28 June - 5 July

Juneau and out to sea

We spent this period in and around Juneau and made contact with Clynt and Jan who had their two boats there. One a 48 foot launch they had driven up from Washington earlier and a smaller new one a 24 foot SeaSport designed for fishing that was brand new and had just been shipped up. So we made the maiden voyages out to the west of Juneau to the edge of the wide Pacific. Some time spent as time out with reading and sleeping (in a confined space) and some salmon fishing then having it fresh off the BBQ for dinner.

The most amazing times were those spent watching sea life up close - pods of up to about 20 huge humpback whales breaching and feeding, sea lions, sea otters, orcas, porpoises - all luxuriating in the nutrient rich waters chanelling into the Inside Passages from the Pacific currents, and particularly as the salmon were starting to gather for their spawning runs into the Alaskan rivers.

Spending nights on board at small isolated docks or the little town of Elfin Cove, a fishing lodge heaven for halibut and salmon. We were extremely lucky with the weather - barely a drop of rain was seen and this is extremely rare for southeast Alaska.

It was time to go and we hopped on a seaplane back to Juneau - just in time for the 4th of July fireworks display and the street march. A bustling day of feverous American patriotism with hand out small plastic american flags - made in China of course. Along with the cruise ship tourists we did the rest of the Xmas shopping (well maybe) and packed the bags.

Last day of Lynnes holiday on the west coast was the 5th July - I flew to Skagway then drove back through Whitehorse to work at Keno, Lynne flew first class to Salt Lake City.

A great holiday ended with a bang.

July 22 - 27

Sitka and Juneau

The small town of Sitka is located on the west side of Baranof Island, with a prominent recent volcanic island cone just offshore and otherwise the Pacific is open all the way across to Japan. It was the Russian capital of Alaska until purchased by the Americans, but as the Russians with their Innuit compatriots did not get on with the local Indians, it was the scene of fortifications and battles. Today many of the small (tourist) business there today seem to still have a Russian influence, particularly when it comes to painted eggs and nested wooden dolls.

A small reserve is set apart where a significant number of the native totem poles are preserved and it is a very peaceful area to walk, and talking with some of the local descendants it appears that the original stories held in the carved images are not fully known or understood.

The ferry terminal and campground is located 10km out of town and so as it was last time, it was necessary to hitch a ride to get to town, and the wood is still as wet as ever and virtually impossible to get any kind of fire going.

During our three day stopover, we skirted around the dangerous animals that were lurking on the street corners and did a day paddle in the harbour that abounded with small islands and eagles.

Then it was a "fast" ferry on to the new capital city of Juneau where we again encountered the flotilla of cruise ships, we arrived late in the day and so knowing we had to make onward travel plans decided to abandon the idea of camping out and found a motel downtown. The weather continued fine and we walked to the foot of the Mendenhall Glacier that spills out of the mountains on the north side of town.

We had some time to fill in so bought one of our few tourist trips and took a day boat ride a long way up TraceyArm a fiord hidden behind Admiralty Island, where we got to the face of a glacier where it enters the sea. Blue ice, loud booms of splintering ice breaks, harbour seas on the ice floes, crunching of ice on the ships hull, orcas hunting the seals, humpbacks in the channel. Tourists we.

... next installment coming soon ...

June 18 - 22:

Travelled back through Vancouver to drop off our car and hop aboard a Greyhound bus, for the first time ever, for a ride to Bellingham. It was like being on the road again when you have no idea of how a system works and no idea of exactly where you are being dropped off - and slightly more difficult because we had a bag of camping gear in addition to our backpacks.

But the system worked and after a long stop at the US border where one unsmiling face was processing a line of full buses, we discovered to our delight that the Bellingham bus depot was exactly where the Alaska Marine Ferry Terminal was located. Our online reservations were all good and so after going through yet another set of security to get aboard, we we settled into our new home for the next three days and were sailing by 6pm.

It was exactly as we remember it from 1986, and we did all the right things to secure a prime location in the solarium on the after deck and quickly laid out our foamies and sleeping bags on the same white plastic fold down chairs and claimed a space. We did not however put up our tent as many did.

Mt Baker was splendid in the sunrise as we left port and sailed north along the trail of the 1880's gold rush miners who were on their way to the Klondyke. A long and narrow intricate waterway that must have originally taken forever to explore and navigate that runs along the inside passage of Vancouver Island and up through northern British Columbia to our first port of call at Ketchican, Alaska.

We had fine weather and took the time to catch up on some sleep and reading and meet new people. We even used the bar and the cafe from time to time, but had to hide our cardboard box of cheap Californian wine from the newly installed "watchman" as we lay beneath the sign that said that anyone caught consuming alcohol on deck would be put off at the next stop.

The trip was broken by a full day in Ketchican where we had the only rain so far, and despite the presence of several large cruise liners and their ugly loads of tourists, we found a small local cafe for a big breakfast and walked the length of town several times and even managed to get most of our Xmas shopping completed there - so watch out for cans of smoked Alaskan salmon !

The trip continued through some passageways, where you could almost touch the forest on either side of the "MV Malaspina", and where occassional humpback whales spouted and dived, orcas and dolphins rode the wake and fishing boats trolled bye.

It took us three nights to reach our first layover at Sitka

..... from where we shall continue next time ....

12 July 2007

Well its been a while

But now back at a keyboard after a 3 week holiday with Lynne on the northwestern coast of the continent. Lynne is back in kiwi and I am back at Keno.

We have a lot of photos and so I will try to select a few from along the way .... to illustrate the journey:

Started in Vancouver 11 - 13 June ...

and the weather was brilliant so we enjoyed walking from our downtown hotel and seeing the central part of the city that we couldn't see on our last visit. We bought a new lightweight tent and basic camping set for the upcoming expedition and found a good restraurant on the waterfront. The wine selection however has not improved for any kind of chardonnay.

Met up with some old flatmates in Helen who laughs as much as ever, and John with his new wife Andrea who still sings as beautifully as ever.

A lot of effort went into trying to arrange logistics for the next step of the trip that was planned to be a drive north along the coast to a kayaking destination and eventually we arrived at a plan that involved a rental car that had to be returned to Vancouver and a kayak hire from a place near Powell River. The penalty for not returning the car to Vancouver was as much as $3000 with one company - not a tourist friendly place if you want to not return a car from whence it came.

14 - 17 June :

Road and two ferry crossings took us to Okeover Inlet near Lund, north of Powell River to a campsite for the inaugural tent erection. Had forgotten how lush and green and fresh smelling the forests are in this part of the world when the sun is shining. We were adjacent to a small kayak rental outfit that we had learned about and so a visit to them the next morning confirmed that kayaks were available and so while these were being prepared we drove to Lund for coffee, sticky buns and to get some camping groceries.

By noon we were on the waters of Desolation Sound on our way to find a campsite - the big difference to paddling in NZ is that there are no sandy beaches just a steep rocky shore where the forest and the bears come right to high tide line.

A big island was selected for a campsite and as we watched over lunch and progressively hauled the boats up the rocks, we learned about the 8m tides, and ended up with a little island and the tent just above waterline. The kayaking was good and we probably should have stayed longer but good enough for a first visit to get the lay of the land.

We rediscovered hummingbirds at the Laughing Oyster Restaurant but no local oysters.

This leg of the journey ended up back in Vancouver in a more budget hotel near the Gastown that we used to frequent long ago, where we repacked for the ferry journey north.

... to be continued ...