics of a sole humpback whale.  We knew something was up when the skipper started yelling, “go, go, go” which could be heard above the engines and everyones chatter.  Then we saw what he was excited about, this whale,  lying on its back slapping both its huge fins onto the water.

The boat stopped and we all headed up onto the roof to watch, despite the now light but steady rainfall.  The whale rolled over about 100 mtrs away and we saw that familiar arch in its back then its tail disappearing into the depths.  That was it we thought.... gone!  The whale had different ideas.

Up it came, arched its back and fell back into the water with a huge splash.  A breach!  This whale was in a playful mood because it continued to breach or lie on its back slapping its fins for over an hour.  

Even better, it decided to come closer, even pulling off a breach about 20 mtrs directly in front of the boat.  An impressive sound of 40+ tonnes of whale smashing back down on the water.  It was a fantastic thing to photograph and the time soon came to put down the camera and watch the rest of this spectacle as the fog slowly swirled in around us.

There were just so many breaches and this is just one sequence near to our boat - click the link:

2014 - Breaching Humpback, Victoria BC

Fishermans Wharf - Victoria

The whale disappeared into the mist and we headed back to the dock where disembarked and headed to Fishermans Wharf, a set of floating food stores and homes of all shapes, sizes and colour.  We were still on a high after watching the humpback, but must admit to both being disappointed not to see orcas.  Maybe next time… somewhere else.  

Before leaving Victoria, we headed back out after dinner and when the sun had set to have a look at this lovely city at night and thankfully, the rain was finally gone.

Butchart Gardens

Our drive back to Nanaimo was via Sooke on the west coast, then to the Butchart Gardens, a place Rob had wanted to visit for many years and what a set up it was, with hundreds of visitors going through it by the time we arrived. These gardens were not only busy and beautiful, they are a tourist based money making machine.  

Before reaching Nanaimo, returning the car and settling back into Fran & Neil’s B&B, we visited 2-3 small towns along the coastline.  Vancouver Island is certainly bigger and more scenically diverse than we thought, but as beautiful as all those people we had met in the past had described.

trip map around Vancouver Island

ferry to Vancouver and then to Bill's home

We relaxed throughout our 90 min BC Ferry trip from Nanaimo on the island to Horseshoe Bay on the mainland where Bill, a Canadian and very good friend of almost 20 years was waiting.  

We hadn't seen Bill and his wife Charlyn for almost 8 years so were looking forward to catching up and staying with them for three nights before we flew back to Australia rather than doing a whole lot of touristy things.  The three days with them was great, combined with a lot of fun, good catch up conversation, including meeting their family one very entertaining evening during our stay.  We also appreciated their hospitality and look forward we hope, to returning it one day.

The time had come however to head back to Australia after 16 weeks of being on the road, sea and air during our meanderings.  After our farewells to Bill and Charlyn, we flew out of Vancouver to Los Angeles then boarded our Qantas flight for a nice, "g'day" welcome, our flight back home and a bundy.  It has been a very enjoyable albeit a very looong trip.

This is a poem or saying that was written up on the guest house wall in Tofino that resonated with us relative to travelling:

     This is it
     This is really it
     This is all there is
     And it’s perfect as it is

     There is nowhere to go but Here
     There is nothing here but Now
     There is nothing now but This

     And this is it
     This is really it
     This is all there is
     And it’s perfect as it is

     

     James Broughton

There will be a final summary post for this trip, including a few learning’s but in the meantime, if you want to see some additional photos… you know what to do:

CLICK HERE for more photos - Back into British Columbia 2014

Sitka to Petersburg - Alaska 2014

this is real 'catch & release' fishing!

After our last visit to Salmon Creek in Juneau watching thousands of salmon trying to swim upstream to breed and catching one by hand next to the shore, we headed out to the terminal to catch our ferry to Sitka, Alaska as the trip map below shows.

MV Columbia was departing Juneau at 1:30am next morning (!!!), but fortunately for us, it arrived before midnight enabling us to board early and go straight to our cabin and bed.  When researching the trip and looking at ferry routes, this one stood out and motivated me to be up again at 6:30am next morning.  

Why… we were likely to be going through narrow channels and we did, sailing through one of the narrowest channels of the entire ferry network called Sergius Narrows in Peril Strait.  At around 100 mtrs wide and our ferry at 26 mtrs wide, there was only 74 mtrs to play with, exciting because the tidal currents which surge through this narrow opening makes manoeuvring interesting or so we were told by crew.

view from our balcony

We arrived early into the Sitka ferry terminal located about 8 kms out of town and tried to catch a taxi, but they were all busy due to cruise ships being in port, so we caught ‘The Ride,’ a $2 per trip community bus system which dropped us off almost out the front of our accommodation at the Cascade Inn.  The room was spacious and very comfortable, with a private balcony overlooking expansive views of the ocean, small islands and a dormant volcano in the distance, along with a constant stream of fishing boats passing by.  This place had a small kitchenette, so we dropped off our bags and went back to ‘The Ride’ bus stop for another trip, this time downtown to find essential groceries.

The area around Sitka was originally inhabited by the Tingit people for around 10,000 years before, and like many parts of Alaska the Russians arrived and settled in 1799.  There was a lot of tension between the two groups leading to a massacre of Russians by the Tingit in the early 1800’s.  By around 1808 however, the Russians were back in control after more fighting and continued their rule, until Alaska was sold to the USA and that transaction actually took place in Sitka. 

Sitka was then the capital of Alaska, until 1906 when it moved to Juneau and is one of the few larger Alaskan towns directly facing the open ocean and has a population of about 9,000.  It is also one of the nicest looking towns so far, with many very expensive looking houses in and around it, many with great views out to the ocean and enjoying westerly sunsets, if the sun is actually shining.

We got lucky, as after nearly 50 minutes still waiting for the next bus that Alaskan friendliness kicked in.  A small car with a largish indigenous bloke driving it, pulled over and asked us if we were okay and did we need a lift anywhere.  “Sure” we said, so Rob got in the back next to the child seat and I got in front.  Our good samaritan explained he had seen us earlier on his trip out of town to go looking for deer or brown bear, there was that bear word again, and saw us still waiting on his way back.  He was a very chatty person and decided to give us a mini tour around town before dropping us off in the centre.  “What’s your name?” I asked, “Billy Bob” came the reply, “welcome to Sitka and have a great time” soon followed as we shook hands and after thanking him, off he went.

During our time in this part of Alaska we have noticed that the sun doesn’t actually come out too often during what they all call ‘summer’, so when the sun does shine you must make the most of it and on our first day in Sitka, the sun was shining.  After a quick lunch we went searching for the Alaska Raptor Centre, a place which nurses injured raptors back to good health and releases as many as possible back into the wild.  They also have some resident raptors which can’t be released due to permanent injuries and it was amazing to see so many and photograph them at close quarters.

bald eagle up close - Alaska Raptor Centre

The weather forecast for the following day had it being sunny in the morning  and cloudy later, so again with the ‘use the sun’ principle in operation and having picked up a rental car, we headed out of town to find ‘Fortress Of The Bear’, this time a place which looks after orphaned bears and releases them if possible.  There were 3 very cute and young black bears along with 5 full grown brown bears, one weighing in at 500 kgs.  To watch the behaviour between each other whilst being very very close to such large animals especially when being fed, was quite something.  It was also a good opportunity to keep practicing our bear photography.

Fortress Of The Bears

Well the cloudy skies did return during the afternoon along with some light rain which continued into the following morning.  We had booked a wildlife tour with Captain Black Bart on his smallish boat.  We have enjoyed our trips out on smaller boats and with us were Rick & Robyn from Phoenix.  Captain Black Bart’s real name is Mitch and he was a loud talking entrepreneur who revelled in telling anyone who would listen, what his next set of plans were. 

yet another tail...

When booking this tour, we told Captain Black we were keen to go searching for whales, sea otters, orcas and visit St Lazaria Island, a bird sanctuary about 30 kms from Sitka.  There are no landings permitted on this island because it is used by numerous species of birds including puffins for nesting.  It was the puffins we were hoping to get a little closer to.

we got closer still... see link

The sea was amazingly calm and the light was pretty good for photography as Captain Black charged out into the bay looking for wildlife.  Captain Fred (Valdez) and Captain Black would make a great team, boy they sure both can talk.

Wasn’t long before we came upon a humpback who was reasonably relaxed with our presence, went looking unsuccessfully for brown bears along the coastline, found some large ‘rafts’ (groups) of sea otters bobbing around amongst kelp and did mange to get closer to some puffins.  

St Lazaria Island is very different indeed and obviously volcanic in origin.  Captain Black also shared some of his home smoked king salmon with us which was very tasty as the weather around us began deteriorating very quickly, so we turned back towards Sitka for a fairly bumpy trip.

Around 4 am next morning, Sitka shared another regular Alaskan experience.  The earth moved for us, the bed shook and the glass door opening onto the balcony rattled.  The sea also made noises Rob hadn’t heard before, all caused by a 4.7 size earthquake centred about 150 kms away from us.  Unfortunately I missed all the excitement, just slept through it and heard about it from Rob, then the owner of the Inn next morning, who also told us there had been a further 10 smaller aftershocks since the first shake.  

After our vibrant start to the day and the return of very steady rain, we drove to the end of both roads out of town, 22 kms in one direction and 13 kms the other, Sitka yet again is another Alaskan town which can only be reached by boat or plane.

We flew out of Sitka early the following morning as the next trip map shows, travelling via Juneau on a 20 min. flight, changing planes and then another 40 mins to reach Ketchikan where we were greeted by steady rain and dark cloudy skies.

Please note - the trip maps also include the touring (foot, car or boat) occurring in each town.

After collecting baggage we went outside looking for transport, a taxi in this case.  We then learnt how the Ketchikan Airport is different to any others we have been to, its on an island and Ketchikan is on another island.  Rather than catch a taxi, we first had to catch a small commuter ferry over to the other island and then catch a taxi into town.

Our accommodation,  a large one bedroom apartment located on top of a small business overlooking a small boat harbour and then the docks where the cruise ships berth, was a very nice surprise and really comfortable and whilst settling in enjoyed the large ‘Disney Wonder’ cruise ship berthing directly in front of us.

Disney cruise ship berthing out front

So how did Ketchikan start life, well it wasn’t because of the Russians and fur.  Ketchikan started life around 1883 when some bloke called Snow decided to build a salmon saltery which grew and then later others came to the region to start mining and also cutting timber.  With all the men around the place, Ketchikan developed a now famous and very active red light district on Creek and Stedman Street.  

Creek St is about 100 mtrs from where we’re staying on Stedman St, so we were right in the heart of all the former action and now historic area.  There is a bridge close by on Stedman St crossing Ketchikan Creek and the coho salmon run was definitely on whilst we were here as we watched people catching fish off the bridge every day.

Ketchikan is essentially located on a narrow strip of land looking over the passage between two islands with steep mountains directly behind it.  There are many buildings here either built up the sides of the mountains and there are numerous long and steep staircases with street names for the residents.  There are even roadways built on pylons on the side of the mountains but much of Ketchikan, including all of the downtown area sits on pylons over the ocean, such is the shortage of land for the city.  It all adds a unique character to Ketchikan.

liquid sunshine guage

The first few days here were a little limiting because it rained and rained and rained and rained.  Did I say it rained!!  Ketchikan is famous for its rain, in fact outside the visitors centre there is a ‘Liquid Sunshine’ gauge. In Alaska because of the wet weather and snow, you see LOTS of people wearing light brown gumboots everywhere, onto planes, around town, in restaurants and the locals call them ‘Alaskan sandles’.  There were a lot of them to be seen in Ketchikan where the annual rainfall average is around 4 mtrs and the locals we talked to simply said the rain we experienced was pretty normal, we just hope it doesn’t impact a tour we have booked to Anan Creek.

'Alaskan sandles' also in Petersburg

It was only drizzling rain with thick low cloud when we woke for our final day in Ketchikan and eventually made our way to the pick up point for our seaplane trip to Anan Creek, regarded as one of the better bear viewing locations in Alaska.  Michelle, our pilot and owner of the tour company advised us however that they couldn’t fly into Anan because of the low cloud cover and had contemplated cancelling altogether, but believed they could get us into another place called Taylors Cove and a viewing site on Margret Creek.  The other good news was that it would be cheaper due to the much shorter flying distance.

There were 5 of us in a tour group and we were all keen to give it a go, so off we went with a few bumps and one shriek from Rob along the way.  The coastal scenery around many of these towns is truly beautiful.  We were all briefed by our pistol and bear spray carrying guide on arrival, and about what to do if we came across a bear on the trail, and that we would only be seeing black bears, and away we went.  It was raining, not heavily but annoyingly if you were keen to take photos.

There is a viewing platform run by the Foresty Dept. and below us was a raging river due to all the recent rain and there was a big black bear standing on rocks near the water waiting to grab a large salmon, which it eventually managed, but soon took its catch under trees out of sight.  The lighting for taking photos was poor because of the thick clouds, a bear which is black and the rain.

Then we waited and watched and a bald eagle high up on a tree watched with us and we waited and waited and waited.  The plan had us staying here for about 3 hours so we hoped some more bears would turn up.  Waiting, waiting, waiting… no more bears, so we took photos of the solitary eagle.  After nearly 2 hours, things started to happen. First with one bear who arrived and very quickly caught a fish and proceeded to eat on the side of the bank.  Then the skies opened up and it teemed with rain!

After a while the rain eased and another bear came to the creek on our side directly below us and caught itself a salmon next to the fish ladder, started to devour it but again disappeared under a bush, maybe the bears don’t like the rain either.

The bear on the other side of the creek had almost finished its fish when another bear headed down the bank towards it and the first bear wasn’t very happy about it because it couldn’t make an easy escape.  With the rain still falling pretty heavily, the two bears sized each other up, bared their teeth at each other and even had a few quick swipes across the face with those large clawed paws.  Was fascinating to watch as they cautiously closed the distance between each other and eventually, the first bear was able to get away.

The new bear got on with the business of fishing and catching a fish then a few other bears came down to feed, one of them launching its head into the creek and causing a swarm of fish to madly swim away from the bank into deeper water but eventually it also caught a fish and ripped it to pieces and ate its fill.

Finally it was time to leave and we headed back down the track.  Rob was up near the front of the group and had a ‘pleasant’ surprise along with a few others when they came upon a bear sitting on a log right next to them.  Having realised there were people next to it,  the bear very very rapidly sprinted off into the forest and all I saw was the black backside as it disappeared.  Rob the bear whisperer, may have lost her touch, fortunately perhaps!

There had been other groups of people from other planes on the platform for shorter periods than us and when we reached the small jetty, two planes and the people were still there waiting to take off.  All the rain we experienced whilst watching the bears was from a change of weather, higher winds and even lower cloud.  Michelle had not been able to return to pick us up either, we instead would be returning to a point for collection by van in a jet boat, which we saw coming our way on the horizon.

We did have an interesting and very choppy ride back with plenty of spray hitting us from the small and very messy white caps all around us.  The trip back had many upsides though.  First, if we had managed to fly back, nobody would have enjoyed either the shrieks or words that would have come out of Rob’s mouth as the plane bounced around.  We also went past a nuclear submarine test facility moored in 400 mtrs of water.  Nobody knows when and if submarines are there because all the sound leakage testing is done below the surface.  On our trip back, we also travelled close to the shores of a few islands and seeing the coastal rainforest up close was a delight.

Our bear viewing tour, despite a very slow start and a lot of rain, had turned into quite a memorable experience indeed.

It was time to leave as yet another trip map shows and this one has us back on the ferry system, this time aboard the MV Matanuska for an overnight trip from Ketchikan to Petersburg, Alaska.  The ferry trip was very smooth because the route goes amongst islands and along relatively narrow channels and meant backtracking north a little.

Petersburg is located on Mitkof Island overlooking the Wrangell Narrows and began in the nineteenth century when a Peter Buschmann from Norway settled there, built a cannery, sawmill and docks and the settlement was named Petersburg after him.  There are only about 2,500 people living on the island and we came here because we thought it might be a little different because of it's mainly Norwegian versus Russian heritage.

It's a very neat town, different in that it wasn’t spread all over the place like many in Alaska are, requiring people to own cars, even if there is only an entire 50 kms of road in a town.  The other noticeable difference with the ‘neat’ description, there wasn’t a lot of junk in the yards of most of the houses, again something we have seen throughout Alaska especially.

our B&B

Our accommodation was in the Waterfront B&B, a very short walk from the ferry terminal, where we were joined by two American couples who had arrived on the same ferry as us.  Our room was right on the waterfront overlooking views of the terminal and mountains on the other side of the channel and it was very comfortable indeed with plenty of room.  Leroy, the owner of the B&B with Sammy, enjoys feeding the bald eagles which nest nearby, by leaving fish for them to swoop down and snatch when there aren’t too many people around.

bald eagle swoops above us at B&B

Our first day was spent walking and exploring the town after visiting the visitors centre.  We were immediately struck by the friendliness of the locals, being greeted constantly by “hello”, including from people walking on the opposite side of the road.  Others we either met on our side of the road or in a shop would quickly ask, “where are you from?”, then follow with multiple other questions, ask how we were enjoying Alaska then typically finish with, “welcome to Petersburg”.  Nice!

Whilst walking along the narrows heading out of town and admiring many of the timber homes either built over the water or with magnificent water views, spotted a familiar shape in the distance and they were heading our way… orca.  There were two of them quietly cruising down the narrows causing many of the locals to stop and also watch or complain bitterly about not having a camera with them.  Even though quite a distance from us, they are an animal with an amazing presence.

transient orca in the narrows

We had heard that the weather was meant to clear up for a bit so our next day was spent on yet another smallish boat, no not looking at glaciers, we were out looking for whales.  Petersburg is very near Frederick Sound, renowned for the large numbers of humpbacks that migrate into it from Hawaiian waters each year.

The boat is a purpose built jet boat with large viewing windows and seats 14 passengers but there were only 6 others out on the water with us.  It had stopped raining but at the start of our trip, there was a lot of fog hanging about.  One of the other passengers turned out to be a UK photographer who runs photography learning tours for small groups.  He had 6 clients heading out tomorrow with him, but this was his personal fun day.  He was very willing to share how he goes about taking wildlife photos, so I enjoyed picking his brains.

There are a lot of whales in this area at this time of year and as the fog lifted to a perfectly clear sunny sky and at times an almost perfectly flat ocean, we found the whales, at times though it seemed like they found us.  At one location we sat for over an hour just drifting, surrounded by 10-15 feeding whales at a time with a constant stream of them passing through.  One decided to check us out, re-surfacing without us knowing it was there, less than 3 metres directly next to us and scared the crap out of most of us.  Later in the day, after spending time watching a colony of sea lions, we found a pair of humpbacks briefly enjoying themselves breaching before continuing on with their feeding.

We always know when we have had a really good day by the number of photos we have taken and Rob cracked an all time record for her with over 800 photos to wade through at the end of the day after dinner.   I only had 400 odd to go through and cull!

Our last few days in Petersburg involved hiring a car for one day and driving to the end of both roads out of town, including an early evening visit to some rapids a local told us about.  The salmon run is on here as well, and bears are meant to come down to the rapids to feed.  We were also told that Petersburg has both black and brown bears, so with bear spray handy, we headed to the rapids.  It was a lovely setting with plenty of fish again trying to get upstream and on the opposite bank a good distance away was a black bear and cub.  They weren’t too fussed by our presence but another noise spooked her and she sprinted off back into the forest, cub close behind her.

At long last we also experienced something missing for many months… a sunset!  Behind Petersburg in the distance on the other side of Frederick Sound is a range of snow capped jagged mountains including one called Devils Thumb.  With the sun setting and near cloudless skies, it was an excellent opportunity to get photos of the fishing and seaplane harbour near town.  It was so nice to at long last see some ‘golden hour’ colours on scenery again.

Devils Thumb in background

But our time in Petersburg was at an end as we boarded the ferry MV Taku to now leave Alaska altogether and continue our southwards journey back into British Columbia, Canada.  As we pulled away from the dock, Leroy and two fellow American travellers we had hit it off with, waved us goodbye, which was a very nice way to depart.  

MV Taku in front of B&B

This trip shows using different colours our routes to each of the 3 towns.

Juneau to Sitka = blue
Sitka to Ketchikan = red
Ketchikan to Petersburg = green

Alaska is an amazing part of the USA, with fantastic scenery, laid back and very friendly people, very changeable weather and the constant feel of the great outdoors.  It is truly well worth a visit.

Just click the link(s) below to view any of the additional pictures:

CLICK HERE for more photos - Sitka <> Ketchikan <> Petersburg 2014


CLICK HERE for more photos - Humpback breaching, Petersburg 2014