Rose survived the last ferry ride!

Rose ( and the rest of us) survived the last ferry ride from Juneau to Haines!We changed our last ferry ride to an early morning departure instead of afternoon because the tide would be high and the ramp wouldn’t be as steep. We’re happy to say it made all the difference! Plus the crew on the ferry was the same crew that we had in Petersburg when we had so much trouble getting Rose on the ferry sooo they were ready for Rose this time! (We actually thought they might all call in sick the morning we boarded the ferry but they were all there!) After they got Rose on board the crew asked Gary if he would open up Rose’s ramp and show them the garage with Scooter in it! So here we are on the ferry with Rose’s ramp down - not your normal boarding procedure!

The ferry ride from Juneau to Haines was stunning! We were in the Lynn canal – the longest fjord in North America. We saw 16 glaciers on a 2 hour ferry ride, several whales, seals and eagles too. It was a lovely sunny day! But looming ahead of us was the more difficult exit off the ferry since the tide would be lower when we arrived in Haines and the ferry we were on had a sloped deck to add to the challenge. The crew had arranged to have a ramp specialist in Haines to operate the ramp to raise up Rose’s behind – they learned from the mistakes of the last ferry ride and fortunately it worked!!! It was really tight maneuvering but we made it off the ferry without any problems – what a relief!! ( I closed my eyes but it’s a good thing Gary didn’t) !!Juneau and Haines are in beautiful settings with glaciers, rivers, waterfalls, and snow capped mountains plus lots of wildlife – eagles, seals and whales.We celebrated the summer solstice in Haines at a beautiful campsite right on the fjord. We met another couple from east Tennessee at the campground and enjoyed the beautiful scenery right from our campsite!The sun rose at 4:12 and set at 11:43 but it is never really dark – it’s more like dusk. We can really pack a lot of activities into each day when the days are so nice and long!

Highlights of Juneau

 • Tracy Arm Fjord and Sawyer Tidewater Glacier - beautiful 30 mile long fjord, seals, icebergs

Click on the arrow to see the video of the mama and baby seal on the iceberg

• Mendenhall Glacier – great hikes and close up views of the glacier

• Mt Roberts – alpine flowers, eagle’s nest and views above Juneau

• Mt Roberts alpine meadows and views of Juneau

• Alaska State Museum

• Alaska State Museum - fascinating exhibits about the Alaska natives and the gold rush

• Ferry ride in the Lynn Canal fjord

• Scenery in the lynn Canal fjord from Juneau to Haines on the ferry

Highlights of Haines

• Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve

• Dungeness crab pot luck at the campground on the summer solstice

• Dungeness crab potluck at the campground - fresh crabs right off the boat next door at the marina

• Chilkoot Lake State Park and salmon river• Chilkoot Lake and river

• Hike along the coast in Chilkat State Park

• Coastal hike in Chilkat State Park with views of two glaciers

Next stop is Valdez and the Prince William Sound. No more ferry rides for Rose – we need to keep her happy! We are heading up into the mainland of Alaska on the Alaska Highway ( our first time on the highway). To get to the Alaska mainland you have to drive through an area in the Yukon Territory called Destruction Bay – appropriately named because we’ve heard from other campers who have already driven it that the road is REALLY ROUGH with gravel sections and potholes as it is apparently ALWAYS being repaired! Since Rose isn’t exactly built for “off-roading” we’re not sure what to expect….Assuming we get through Destruction Bay with no issues ( fingers and toes crossed!), we’ll head south to Valdez taking our time and stopping along the way for scenery, animals, hiking and whatever else peaks our interest so we’re not sure how many days it will take us to get there - we’re not on a schedule anymore!

An unexpected mis-adventure in the inside passage

We've been traveling on the Alaska ferries through the inside passage for the last 2 weeks. It’s the poor man’s cruise to Alaska ….no gourmet meals ( no meals at all), no steward to clean the cabin ( no cabin at all – in fact some people pitch a tent on the deck of the ferry), no nightly entertainment ( no entertainment at all).

What we didn’t know when we started our first ferry ride is that we would end up being the entertainment when we boarded the ferry to leave Petersburg – our third stop. It usually takes less than 5 minutes to board the ferry but this time it took us over an hour to get big ole Rose on the ferry! We had the misfortune of boarding the ferry at the lowest tide of the year ( 23 feet!). Rose’s big behind got stuck on the steep ramp and the ferry crew had to put LOTS of blocks under her tires to get her “unstuck” so we could get her off the ramp and onto the ferry – very scary ( for me)! Gary on the other hand said it was lots easier than landing a jet on an aircraft carrier – it’s all perspective isn’t it! Well, Rose and I will be glad when the ferry rides are over – Rose felt violated and my nerves can’t take many more! That kind of attention we can do without!

We just finished visiting our first 3 ports in the inside passage - Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg. We’ve had lots of rain the last 2 weeks….guess we should expect that in a temperate rain forest but of course we would have preferred sunshine! At least it was nice and cool and no bugs – yet!

Ketchikan is a stop for 300 cruise ships during the summer months so it has a lot more services and activities for tourists than Wrangell and Petersburg . Wrangell and Petersburg are real working towns primarily focused on commercial fishing and fishing charters for sports fishing. They get very few tourists so we got to experience what life is like in two real Alaska towns.

Being able to stop at more ports and spend several nights in each one has been our reward for doing without all of the frills you get on a REAL cruise. In Ketchikan we had four days to take advantage of the many activities available – boat rides to fjords, lots of hikes in the rainforest, wildlife watching and several really good museums about the native Alaskans and the natural history of the area. In the two smaller ports we had a great chance to get to know the local people by attending some local events. Our favorite was the smoked salmon contest. There were 10 entrants in the contest and we got to sample all of them – quite different flavors and delicious! In these small ports almost everything revolves around the sea. Owning a boat is more important than a car and it seems like everybody fishes!

One of the locals in Wrangell asked us if we knew the official Alaska state wine. We asked what it was and she said - “I want to go to Hawaii” is the official state wine ( whine). Actually, SE Alaska has pretty mild winters but it shows their good sense of humor!

Highlights of our first 3 ports in the inside passage:

• Seeing a pod of Orcas on our boat trip to Misty Fjords National Monument

Click on the arrow to view the Orca video

• Salmon tasting contest and pot luck dinner at the campground in Wrangell

 

 

• Learning about the native Alaskans in Ketchikan and Wrangell

• 8,000 year old petroglyphs on large rocks on the beach. We were amazed that these treasures have endured the waves and tides for so long…

• Hikes in the beautiful temperate rainforests

• Fantastic views of the mountains and sea on the ferries plus whales and 100’s of eagles!

Our next stop is Juneau and then on to Haines and the Alaska mainland - assumming we can persuade Rose to get on another ferry! Fingers crossed for an easy on and off the ferries for the rest of the inside passage “cruise”!

Exploring along the Yellowhead Highway in British Columbia

We’ve spent the last week travelling the Yellowhead Highway west to Prince Rupert to catch the ferry to Alaska. We stopped often in the last week for hikes and views and more bear sightings - taking time to smell the roses….. what a pleasant change of pace! The Yellowhead Highway turned out to be a good road - much better than we thought- thank goodness! We're all doing well - Gary, Molly, Rose, Scooter and me, fingers crossed, sure hope it continues! It's been so nice to take our time getting here and to have seen so much beautiful scenery, hiked lots of great trails and seen so much wildlife along the way. Surprisingly, most of the other campers we have met along the way have been from Canada and Europe - not many Americans...


We’ll finally arrive in Alaska on June 6 after 3,300 miles of driving and a 5 hour ferry ride. Good ole’ Rose and Scooter both get a break! Rose has done a good job in getting us this far with a little help from the chief mechanic, Gary!
It’s still really chilly – 40-50s during the day but there’s much less snow than in the Canadian Rockies. The closer we got to the coast, the more the rain and clouds increased. In Prince Rupert it reminded us of Ireland - rain one minute and sun the next - 5 or 6 times a day!

Highlights

 •Boat ride to see the grizzly bears in the Khutzeymateen fjord and valley

Click on the arrow to see the grizzly bear video

• More sightings of black bears – they love the dandelions that are blooming right now

Click the arrow to see the video of the black bear munching on dandelions...

• Berg Lake Trail in Mt Robson Provincial Park - one of the top hikes in British Columbia

• Prince Rupert - a quaint little town on the coast of British Columbia

• Watching the sea planes take off and land while eagles were flying around above us

Click on the arrow to see the video of the sea plane landing

Back at the campground.....

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  Molly loves the hikes but she's always dog tired when we get back to Rose. Plus her hair is like velcro - she collects all types of twigs, briars, evergreen needles, dust and dirt along the trails so after a hike she gets groomed on our little work bench/grooming table in Rose's garage- she'd rather be hiking and so would I!

• One of our "campground neighbors" was carving a paddle for a 6 day canoe trip in a dugout canoe with his First Nation tribe.

• Rose admiring the Glacier view and Gary and Molly grilling burgers

Tomorrow afternoon we board the ferry for Ketchikan - we'll finally be in Alaska! It's been almost a month since we started on our trip.   We will have 6 ferry rides in the inside passage with stops at Wrangell ( a very small port, no cruise ships stop there so it should be nice a quiet and there's lots of trails to hike), Petersburg ( "Little Norway" and no cruise ships here either), Juneau, Haines and our last port of call Skagway. We'll be back in the USA ( with lower gas prices - yeah!). Communications will still be a challenge since there are BIG holes in the cell phone service but when it's available at least it will be cheaper and we won't have to use a pay phone for calls!  We'll still be dependent on WIFI hotspots for email and blog posts- our next chance for WIFIis in Juneau  around the middle of June - we're hoping to  update the blog while we are there. Thanks for following along!