#12 - The Inside Passage

Most people visit the Inside Passage from south to north. I passed through on my way north, but did not make any excursions from the ferry till on my way back to "the Lower 48." 

I boarded the M/V Le Conte at eleven in the morning. The usual nine hour ferry trip from Juneau to Sitka takes the Le Conte 16 hours, as it makes stops at several small, native villages. The people who ride the Le Conte are mostly locals. I took this ferry because it fit my schedule and I was in no hurry to get to Sitka. I thought it would be interesting to see all the villages. In reality, there is not much to see. The trip was pleasant enough. They ran back-to-back movies for much of the day. 

We arrived in Sitka at 3:15 a.m. As I was planning to leave Sitka that same night, and as it gets light so early, I had not expected to need somewhere to stay for the few hours till daylight. I had assumed that the terminal would be open (others are) and I could stay there till daylight. Wrong. The terminals at the smaller cities are open for a couple of hours before the ferry departs and only about a half-hour after it arrives. So my advice to anyone who will be arriving at the small ports of call during the night, which often occurs, is to make advance reservations. There was another lady onboard who was staying at the hostel and she had called ahead so they were expecting her. I tagged along and, lucky for me, there were two empty cots. Such nice people to let us in in the middle of the night! 

Sitka is a lovely and historically important city. It sits among several small islands and, as can be seen in this brochure photo, it's setting is quite beautiful. Alexander Baranof, the governor of the Russian American Company, built his castle in Sitka. The castle no longer stands, but on its site is a monument which commemorates the 1867 transfer of Alaska from Russia to America. I stood on the very spot where the papers were signed. Pretty cool! 

Sitka is a mix of Russian and Tlingit heritage. I visited the Russian Bishop's House, which served as the residence for the local orthodox bishop and as a school; St. Michael's Cathedral, which is a beautiful, vintage Russian Orthodox Church; and the Sitka National Historical Park, where Tlingits and Russians battled in 1804. This park is most beautiful. There was a huge raven high in one of the Sitka Spruces carrying on a rather noisy conversation with another raven which I couldn't see. 

That afternoon while waiting for my laundry to dry, I picked up a copy of the Anchorage newspaper where I discovered that Salt Lake City had had the unique experience of being hit by a tornado. I had been totally out of touch with the world for the four weeks I'd been exploring Alaska. I hadn't learned of the crash of JFK Jr.'s plane till days after it happened. The one time I read a newspaper, I read about SLC, where most of my family resides. That was just too weird!!

My next stop was Wrangell. I originally had not planned to stop in Wrangell, but because of the ferry schedule to Bellingham. I had to either spend two days in Sitka or Ketchikan or stop off in Wrangell for a day. As it rains 80% of the time in Ketchikan and I had had more than enough rain and as less than one day was needed to experience the charms of Sitka, I decided to stop in Wrangell. That turned out to be a decision I would both regret and revel.

At some point after I left the ferry at the Wrangell dock that evening and the next morning, my camera disappeared. I was really upset. Not only was it brand new for the trip, but inside was the roll of film with all the pictures of the past few days. I checked with the ferry lost and found, though I was pretty sure that wasn't where it had disappeared. I left messages with the police, the local radio station and the hostel. It never showed up. It seems that someone else needed it more than I did. 

This is Felicity. She was one of my roommates at the hostel and she is from Australia. She had been travelling alone in Alaska for nine weeks before I met up with her in Wrangell. She was kind enough to let me borrow one of her cameras for my trip to Anan. 

I spent the morning calling all the companies that offer trips to Anan Bear Observatory. I finally found one who was maybe going if they could get enough people to fill the boat. Just in case I went to the store and got myself a lunch and walked to the pier hoping, hoping, hoping at the trip would take place. Two young men had come by earlier and said they wanted to make the trip, so they decided three was enough. Yes!! 

It was about an hour boat ride to Anan, which sits around the east side of Wrangell Island on the mainland-side of the bay. A ranger met us on shore and gave us all the do's and don'ts of bear encounters. We walked the half mile to the observatory and arrived just in time to see a black bear and her two cubs fishing for salmon just across the creek. I shot a 36 roll of film, but many of them came out blurry. These two are the best of the bunch. Notice the brown railing at the bottom of the first picture. That and another railing just below it were all that stood between that black bear and the six of us on the observation deck about 25 feet away. It was absolutely thrilling to be so close. 

The salmon were running which makes it prime time for bear viewing. We watched the bears fishing for their dinner for several hours. I felt sorry for those poor salmon who struggled so valiantly to make it up the falls just to be snatched out of the water to become a bear's dinner. Made myself feel better by remembering it was all part of the circle of life. 

On the way back to the boat we encountered these two brown bears playing just offshore. Just after we moved further down the path, another brown bear crossed the trail to join his "pals" right where we had been standing. I would love to have been there when it passed by. The people coming down the trail right behind us flew back to Wrangell in this seaplane. They had taken a video of our bear encounters and invited us to watch it in the warmth of their yacht. It was very luxurious. Now, that's the way to travel! 

Next stop was Ketchikan, the home of the largest collection of totem poles in the world. Ketchikan is a classic Alaskan city. The hills are so steep in places that the streets are stairways. The famous Creek Street, which was a red-light district back in the days of the gold rush, is now a series of charming shops and restaurants. At Saxman Native Village we watched the artists carving totem poles. Totem poles tell stories. The one on the right is a rendition of Abraham Lincoln. 
 

Next day I caught the ferry bound for Bellingham. It is an 18 hour trip from Ketchikan to Bellingham, Washington. This photo is of a fog bank that we had just come through. On the trip back to SLC from Seattle, we flew directly over Mt. Rainier. This is a shot of the crater. A fitting ending to a fantastic trip!