July 2nd
We're in Skagway now and what a beautiful day it is! First blue skies we've seen since Canada. Good news...we got the permits to hike the Chilkoot Trail and for a pretty penny too. The permits were $53 a piece and then we had to find (pay for) transportation to the trailhead and from the end of the trail back to our vehicle. That cost about $35 a piece. We wanted to catch the train back to town but that cost $100 a piece plus $25 for Boss, so we opted for the local shuttle.
About 3,500 people hike the trail each year and upon completion the park service gives each person a certificate. The most famous part of the hike is a half mile section just before the pass at 3,739 ft. called the golden staircase. The staircase climbs 1,000 ft. in that half mile. Wow! We are used to a 1,000 ft. mile but I don't know if we have ever done that. I have no doubt that we'll kick its butt though and have a blast doing it.
July 2nd
We are on our way to Skagway via the Matanuska ferry. Our last ferry ride. Its another all nighter. We depart at 1am and are scheduled to arrive around 8am. Skagway is at the north end of the Inside Passage, 90 air miles northwest of
Juneau and 100 road miles south of the Alaska Highway. It is the oldest incorporated city in
Alaska. It all began with the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush. Thousands of people got off the boat in Skagway and began a long journey over the Chilkoot Trail to Lake Bennett in the Yukon Territory where they proceeded to build boats to carry them and their "ton of goods", a years worth of supplies, down the Yukon River to the Klondike. The town now, a cruise ship stop, is your basic tourist town. It has all the basic services but has a small population of only 830! Of course this was included in our list of desired destinations because of the famous Chilkoot Trail. Its a 33 mile trail, recorded as the longest outdoor history museum, that climbs over the Chilkoot Pass following the historic route of the gold seekers. Only 50 hikers are aloud to cross the Canadian border each day. So the first thing we are going to do when we get to town is try and get two of the eight walk-in permits. The
other 42 permits have probably been reserved for quite some time. So keep your fingers crossed for us in hopes we'll get a permit.
Flight Seeing and Dog Sledding
The our pictures from our first day in Juneau. Within hours of getting off the ferry, our friend, Dannielle, had us seats in a helicopter with a ride up to the Mendenhall Glacier and then a ride on a dog sled! What an incredible day!
This is just half of the dog houses seen from the helicopter. These dogs spend the summer here, it's like camp, and in the winter they race.
Flying over the Herbert GlacierThe black lines in the glacier are called medial moraines. They form when one glacier merges in with another and pushes the rock and debris it has gathered into the other glacier. So this photo actually shows three different glaciers that is now one.
Mendenhall Glacier
To get a better look of the face of Mendenhall Glacier we spent an afternoon hiking around Mendenhall Lake getting great views from the east ridge above the glacier and from the lakeshore.
There is a small waterfall gushing out of the rock right beside the glacier and then a huge one a ways in front of the glacier pouring into the lake.
Zip-lining
So this is where Dannielle is working this summer. She takes about two or three tours zipping through the trees each day. To get to the zip line office you have to ride a boat over to Douglas Island from Juneau. What a cool job! We had a blast!!!
Loading up into the Unimog for a ride to the top of the hill.
I'm coming in for a landing. The white rope is to help stop people if needed. I wasn't coming in that fast.
Here goes Brit, our lead guide and Dannielle's boyfriend, over the glory hole. The building to the left was leftover from the Treadwell Mine in the early 1900s.Peterson Trail
The hike out to the Peterson Cabin was fairly easy, 4.3 miles with only an 800 ft. elevation gain.
A pretty sloppy trail in some places though. We haven't been on anything this wet and muddy since last summer in Maine.
The Peterson LakeFishing included cutthroat trout and dolly varden.
Andrew caught a few very small cutthroat, no keepers.
The Peterson CabinThe cabin had two double bunks and two single bunks, a kitchen counter with cabinets, a table, a wood stove, a propane furnace, an outhouse, a cooler (that wooden box on the outside of the cabin beside Andrew and Boss), outside picnic table and fire ring, a row boat for the lake, and tools to accompany (axe, maul, broom, shovel). And all for $35 a night!
Juneau Tramway
We took a ride up the tram to a lookout on Mt. Juneau.
Looking across the channel at the communtiy of Douglas and Mt. Jumbo.
Mt. Jumbo
The suspense had been building all week looking at this mountain and hearing about it. Also known as Mt. Bradley, Mt. Jumbo tops out at 3,576 ft. On Dannielle's last day off from work we hiked to the top. We hit snow level around 2,000 feet. The trail was pretty steep in many places with lots of obstacles such as slick, wet boards through the muskeg area, slippery roots and rocks, huge steps, very loose ground, and post-holing and boot skiing through the snow. But, it was all worth the effort!
Looking at Mt. Jumbo from across the channel.
A nice waterfall not too far from the trailhead. Earlier in the week we saw another waterfall on this same creek that emtpies into a glory hole down below.
We have officially reached snow level and are about out of the trees for good. Thankfully it had quit raining. It rained the first hour and a half on us, but we were walking through the trees and the muskeg so it wasn't too bad.
This was the scariest section of the trail. Well, the trail is somewhere beneath the snow. When we got up to that small snowy section towards the top it felt like we were practically vertical. If you stop and think to much you don't want to go up or down, but you have to do something.
This part was pretty tricky as well. More so going down than going up except that we didn't know where the trail went on the way up. The footprints disappeared and there were no trail markers, but we knew we should be going up.
The day is ending on a nice, calm note. We are nearing the end of the trail. It took us eight hours to do six miles roundtrip with a 3300 ft. elevation gain and loss. We will sleep well tonight!Petersburg and the Mitkof Island
We didn't take as many pictures here because it rained on us about 80% of the time. Overall the weather in the southeast has been an average 50/50, half rainy days and half non-rainy days (only a few blue sky days).
From Ketchikan to Petersburg we traveled through the Wrangell Narrows on the ferry. This is one place the big cruise ships can't go because it's too narrow and too shallow. The Narrows are 21 miles long with the narrowest spot being a half mile wide and the shallowest place is 50 ft. deep.
This is about half of Main Steet. Petersburg is a very cute little fishing town. Just what we expected to see in the Southeastern Alaska. No Wal-Mart, no chain stores of any kind, and no stop lights. We loved it!
We saw several porcupines on the road. This one didn't want to get off the road. I think their faces are so cute!
Walking through the muskeg. All the muskegs we've seen have had broadwalks. Southeastern Alaska is made up of more than 10% of muskeg. The water level is at or very close to the surface and ground is fairly acidic so the trees are puny and scrawny.
June 25th
Andrew and I arrived in Juneau a few days ago on the solstice. We spent the four days before on the Mitkof Island where the town Petersburg is located. When we got here we met up with a friend of ours that we first met in Death Valley two seasons ago. We’ll be staying with her while we’re in Juneau. She sure knows how to have a good time. When we arrived on Sunday she asked what we wanted to do. Anything and everything we said, little did we know what all that included. She made a couple of phone calls and a few hours later we were being loaded into a helicopter and flown up to the Mendenhall Glacier for a dog sled ride! All for free!!! We did tip the dog sled guide and the pilot but what an incredible deal! On our budget we would never have done that this summer if it wasn’t for her. Yesterday we went zip-lining through the tops of the rainforest. We did nine zips and two sky bridges, the longest one is 783 feet where you go about 40mph and at peak height we were 180 feet from the ground. It was awesome! Today, we are going to hike out to a USFS cabin on Peterson Lake and spend the night.
Juneau, Alaska’s capital, is actually on the coast of the mainland, but is only accessible by boat or plane. Our friend, Dannielle, lives on Douglas Island across the Gastineau Channel from Juneau. There is a bridge that connects the two. Juneau’s population is 31,000 and the city limits or the borough encompasses 3,108 square miles. The main industry is government with tourism coming in at number two. Apparently Juneau is often dubbed “a little San Francisco” because of their steep, long, narrow streets. It is surrounded by the Tongass National Forest and several mountains that rise up from downtown to 3,500 to 4,000 feet.
While Dannielle has been working we have done a few short walks close by, around a lake and to see a couple of glory holes which are basically open-pit mines where the miners mined their glory.
We had a fabulous time in Petersburg and on the Mitkof Island. We spent all our time except the last day in the Tongass National Forest. It was so much better than our experience in the forest outside of Ketchikan. Everything was clean, no broken glass or gun shells, and there were lots of great places to camp because there were lots more recreation and logging roads. Plus, we were seeing tons of wildlife immediately which was the opposite of the Ketchikan area. We saw tons of black-tailed deer with some of the smallest fawns we‘ve ever seen, three porcupines, three black bears, lots of eagles and other birds.
Petersburg is known as Alaska’s “little Norway.” Norwegian settlers began a fishing camp there and today the main industry is still fishing. It is a very small town, about 3,000 people. Town is barely a mile long and there are no stoplights, only one blinking light for the fire department during emergencies.
The first night there we camped on the bay next to a freshwater creek. The next day we hiked out to a fishing lake that had a row boat with oars for anyone to use. We took that out and Andrew fished all day while I rowed him around. He did catch a keeper that day, so we ate fresh cutthroat trout that evening…ummm…delicious! The next day we hiked around three other lakes (Sand, Hill, and Crane named after the sand hill crane migration) and out to Ideal Cove. From there we could see icebergs floating around that had fallen off of the LeConte Glacier. One of the lakes had a very cute three-sided shelter on it with a picnic table under it, a fire pit, and a row boat to use on the lake, so after the hike we decided to load up our backpacks and go back to it to spend the night. When we got back to the shelter we were setting our backpacks down when we looked up and saw two huge black bears sauntering through the grass on the other side of the lake. I don’t know if they heard us or saw us, but they weren’t bothered at all if they did. The next day we did some driving around just checking things out on the forest service roads before we headed back to town to buy ferry tickets for Juneau and get cleaned up. We took showers at the laundry mat, six minutes for two dollars. Then we went to find some more seafood. We ended up buying some from a processor that also sells small quantities that are fresh, frozen, or cooked. Right now Dungeness crabs are in season and they had just brought in a fresh load. We bought two for ten bucks a piece. They steamed them up for us and tossed them in an ice bath. We ate them in the car and they were the best things ever! We made our own drawn butter but didn’t really need it. Each crab weighed about two or three pounds. We were so stuffed. We began to think it wasn’t the best thing to do right before we got on the ferry. We loaded the ferry at 1 am and arrived in Juneau at 8:30 am. Boss is doing much better on the ferry now. It doesn't seem to bother him at all. :)
This is the fishing deck that was just down the trail from the campground we spent several nights at.
Our campsite at Perserverance Lake on the tent platform. The next morning we hiked from here to the top of Ward Mountain for some wonderful views. We saw loons, eagles, and beavers here.
The first part of the trail was on boardwalk through the rainforest. These boards have all been very well maintained for the most part. They have stapled chicken wire or shingles to the board for better traction.
This is the huge pile of bear poo that we saw. We took this photo our way back down the trail and it had significantly dried out since the morning.
A very nice sunset as we get ready to leave Ketchikan. The sunsets seem to last forever here. The color is only gone for a couple of hours when it starts again for the rising sun. There is about 18 official hours of daylight in the southeast right now. But it never really gets totally dark. You can only see a few stars (literally) during this darkness or prolonged dusk.Montana Grizzlies
These were the two grizzlies we saw from the interstate on our way to the Canadian border. They were running across some farmland about 60 miles south of the border.
Our first hike in Banff NP. We hiked four miles through some moose meadows up to see some ink pots. The ink pots were five cold springs bubbling up to the surface. Then we went back via Johnston Canyon.
The narrows in Johnston Canyon. It was so cool how they built this walkway/bridge on the side of the rock wall over the whitewater of this river.
Lake MinnewankaWe did an eight mile hike here one morning. A beautiful spot. We found out later this evening by the problem wildlife specialist ranger that there had been a grizzly attack on a mountain biker along this trail the year before. The guy did survive.
Most of the highways in this area have huge fences on each side to protect animals and motorists from each other. There are 24 of these overpasses constructed for animals to cross over the highway. There are currently eleven species of large mammals using it.
~Our pictures from Lake Louise, a very well-known jewel lake of the Canadian Rockies. We spent the better part of a day here hiking all around the lake.
Moraine Lake and the Valley of Ten Peaks is just over from Lake Louise. It's normally another jewel of the Canadian Rockies but it's a little low right now and still partially frozen.
Andrew in front of Wapta Falls in Yoho NP. This was about the only thing we did in Yoho because the other two waterfalls (one is the tallest in Canada) were not yet accessible. We did witness a train going through an engineering marvel while in Yoho. There was a lot of history about the train tracks built and re-built through this area.Columbia Icefield
Our last night's camp in the parks was at the Icefields Campground about a mile from the interpretive center for the Columbia Icefield. This was the night we paid the extra nine bucks for a campfire because when we parked to set up camp the temps were in the mid 40's. We had a huge fire! It definitely dipped below freezing that night and the next morning as we were packing up it flurried on us. As soon as we packed up and bundled up we went to the interpretive center which was excellent. The Columbia Icefield covers 241 square and covers a triple continental divide. Some run-off heads north toward the Artic Ocean, some heads south and west toward the Pacific Ocean and the other heads east to the Hudson Bay (ultimately the Atlantic Ocean).
These are the best photos of sheep we've gotten while in Canada. We've seen so many. They were grazing along the roadside on the Icefields Parkway in Jasper NP.
Mistaya Canyon
This is beautiful Mistaya Canyon. It was a great stop along the Icefields Parkway. This beautiful river has worn a deep, twisting gorge into the limestone bedrock.
June 16th
This is lengthy...
Greetings from Alaska! We’ve been in Ketchikan, Alaska, since last Thursday. I’ve tried to post a few times since but haven’t had any luck with cell service. Service is good in town, but we’ve spent most of our time outside of town. Speaking of town, Ketchikan, the salmon capital of the world, is the first port in Alaska for northbound travelers of the Inside Passage. Like most towns in Southeastern Alaska it’s only accessible by boat or plane. It is located on Revillagigedo Island which is about 235 miles south of Juneau and 90 miles north of Prince Rupert, British Columbia. The island is one of many located in the Tongass National Forest, the largest in the nation, comprised of 17 million acres. It’s mostly rainforests, muskeg, alpine meadows, estuaries, lakes, mountains and glaciers. Ketchikan has about 7,600 residents, plenty of accommodations, restaurants, history, art, shopping, and sightseeing available. We have had a wonderful time here.
To sum up the last week…The day we drove to Prince Rupert we took a detour off the main highway we had been traveling, Yellowhead Highway, to check out a hiking trail and eat a picnic lunch. On our way back to the highway we came up behind a car stopped on one side of a bridge with another car stopped at the other end of the bridge and a black bear stuck in the middle. As soon as we came around the corner all we saw was the bear with the deer in headlights look going back and forth trying to decide which way to go. It finally jumped into a small hole in the side of the bridge (which wasn’t very high off the ground), squeezed its way through and hit the ground running into the safety of the woods. We felt so sorry for the poor thing being scared half to death, but at the same time couldn’t help but laugh. It was in no danger, the cars were just waiting to see what it was going to do.
We spent the next day in Prince Rupert. The first thing we did that morning was take the advice from our campground host and drive out to Riddley Island, going past the three no trespassing signs, for some beach combing. It was all fogged in so we decided to come back later. But we did have some excellent bald eagle sightings. The first was when we pulled onto the road to Riddley Island, the eagle was sitting in water in a swampy area--it was just beautiful! As we made a quick u-turn and stopped along side it, it flew off. We were also told (warned because of the dog) to watch for wolves. Apparently there is a pretty big population around that area and they have been known to take out smaller dogs. Of course it just excited us, but we never saw any. We did a nice hike through an old-growth rainforest to a view point for Butze Rapids, a reverse tidal rapid. The rainforests here are filled with red and yellow cedars, Sitka spruce, skunk cabbage, ferns, and lots of other things. Then we went and walked around Cow Bay Harbor and ate some good seafood. At our camp that night the resident black-tailed deer pranced around the campground all night.
The next day (the 11th) is when we caught a five hour ferry ride to Ketchikan. Boss did not like the ferry ride. When we came down to the car deck to exit the ferry we found him wedged in the passenger floorboard. Loud noises scare him. Who knows how long he had been sitting in that position, maybe the entire six hours! After we were on land and had him relaxed, we went to the national forest office to get maps and info on the area. We found that most of the trails are short day hikes. The one long trail is still mostly covered in snow. So after stocking up on some groceries, bear spray for the summer (hopefully), and a fishing license for Andrew, we headed out to the forest to find a camping spot. We were tired of paying twenty bucks a night for camping in Canada and had been looking forward to American National Forests, where you can camp anywhere you please (off the road). All the forest service/logging roads around here dead ended in not the most desirable places. They were highly littered with broken glass and gun shells. Pretty disappointed we went back to the forest service campgrounds that cost ten dollars a night. We went ahead and paid for two nights. Starting that day and continuing each day we camped there someone came to warn us about bears (black) in the area. They all said they had seen them/it around the campground and lake area on a daily basis lately. We ended up spending four nights there and never saw a bear. We did come pretty close I guess on our last night there. We walked the trail from the campground down to a wooden fishing deck a third of a mile away and noticed one pile of fresh bear poop along the way. So, we did what we should and made lots of noise (and I always have the spray handy). After standing around for ten minutes or so at the deck we turned to walk back and on the way found two more piles on the trail between the deck and the first pile. That sent chills up our spine.
While in Ketchikan we did a few day hikes (through the rainforests, along creeks, through muskegs, to lakes, and to snow covered meadows), reached two mountain summits (hiking through the snow), Andrew did some fishing (only caught one fish that he threw back), and we backpacked (2 miles) out to a lake that had tent platforms and spent one night there (fished, went swimming [very briefly], and did a day hike that began there). We also went to see some of historical totem poles and walked around town a bit doing the tourist thing. Oh, that day hike from the lake was another area where we came across some minutes old bear poop--a huge pile! Again, we did our best to make noise and never saw anything. It’s weird because on one hand we really want to see bears, but on the other we don’t want any surprises, so we are always very cautious. We have had great weather for the most part. Light nightly showers but clear to partly cloudy days except for the last 36 hours. We have expected a lot of rain with all the rainforests here. The island averages 160 inches a year, that’s almost a half inch a day. When the rain did set in we took that as an opportunity to go take showers and do laundry. In one of our books, under services, it says there are two laundry mats with showers. How convenient! But the showers had been closed down, so we went to the rec/pool area and paid a dollar each for a shower.
So, we’ve been in Ketchikan for five and a half days and all we’ve seen are tons of eagles (which we love and have gotten some great pictures), until tonight we saw a bear running through someone’s yard and a humpback whale! We were pulled over by the coast packing our backpacks and Andrew said, “That’s the fourth gunshot I’ve heard out there (in the ocean)!” When we heard the next one we looked up to see a humpback whale breaching in front of us. It surfaced several times in the next fifteen minutes while we watched and listened to its blows of air (the “gunshots“).
We’re having a great time so far, but have decided to move north again. Tonight (1:30am) we’re catching the ferry to Petersburg, AK. We should arrive around 2:30 pm. We will stop in Wrangell around lunchtime and will be able to get off the ferry and walk around on land with the dog for at least an hour, hopefully. We brought our sleeping bags on board and will snuggle up with a book and snooze some during the few dark hours on the solarium deck.
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