July 17

W e spent the entire day today touring all the sights in Ketchikan.  We took a hotel shuttle, a free downtown bus and a city bus a couple miles from the downtown area to see the Saxman  historic Totem park.

It is an area where the have erected many Totem poles from the area and there is a building where local Totem carvers continue to carve Totem poles today.  The tour person said that it may cost up to $4-5,000 a foot for a master carver to carve a pole for sale and take up to a week per foot to carve, depending on the detail.

After an hour or so, we caught the bus and headed back downtown.  They have a well mapped 35 point walking tour that starts at the visitors center and covers a couple miles of the downtown and historic areas.  This was the starting point.

The part of the tour I liked the best is the area along Ketchikan Creek, where you could see the Salmon swimming up stream to spawn.

July 16

Today was fishing day.  We had a 4 hour private charter with Strike Zone charters out of Knudson Cove, Ketchikan, AK.  We had a good day!!!

We caught 11 Pinks and 2 Chums.  I caught both Chums and they were the largest.  Pat caught the two largest Pinks.  We each caught about the same number of fish.  We were trolling and would alternate who would take the next strike.  Even if we lost one, that person would keep taking the strikes until a fish was caught.  We are having the Chums smoked and the Pinks flash frozen.  All in all, we will probably end up with 25 - 30 #s of Salmon.

In the afternoon, we took a Dehaviland Beaver float plan ride into The Misty Fjords National Park.  It was a clear and beautiful afternoon for flying.  We landed on an alpine lake and got out on a dock to look around.

July 15

So today was a traveling day.  We left Wrangell about 10:45 am on the ferry and arrived in Ketchikan about 5 pm.

We sat with a couple from Poynette, WI for a couple hours on the trip.  They had driven their SUV to Alaska and were looking forward to getting home.

We got to our hotel after a delay from confusion with the shuttle driver about which ferry terminal we were at.  Seems they have two ferry terminals in Katchikan, one for the Alaskan Ferry (which we were on) and one for the "airport ferry".  Who knew, the airport is on an island and you have to take a ferry to and from Ketchikan to the airport!?! ... Go figure!

In any event, we made it to the hotel and they had one of my favorites on the menu.

We had a very nice dinner and retired to our very nice room with a deck and Oceanview.  You just have to look past the crane and port-o-potty........

Tomorrow, we have to get up at the crack of dawn as we have a Salmon fishing charter at 6:45 am about a 20 minute ride from our hotel.

July 14

We rented bicycles today and biked 4 miles out of town to visit Rainbow Falls (and of course 4 miles back).

The trail to Rainbow Falls passes through the rain forest.  70 to 80% of the trees are Western Hemlock and the rest are Sitka Spruce.  There are a few Cedar and a Birch here and there but very few and far between.  The trail has been highly improved and consists almost entirely of boardwalk and steps.  There are 583 steps to the observation platform (No, I did not count them, it was in the trail guide).

The waterfall was 100 feet.  ( Okay no more selfies!!!)

We got back early this afternoon so we will have a chance to do some laundry and get organized as we ship out tomorrow morning to Ketchikan, AK.

July 13

It rained during the night and it was still drizzling in the morning so we took our time getting going.  This morning we hiked up Mt. Dewey.  The trailhead was just a few blocks from our motel.  We had great views looking down on Wrangell.

We returned to the motel and had lunch.  We have a small kitchenette in our room so we made sandwiches and ate left overs from our restaurant meals.

In the afternoon we headed off to do some more hiking that could be reached by foot near the city.  Along the way, Pat rolled her anchle on some uneven sidewalk so we turned around to get back to the motel before it got too swollen.  We got some ice and Pat took the rest of the afternoon off to care for her anchle.

I went alone to visit Totem Park

 and went to hike the trails in Volunteer Park that we were headed to when Pat had her mishap.

July 12

Guess what we did today??

Yep, we rented a two person Kayak and paddled in the channel on the Northwestern shore of Wrangell Island where the city of Wrangell is located.  One of our stops was at Petroglyph Beach.

We were out for several hours and sitting with my legs out straight and getting out and back in a couple times, I was reminded why I prefer Canoeing over Kayaking.  I guess I am getting too old and fat to be a Kayaker.

July -11

Okay so here is the continuation of the saga from last night.  When we arrived at the Ferry Terminal in Juneau last night about 10 pm, I was lamenting with the ticket counter agent about not leaving until 4 am and inquiring if there may be a stateroom available to secure so we could get some rest on the 13.5 hour ferry trip.  He said I would have to check with the purser when we got on board.  We chatted for awhile since the place was deserted so early before departure.  Later Pat and I found a corner out of the way and were kinda dozing.  At midnight when the ferry arrived, he came over and woke me up to suggest that we go talk to the assist purser that was unloading passengers and cars to see if we could board early and check on the availability of a stateroom.  The assistant purser was very sympathetic and let us board about midnight.  Once on board, we found the purser and he said he would have a stateroom but it would not be available until they were all cleaned in about two hours but normally we would have to be put on a wait list.  I said okay fine we really want a room.  I asked how many were on the wait list and he said one, you.  With a sheepish grin, he said that was kinda silly and agreed to go ahead and book us since we were standing right there.  So we got a stateroom but had to wait for it to be cleaned.  The ship was deserted so we found a lounge on level 6 and crashed on the sofas waiting for the announcement.  About 1:30 am, the announcement came and we went back to level 5 to get our room assignment and keys.  We were asleep in our Oceanview stateroom bunk beds by 1:45 am.  I did not even hear the ferry leave at 4 am.  That stateroom was heaven.  Two bunk beds, a small desk and a bathroom with a shower and a big window.

I got up about 9 am and strolled around all the passenger areas both inside and out and had breakfast.  During my stroll, I saw another dozen humpback whales and one was so close to the ferry's path, that the captain had to change course.

I went back to make sure Pat was up to get breakfast.  While she was getting ready, we saw a couple more humpbacks from our stateroom window and several more while we were on deck.  At lunch, we saw another Orca 75 yards from the ferry.

The Ferry stopped in Petersburg, AK on the way to Wrangell.  It was a short stop and we got off and walked about a mile into town and turned around and headed back to reboard.  We are now in Wrangell and will be here for a few days.