Juneau to Seattle
Hi Everyone!
This is the fifth installment of Ed and Kenneth's trip to Alaska and back. At last email, our intrepid adventurers had just arrived in Juneau via ferry, compliments of the "Ferry People," as we have come to call them...
Juneau is a fairly large city for Alaska with about 30000 residents. Being the capitol, most people work for the state, but there is a sizeable fishing fleet and, of course, the cruise ships. These ships are enormous and up to 5 at once dock right at the base of the downtown area. They dominate the skyline of the city being up to 100 feet high. They are quite pretty at night with multi-colored lights everywhere. Any city street that is within easy walking distance of the dock is crammed with souvenir shops and restaurants. When the ships leave, this area turns into a ghost town and many of the shops close their doors until the next ship arrives. It is sometimes necessary for independent travellers, such as ourselves, to time our sightseeing for times when ships are in port since some shows and exhibits are open only on the ship's schedule. Juneau is in a beautiful setting, as all southeastern Alaska coastal towns are, but it's often easy to forget this since it never stops raining. We tried to make the best of things and toured all the public buildings including the city museum, the state capital and the state office building (affectionately known to residents as the SOB). The oldest surviving Russian Orthodox church in Alaska is in Juneau and is quite photogenic with its onion dome and eastern cross. When the Russians moved out of Alaska in 1867, they left behind all the local natives whom they had converted to the Russian Orthodox Church. The descendents of these people make this religion the single largest in the state.
In Juneau we also saw the Mendenhall Glacier, Alaska's "Drive-in glacier." It's an impressive glacier that calves off numerous icebergs into Mendenhall Lake in a pretty setting. The rain abated enough for us to enjoy a hike along the lake where there are many tumbling streams, and moss growing everywhere amid huge boulders along the trail. We also toured the Alaska State Museum, which had good exhibits on the native people and the gold rush days. For something different, we toured the Alaskan Brewing Company which of course offered free samples of their products. That night for dinner we ate in the sit-down eating area of the local grocery store. The food was good, the drinks were free, and Mendenhall Glacier was right out the window! Nice place.
Our next ferry took us through the Gastineau Channel (really a fjord) and Chatham Straight to Sitka, the capitol of Russian America and of Alaska until the capitol was moved to Juneau. The town is quite nice, even though it's a cruise ship stop and full of tourists. At the Sitka Nat'l Historical Park they have a good collection of totem poles which were moved from several native villages so they could be restored and protected from further decay. The poles mark a variety of occasions, from potlatches to funerals, to the influence of both the Russians and the Americans. That evening we had a tasty dinner of Russian food, something you don't find just anywhere. The next morning we awoke to sunshine, and we rushed to get going and do something in the fine weather. So we skipped breakfast and took the trail from the campground to Beaver Lake, a nice walk through Sitka spruce and deciduous trees to a lake surrounded by mountains. Back in town, we walked around and saw more of the Russian influence: a replica of one of the 3 stockades that defended the town, several Russian graves, and St. Michael's Cathedral. The church, rebuilt after a fire gutted it about 30 years ago, is a fine example of Russian Orthodox architecture with its classic onion dome and 3-barred cross. Inside are many original icons and relics, very important to this religion. Our favorite hangout in Sitka turned out to be the local grocery store, the SeaMart. The entrance to this store was a revolving door that accomodated shopping carts. Very unusual. It had a good selection of inexpensive hot food, free hot chocolate, herbal teas, coffee and juice, and an eating area enclosed by ceiling to floor windows with an impressive view of the offshore islands. One of these sports a 3000 ft dormant volcano. Since it rained almost the entire time, a place like this was great to sit and read or write post cards. Our last night in Sitka, we sat there until they turned the lights out on us. We didn't realize it, but the store had already closed and the employees hadn't known we were still there!
Another day on the car ferry put us in Petersburg, a small fishing town of about 2500 people. This is not a cruise ship destination and we could tell by the lack of facilities. There is only one campground in town (that we were able to find) and it's a small parking lot mostly filled with seasonal cannery workers living in old trailers and RVs. We had previously booked a Forest Service cabin for two nights at Petersburg Lake which was a short boat ride and a 10 mile hike from the town. The morning after our arrival on the ferry it was raining even harder than usual, so we found a closed bank and packed our backpacks under the shelter of their drive-through window. The reason the bank was closed was that this was Labor Day. Because of this, we were unable to visit the local Forest Service office to inquire about the trail we intended to take. With 20/20 hindsight, we should have called them the week before. We went to the harbormaster's office to find out how we could get a boat ride to the other side of the bay where the trail started. The harbormaster was gruff and unfriendly, but a local who was just hanging around the office offered to make a special trip in his boat just for us. We gratefully accepted and, after the short ride with this nice fellow, we headed up the trail in the pouring rain. The trail wound through lush rainforest with moss hanging from the huge old-growth fir trees. The forest floor was covered with moss, ferns, colorful mushrooms and mud. Lots of mud. Following a tidal inlet which becomes a salmon stream, the trail was a triumph of the CCC, built in the late '30s. It's not a exaggeration to say that more than half of the ten miles is boardwalk with countless wooded bridges. Unfortunately, the trail has not been maintained by the CCC through the years and it shows. Much of the boardwalk has rotted, some is missing or broken and all of it is as slick as ice. The continuous rain causes the boards to turn black with mildew and much of the trail is slick with rotting vegetation, as well. Walking this trail was extremely stressful. Each of us slipped on the boards many times, although miraculously, neither of us was hurt. We walked over many bridges, some wide with railing, but many more were foot-wide shaved logs with no railing, just as slick as the boardwalk. The parts of the trail not covered by boardwalk were wet and muddy. It took us 4 hours to make the first 4 miles. At this point the stress level increased, as we realized that at this rate we would barely make the cabin before dark. We knew that walking over slick narrow bridges in the dark was not an option. We pressed on in the pouring rain. The tidal inlet turned into a river as we walked and we began to see lots of salmon in the river, as well as all over the bank and trail. The many bears in the area were obviously feasting and the fish carcasses were everywhere, including right in the middle of several of those narrow bridges. We had to push the carcasses off the bridges with our hiking sticks and continue carefully shuffling across. At one point, the trail crossed a 15 foot wide stream with no bridge. We scoured the bank for a dry crossing, but in the end, wound up wading across in our hiking boots with water up to our knees. Thus, we were now completely soaked. The rain continued. Eventually, the dark woods began to get even darker and we knew we only had about a half hour of good light left. It was at that point that the lake appeared. Wearily, we hiked the remaining distance to the cabin and threw our saturated bodies and packs inside. The cabin included a large supply of dry wood and a wood-burning stove, but no lantern. We cooked our freeze-dried dinner by the light from our flashlights and went to sleep.
The next day we awoke to - can you guess? - more rain! We were both quite sore from the day before, so we were quite happy just to sit in the warm cabin, drink tea and watch the swans swimming in the lake. The lake was really very pretty, surrounded by green mountains. During a lull in the rain, we took a short trip out on the lake in the small rowboat that was supplied for cabin users. We did the best we could to forget for a day, that we still had to hike back to Petersburg the following day.
It was raining again when we got up the next day, but it actually stopped not long after breakfast. We cleaned up our little cabin, packed up our packs and headed back for Petersburg. The weather improved as we went along and, although the boardwalk was just as slick as before, the trail seemed to go faster without constant rain. It sprinkled a little when we stopped for lunch, but then stopped as we moved on. By mid-afternoon, the sun was peeking out of the clouds and we were only 3 miles from our destination. We were walking along debating in our usual loud voices about how to save the world from stupid people, when we heard a noise uphill from us in the woods. We looked over to see 2 black bear cubs scurrying up a nearby tree. About 3 seconds later we heard a loud snorting noise and saw the mother glaring at us from about 20 feet away. We decided, without much debate, to turn around and walk down the trail in the other direction. We walked for a few minutes and then waited for the mother to get her cubs out of the tree and move away. Bears don't really like to be around people, and they will leave if given the chance. After about 10 minutes, we bravely set off down the trail again. The woods were too thick to walk through, so the trail seemed like our only choice. When we reached the spot where the bears had been, we carefully looked around. There were no cubs visible in the tree. We waited and listened a little longer until we were sure they were gone and then boldly continued our hike. After about 3 more steps the mother popped up from behind a fallen log about 12 feet away, snorting dangerously. She attacked and ripped Ed's throat out. (Just testing to see if you're really reading for content here.) Actually, we made another hasty retreat back up the trail even farther than before. We discussed our situation and bravely decided not to walk up the trail toward the bears again. We beat our way through the woods down to the river and walked along the river. This still made us nervous since the river ran only about 15 feet further from the bears than the trail and we really didn't have a good feeling for mama bear's tolerance level. Nevertheless, we carefully walked along the river, expecting to be ambushed at any minute. After about 10 minutes, we knew we were past her and began to breathe easier. By this time the river had given way to a tidal inlet again and the tide was coming in, so the water was actually moving up the river. As we walked, we saw what looked like a very strange, white boat slowly coming up the river. Then we saw more of them. As we got closer we realized that icebergs were travelling past us up the river. We took some pictures, since this isn't something you see often, even in Alaska. A couple of hours later we wearily dragged ourselves back to the dock and got a ride across the bay almost immediately with a very nice local fellow. We treated ourselves to a big dinner and slept soundly that night.
Unfortunately, the alarm went off at 1:30 AM. We got up and went to catch our 3:00 AM ferry to Ketchikan. Alaskan ferrys don't always keep decent hours. We got a few more hours of sleep on the ferry and arrived in a very wet, rainy Ketchikan in the early afternoon. We spent most of the rest of the day doing errands like laundry and mailing a package. We did stop in at Saxman Village, which is a native community of Tlingits (pronounced "klinkits" by the locals). It has the largest selection of totem poles in Alaska. There were carvers there as well and we watched them work for a while.
The next day it was raining. We did a walking tour of Ketchikan in the rain (what else?). There is an area in town called Creek St. which is very picturesque. The old houses there are fixed up nicely and converted to stores and restaurants for the cruise ship tourists. The buildings are all on stilts hanging out over the water. The enitire area was a busy red-light district until the '50s. Each house was home to 2 ladies only since more than two constituted a house of prostitution under the law, and these were illegal. One of the homes was bought with all contents and furniture and has been turned into an interesting museum. Not the sort of museum you see every day. The other interesting item on our walking tour was the small boat harbor. It seems that the harbor was dredged out 30 years ago from a flat sand beach that was covered at high tide. At the time, this was the only flat place in town and was the local ball field. Games were played at low tide, but were sometimes called when the outfielders found themselves in knee deep water. We had dinner at the local grocery store, which had an eating area with seaplanes landing just outside the window every 5 minutes or so. We like Southeast Alaska grocery stores.
That night our ferry left at 1:15 AM for Prince Rupert about 100 miles south on the Canadian coast. We said goodbye to Alaska and went to sleep on the floor. When we woke up, we were in Prince Rupert and it was raining even harder than it was in Ketchikan. We had breakfast in town and checked out the area called Cow Bay. There were the usual tourist shops and they really played up the cow theme, with everything from buildings to dumpsters painted black and white. The best thing about Prince Rupert was the tour of the North Pacific Cannery, which they have turned into a museum. This cannery was in operation from the heyday of salmon canning around the turn of the century to its closure in the 1960's. The process used to involve mostly hand labor, from cutting the fish, cleaning it, packing it in cans, and cooking the salmon (can and all). Much of this labor was done by Chinese workers imported for this purpose by Chinese "bosses." Eventually the cannery became more automated, the most important improvement being a machine that cut the fish and cleaned it much faster than any human could. This machine soon replaced many workers, and being in the days before political correctness (or racial sensitivity of any kind), the machine was called the "Iron Chink," and was actually patented as such. They had this machine on display, and we spent some time trying to figure out how it worked. The cannery included some of the original village where the workers lived, basically barracks for the majority of workers. The company provided meals, which consisted mainly of salmon, salmon, and more salmon, mainly the heads and other unwanted parts. Naturally, gardens sprang up everywhere, and people raised chickens and hogs to supplement their diet. We learned a lot about a typical cannery, including the fact that no one in their right mind would want to work there.
The next morning we took a ferry to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island. The weather improved and we had nice views of the fjords along the inside passage, lots of waterfalls and fir-covered mountains. We started driving south and stopped in a picturesque town called Telegraph Cove. All the buildings are on stilts, surrounding a pretty natural harbor, and the sidewalks are all boardwalks. Enjoying fine weather for a change, we hiked to Huson Cave which had really cool sculptured boulders and a stream running right through the cave. The next day we went to Strathcona Provincial Park, located in about the middle of Vancouver Island. As we drove further into the park on dirt roads we saw many large trucks and wondered what they were doing out there. Our question was answered when we came upon a huge strip mine, yes, located in the middle of the park! In spite of this, we took a good hike up a trail along a ridge to picturesque Amica Lake, where two locals were enjoying the fine weather, and they told us the real good views were another two hours up the trail. Since it was getting on four o'clock we had to settle for the lake view and headed back down the mountain.
Another beautiful day (we could get used to this) found us in another part of Strathcona Park near a ski area, called Paradise Meadows. We walked through some meadows and saw Lake Helen McKenzie and Battleship Lake, which were very pretty with rocky shores and islands here and there. That night we found a private campground with showers and lots of firewood. The public campgrounds have had a fire ban on because of the lack of rain, but fortunately the private campgrounds still allowed fires. There was a contingent of geese who were pestering some of the campers, although we really didn't mind them. The owner would shoo off the geese, but of course they would just return later. The next morning, at 7:30 AM, we watched as the owner took out a 22 caliber rifle and popped one of the geese, right in front of us. He explained that although it was illegal to shoot them on the ground, he figured this would scare them off (or at least reduce their numbers) and they were pretty good eating anyway. We only spent one night at that campground.
We then drove west across the island, and encountered rain as we got to the west side of the mountains. We stopped at a very nice waterfall called Little Qualicum Falls, then took a walk through Cathedral Grove, a stand of virgin forest with towering cedar trees. It was a lot like the redwood forests of northern California except for the pungent, yet pleasant, smell of cedar. Reaching the coast, we came to Pacific Rim Nat'l Park. The shore is similar to the California/Oregon coast with both sand and huge rock outcroppings, and the surf pounding into spray. We continued to the small fishing and tourist town of Tofino at end of the road and had a good dinner, and then coffee & cake at the local cafe hangout. We have found that lingering in the evening at a cafe with a hot drink and newspaper is much preferable to shivering in the rain at camp, something we learned in the rainy southeast coast of Alaska. By the next day the rain had stopped and we took several short hikes. The first was through a bog with lots of moss growing everywhere. Another hike took us to a rocky length of shoreline called South Beach where the waves pounded the rocks and there were a few small blow holes. Yet another hike was supposed to lead to an old abandoned gold dredge, but the bridge had been washed out in a storm so we never did get to the dredge.
The next town on the way south was Nanaimo. We saw some petroglyphs (rock carvings) from before European contact, and although they were not very well preserved in the soft sandstone they seemed more creative than the petroglyphs and pictographs (rock paintings) I've seen in the desert southwest. The town had a nice waterfront with views of the Georgia Strait (separating Vancouver Island from the mainland) and several islands, and also a bastion typical of the colonial 1800's. We went to the local museum which had very good exhibits on local history, especially the Hudson's Bay Company which had not only a monopoly but was essentially the de facto government for many years. We sampled what we were told were the "world famous" Nanaimo Bars, actually a very good and very rich dessert. Our next stop of note was the seaside town of Chermainus. The town used to rely almost entirely on the logging industry and the local sawmills for its livelihood until these operations started to shut down. So the townfolk decided to spruce up the downtown and see if tourists like ourselves would come and visit. Well, it worked, because what they did was paint huge murals on dozens of the buildings, and these are actually really good paintings depicting the local history and culture.
Our last stop on Vancouver Island was Victoria. We toured the excellent Royal British Columbia Museum, an incredibly comprehensive museum on the history, geology, flora, fauna, and culture of BC. You know you're in for some good exhibits when the first thing you see is a very realistic full-size reproduction of a wolly mammoth, including all the interpretive panels to let you know what's going on. They had excellent displays on the European discovery and settlement of BC, including alot on George Vancouver, who first circumnavigated Vancouver Island. Vancouver learned seamanship from Captain James Cook, who also taught Captain Bligh. Unfortunately, Cook and Bligh had their share of troubles, one from the Hawaiians and the other from his crew. The museum also had a re-creation of late 19th century Victoria, down to details such as alleyways and meowing cats. And if that weren't enough, we also saw an IMAX film about whales which included awesome footage of blue whales and humpbacks, some of which was filmed on the coast of Alaska. The rest of the day we spent walking around Victoria and seeing sights like the magnificent Empress Hotel ($30 for afternoon tea- we passed) and the impressive parliament buildings. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and reluctantly headed to the campground for an exciting evening of doing laundry.
The next morning we headed to the town of Sydney to catch the ferry to Vancouver. We had heard horror stories about having to wait hours and hours to get on a ferry because of the crowds, but we were pleasantly surprised since we got lucky and only had to wait a few minutes before we drove right onto the ferry. We had good views of the islands and scenery in the Strait of Georgia and got into Vancouver in time for lunch, which turned out to be a great meal at a French restaurant. We then went to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden for a look at a very nice garden with the Chinese equivalent of bonsai trees, rock gardens, and oriental architecture. Since both Kenneth and I had been to Vancouver before, we decided to head on down to Seattle that night, especially since the weather was still holding out for us.
We had a great day in Seattle, starting out at the Museum of History & Industry at the university. They had good exhibits on the history of Seattle including its importance as a staging port for goldseekers on their way to the Yukon, and also on the fire in the late 1800's that narly destroyed the whole city. There was also a display on salmon canneries and an "Iron Chink," and most important, a diagram showing exactly how it worked. Our next stop was the Museum of Flight located at Boeing Field where they had some unique airplanes on display, not just the usual WWII fighters, Jennys, etc. They had a version of the SR-71 Blackbird that carried a drone mounted on top, and also the first jet-powered Air Force One, a 707 first used by Eisenhower. That afternoon we went up to Lake Union and checked out Gas Works Park. The park is on the site of a facility that used to manufacture gas for the city in the days of gas lighting. There are all sorts of huge chemical apparatus with very creative graffiti on them looking like something out of the movie Mad Max. Up the street from the park, under the Aurora Bridge, is a concrete statue- get this- of a troll with a VW Beettle in his grasp. For dinner we found a great Indian restaurant and had chai tea and a couple of excellent curry dishes. After dinner we headed east on I-90 to get a start on our drive out to Yellowstone Nat'l Park.
This is the fifth installment of Ed and Kenneth's trip to Alaska and back. At last email, our intrepid adventurers had just arrived in Juneau via ferry, compliments of the "Ferry People," as we have come to call them...
Juneau is a fairly large city for Alaska with about 30000 residents. Being the capitol, most people work for the state, but there is a sizeable fishing fleet and, of course, the cruise ships. These ships are enormous and up to 5 at once dock right at the base of the downtown area. They dominate the skyline of the city being up to 100 feet high. They are quite pretty at night with multi-colored lights everywhere. Any city street that is within easy walking distance of the dock is crammed with souvenir shops and restaurants. When the ships leave, this area turns into a ghost town and many of the shops close their doors until the next ship arrives. It is sometimes necessary for independent travellers, such as ourselves, to time our sightseeing for times when ships are in port since some shows and exhibits are open only on the ship's schedule. Juneau is in a beautiful setting, as all southeastern Alaska coastal towns are, but it's often easy to forget this since it never stops raining. We tried to make the best of things and toured all the public buildings including the city museum, the state capital and the state office building (affectionately known to residents as the SOB). The oldest surviving Russian Orthodox church in Alaska is in Juneau and is quite photogenic with its onion dome and eastern cross. When the Russians moved out of Alaska in 1867, they left behind all the local natives whom they had converted to the Russian Orthodox Church. The descendents of these people make this religion the single largest in the state.
In Juneau we also saw the Mendenhall Glacier, Alaska's "Drive-in glacier." It's an impressive glacier that calves off numerous icebergs into Mendenhall Lake in a pretty setting. The rain abated enough for us to enjoy a hike along the lake where there are many tumbling streams, and moss growing everywhere amid huge boulders along the trail. We also toured the Alaska State Museum, which had good exhibits on the native people and the gold rush days. For something different, we toured the Alaskan Brewing Company which of course offered free samples of their products. That night for dinner we ate in the sit-down eating area of the local grocery store. The food was good, the drinks were free, and Mendenhall Glacier was right out the window! Nice place.
Our next ferry took us through the Gastineau Channel (really a fjord) and Chatham Straight to Sitka, the capitol of Russian America and of Alaska until the capitol was moved to Juneau. The town is quite nice, even though it's a cruise ship stop and full of tourists. At the Sitka Nat'l Historical Park they have a good collection of totem poles which were moved from several native villages so they could be restored and protected from further decay. The poles mark a variety of occasions, from potlatches to funerals, to the influence of both the Russians and the Americans. That evening we had a tasty dinner of Russian food, something you don't find just anywhere. The next morning we awoke to sunshine, and we rushed to get going and do something in the fine weather. So we skipped breakfast and took the trail from the campground to Beaver Lake, a nice walk through Sitka spruce and deciduous trees to a lake surrounded by mountains. Back in town, we walked around and saw more of the Russian influence: a replica of one of the 3 stockades that defended the town, several Russian graves, and St. Michael's Cathedral. The church, rebuilt after a fire gutted it about 30 years ago, is a fine example of Russian Orthodox architecture with its classic onion dome and 3-barred cross. Inside are many original icons and relics, very important to this religion. Our favorite hangout in Sitka turned out to be the local grocery store, the SeaMart. The entrance to this store was a revolving door that accomodated shopping carts. Very unusual. It had a good selection of inexpensive hot food, free hot chocolate, herbal teas, coffee and juice, and an eating area enclosed by ceiling to floor windows with an impressive view of the offshore islands. One of these sports a 3000 ft dormant volcano. Since it rained almost the entire time, a place like this was great to sit and read or write post cards. Our last night in Sitka, we sat there until they turned the lights out on us. We didn't realize it, but the store had already closed and the employees hadn't known we were still there!
Another day on the car ferry put us in Petersburg, a small fishing town of about 2500 people. This is not a cruise ship destination and we could tell by the lack of facilities. There is only one campground in town (that we were able to find) and it's a small parking lot mostly filled with seasonal cannery workers living in old trailers and RVs. We had previously booked a Forest Service cabin for two nights at Petersburg Lake which was a short boat ride and a 10 mile hike from the town. The morning after our arrival on the ferry it was raining even harder than usual, so we found a closed bank and packed our backpacks under the shelter of their drive-through window. The reason the bank was closed was that this was Labor Day. Because of this, we were unable to visit the local Forest Service office to inquire about the trail we intended to take. With 20/20 hindsight, we should have called them the week before. We went to the harbormaster's office to find out how we could get a boat ride to the other side of the bay where the trail started. The harbormaster was gruff and unfriendly, but a local who was just hanging around the office offered to make a special trip in his boat just for us. We gratefully accepted and, after the short ride with this nice fellow, we headed up the trail in the pouring rain. The trail wound through lush rainforest with moss hanging from the huge old-growth fir trees. The forest floor was covered with moss, ferns, colorful mushrooms and mud. Lots of mud. Following a tidal inlet which becomes a salmon stream, the trail was a triumph of the CCC, built in the late '30s. It's not a exaggeration to say that more than half of the ten miles is boardwalk with countless wooded bridges. Unfortunately, the trail has not been maintained by the CCC through the years and it shows. Much of the boardwalk has rotted, some is missing or broken and all of it is as slick as ice. The continuous rain causes the boards to turn black with mildew and much of the trail is slick with rotting vegetation, as well. Walking this trail was extremely stressful. Each of us slipped on the boards many times, although miraculously, neither of us was hurt. We walked over many bridges, some wide with railing, but many more were foot-wide shaved logs with no railing, just as slick as the boardwalk. The parts of the trail not covered by boardwalk were wet and muddy. It took us 4 hours to make the first 4 miles. At this point the stress level increased, as we realized that at this rate we would barely make the cabin before dark. We knew that walking over slick narrow bridges in the dark was not an option. We pressed on in the pouring rain. The tidal inlet turned into a river as we walked and we began to see lots of salmon in the river, as well as all over the bank and trail. The many bears in the area were obviously feasting and the fish carcasses were everywhere, including right in the middle of several of those narrow bridges. We had to push the carcasses off the bridges with our hiking sticks and continue carefully shuffling across. At one point, the trail crossed a 15 foot wide stream with no bridge. We scoured the bank for a dry crossing, but in the end, wound up wading across in our hiking boots with water up to our knees. Thus, we were now completely soaked. The rain continued. Eventually, the dark woods began to get even darker and we knew we only had about a half hour of good light left. It was at that point that the lake appeared. Wearily, we hiked the remaining distance to the cabin and threw our saturated bodies and packs inside. The cabin included a large supply of dry wood and a wood-burning stove, but no lantern. We cooked our freeze-dried dinner by the light from our flashlights and went to sleep.
The next day we awoke to - can you guess? - more rain! We were both quite sore from the day before, so we were quite happy just to sit in the warm cabin, drink tea and watch the swans swimming in the lake. The lake was really very pretty, surrounded by green mountains. During a lull in the rain, we took a short trip out on the lake in the small rowboat that was supplied for cabin users. We did the best we could to forget for a day, that we still had to hike back to Petersburg the following day.
It was raining again when we got up the next day, but it actually stopped not long after breakfast. We cleaned up our little cabin, packed up our packs and headed back for Petersburg. The weather improved as we went along and, although the boardwalk was just as slick as before, the trail seemed to go faster without constant rain. It sprinkled a little when we stopped for lunch, but then stopped as we moved on. By mid-afternoon, the sun was peeking out of the clouds and we were only 3 miles from our destination. We were walking along debating in our usual loud voices about how to save the world from stupid people, when we heard a noise uphill from us in the woods. We looked over to see 2 black bear cubs scurrying up a nearby tree. About 3 seconds later we heard a loud snorting noise and saw the mother glaring at us from about 20 feet away. We decided, without much debate, to turn around and walk down the trail in the other direction. We walked for a few minutes and then waited for the mother to get her cubs out of the tree and move away. Bears don't really like to be around people, and they will leave if given the chance. After about 10 minutes, we bravely set off down the trail again. The woods were too thick to walk through, so the trail seemed like our only choice. When we reached the spot where the bears had been, we carefully looked around. There were no cubs visible in the tree. We waited and listened a little longer until we were sure they were gone and then boldly continued our hike. After about 3 more steps the mother popped up from behind a fallen log about 12 feet away, snorting dangerously. She attacked and ripped Ed's throat out. (Just testing to see if you're really reading for content here.) Actually, we made another hasty retreat back up the trail even farther than before. We discussed our situation and bravely decided not to walk up the trail toward the bears again. We beat our way through the woods down to the river and walked along the river. This still made us nervous since the river ran only about 15 feet further from the bears than the trail and we really didn't have a good feeling for mama bear's tolerance level. Nevertheless, we carefully walked along the river, expecting to be ambushed at any minute. After about 10 minutes, we knew we were past her and began to breathe easier. By this time the river had given way to a tidal inlet again and the tide was coming in, so the water was actually moving up the river. As we walked, we saw what looked like a very strange, white boat slowly coming up the river. Then we saw more of them. As we got closer we realized that icebergs were travelling past us up the river. We took some pictures, since this isn't something you see often, even in Alaska. A couple of hours later we wearily dragged ourselves back to the dock and got a ride across the bay almost immediately with a very nice local fellow. We treated ourselves to a big dinner and slept soundly that night.
Unfortunately, the alarm went off at 1:30 AM. We got up and went to catch our 3:00 AM ferry to Ketchikan. Alaskan ferrys don't always keep decent hours. We got a few more hours of sleep on the ferry and arrived in a very wet, rainy Ketchikan in the early afternoon. We spent most of the rest of the day doing errands like laundry and mailing a package. We did stop in at Saxman Village, which is a native community of Tlingits (pronounced "klinkits" by the locals). It has the largest selection of totem poles in Alaska. There were carvers there as well and we watched them work for a while.
The next day it was raining. We did a walking tour of Ketchikan in the rain (what else?). There is an area in town called Creek St. which is very picturesque. The old houses there are fixed up nicely and converted to stores and restaurants for the cruise ship tourists. The buildings are all on stilts hanging out over the water. The enitire area was a busy red-light district until the '50s. Each house was home to 2 ladies only since more than two constituted a house of prostitution under the law, and these were illegal. One of the homes was bought with all contents and furniture and has been turned into an interesting museum. Not the sort of museum you see every day. The other interesting item on our walking tour was the small boat harbor. It seems that the harbor was dredged out 30 years ago from a flat sand beach that was covered at high tide. At the time, this was the only flat place in town and was the local ball field. Games were played at low tide, but were sometimes called when the outfielders found themselves in knee deep water. We had dinner at the local grocery store, which had an eating area with seaplanes landing just outside the window every 5 minutes or so. We like Southeast Alaska grocery stores.
That night our ferry left at 1:15 AM for Prince Rupert about 100 miles south on the Canadian coast. We said goodbye to Alaska and went to sleep on the floor. When we woke up, we were in Prince Rupert and it was raining even harder than it was in Ketchikan. We had breakfast in town and checked out the area called Cow Bay. There were the usual tourist shops and they really played up the cow theme, with everything from buildings to dumpsters painted black and white. The best thing about Prince Rupert was the tour of the North Pacific Cannery, which they have turned into a museum. This cannery was in operation from the heyday of salmon canning around the turn of the century to its closure in the 1960's. The process used to involve mostly hand labor, from cutting the fish, cleaning it, packing it in cans, and cooking the salmon (can and all). Much of this labor was done by Chinese workers imported for this purpose by Chinese "bosses." Eventually the cannery became more automated, the most important improvement being a machine that cut the fish and cleaned it much faster than any human could. This machine soon replaced many workers, and being in the days before political correctness (or racial sensitivity of any kind), the machine was called the "Iron Chink," and was actually patented as such. They had this machine on display, and we spent some time trying to figure out how it worked. The cannery included some of the original village where the workers lived, basically barracks for the majority of workers. The company provided meals, which consisted mainly of salmon, salmon, and more salmon, mainly the heads and other unwanted parts. Naturally, gardens sprang up everywhere, and people raised chickens and hogs to supplement their diet. We learned a lot about a typical cannery, including the fact that no one in their right mind would want to work there.
The next morning we took a ferry to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island. The weather improved and we had nice views of the fjords along the inside passage, lots of waterfalls and fir-covered mountains. We started driving south and stopped in a picturesque town called Telegraph Cove. All the buildings are on stilts, surrounding a pretty natural harbor, and the sidewalks are all boardwalks. Enjoying fine weather for a change, we hiked to Huson Cave which had really cool sculptured boulders and a stream running right through the cave. The next day we went to Strathcona Provincial Park, located in about the middle of Vancouver Island. As we drove further into the park on dirt roads we saw many large trucks and wondered what they were doing out there. Our question was answered when we came upon a huge strip mine, yes, located in the middle of the park! In spite of this, we took a good hike up a trail along a ridge to picturesque Amica Lake, where two locals were enjoying the fine weather, and they told us the real good views were another two hours up the trail. Since it was getting on four o'clock we had to settle for the lake view and headed back down the mountain.
Another beautiful day (we could get used to this) found us in another part of Strathcona Park near a ski area, called Paradise Meadows. We walked through some meadows and saw Lake Helen McKenzie and Battleship Lake, which were very pretty with rocky shores and islands here and there. That night we found a private campground with showers and lots of firewood. The public campgrounds have had a fire ban on because of the lack of rain, but fortunately the private campgrounds still allowed fires. There was a contingent of geese who were pestering some of the campers, although we really didn't mind them. The owner would shoo off the geese, but of course they would just return later. The next morning, at 7:30 AM, we watched as the owner took out a 22 caliber rifle and popped one of the geese, right in front of us. He explained that although it was illegal to shoot them on the ground, he figured this would scare them off (or at least reduce their numbers) and they were pretty good eating anyway. We only spent one night at that campground.
We then drove west across the island, and encountered rain as we got to the west side of the mountains. We stopped at a very nice waterfall called Little Qualicum Falls, then took a walk through Cathedral Grove, a stand of virgin forest with towering cedar trees. It was a lot like the redwood forests of northern California except for the pungent, yet pleasant, smell of cedar. Reaching the coast, we came to Pacific Rim Nat'l Park. The shore is similar to the California/Oregon coast with both sand and huge rock outcroppings, and the surf pounding into spray. We continued to the small fishing and tourist town of Tofino at end of the road and had a good dinner, and then coffee & cake at the local cafe hangout. We have found that lingering in the evening at a cafe with a hot drink and newspaper is much preferable to shivering in the rain at camp, something we learned in the rainy southeast coast of Alaska. By the next day the rain had stopped and we took several short hikes. The first was through a bog with lots of moss growing everywhere. Another hike took us to a rocky length of shoreline called South Beach where the waves pounded the rocks and there were a few small blow holes. Yet another hike was supposed to lead to an old abandoned gold dredge, but the bridge had been washed out in a storm so we never did get to the dredge.
The next town on the way south was Nanaimo. We saw some petroglyphs (rock carvings) from before European contact, and although they were not very well preserved in the soft sandstone they seemed more creative than the petroglyphs and pictographs (rock paintings) I've seen in the desert southwest. The town had a nice waterfront with views of the Georgia Strait (separating Vancouver Island from the mainland) and several islands, and also a bastion typical of the colonial 1800's. We went to the local museum which had very good exhibits on local history, especially the Hudson's Bay Company which had not only a monopoly but was essentially the de facto government for many years. We sampled what we were told were the "world famous" Nanaimo Bars, actually a very good and very rich dessert. Our next stop of note was the seaside town of Chermainus. The town used to rely almost entirely on the logging industry and the local sawmills for its livelihood until these operations started to shut down. So the townfolk decided to spruce up the downtown and see if tourists like ourselves would come and visit. Well, it worked, because what they did was paint huge murals on dozens of the buildings, and these are actually really good paintings depicting the local history and culture.
Our last stop on Vancouver Island was Victoria. We toured the excellent Royal British Columbia Museum, an incredibly comprehensive museum on the history, geology, flora, fauna, and culture of BC. You know you're in for some good exhibits when the first thing you see is a very realistic full-size reproduction of a wolly mammoth, including all the interpretive panels to let you know what's going on. They had excellent displays on the European discovery and settlement of BC, including alot on George Vancouver, who first circumnavigated Vancouver Island. Vancouver learned seamanship from Captain James Cook, who also taught Captain Bligh. Unfortunately, Cook and Bligh had their share of troubles, one from the Hawaiians and the other from his crew. The museum also had a re-creation of late 19th century Victoria, down to details such as alleyways and meowing cats. And if that weren't enough, we also saw an IMAX film about whales which included awesome footage of blue whales and humpbacks, some of which was filmed on the coast of Alaska. The rest of the day we spent walking around Victoria and seeing sights like the magnificent Empress Hotel ($30 for afternoon tea- we passed) and the impressive parliament buildings. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and reluctantly headed to the campground for an exciting evening of doing laundry.
The next morning we headed to the town of Sydney to catch the ferry to Vancouver. We had heard horror stories about having to wait hours and hours to get on a ferry because of the crowds, but we were pleasantly surprised since we got lucky and only had to wait a few minutes before we drove right onto the ferry. We had good views of the islands and scenery in the Strait of Georgia and got into Vancouver in time for lunch, which turned out to be a great meal at a French restaurant. We then went to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden for a look at a very nice garden with the Chinese equivalent of bonsai trees, rock gardens, and oriental architecture. Since both Kenneth and I had been to Vancouver before, we decided to head on down to Seattle that night, especially since the weather was still holding out for us.
We had a great day in Seattle, starting out at the Museum of History & Industry at the university. They had good exhibits on the history of Seattle including its importance as a staging port for goldseekers on their way to the Yukon, and also on the fire in the late 1800's that narly destroyed the whole city. There was also a display on salmon canneries and an "Iron Chink," and most important, a diagram showing exactly how it worked. Our next stop was the Museum of Flight located at Boeing Field where they had some unique airplanes on display, not just the usual WWII fighters, Jennys, etc. They had a version of the SR-71 Blackbird that carried a drone mounted on top, and also the first jet-powered Air Force One, a 707 first used by Eisenhower. That afternoon we went up to Lake Union and checked out Gas Works Park. The park is on the site of a facility that used to manufacture gas for the city in the days of gas lighting. There are all sorts of huge chemical apparatus with very creative graffiti on them looking like something out of the movie Mad Max. Up the street from the park, under the Aurora Bridge, is a concrete statue- get this- of a troll with a VW Beettle in his grasp. For dinner we found a great Indian restaurant and had chai tea and a couple of excellent curry dishes. After dinner we headed east on I-90 to get a start on our drive out to Yellowstone Nat'l Park.
