Prince Rupert to Ketchikan

UPDATE:  This is the second of two blogs I’ve written tonight.

Goodness, who ever invented 4:15am ferry departure times????  We were all up in the dark packing our backpacks and getting ready to drive onto the ferry.  Our trip through US customs was uneventful for both of us and all of a sudden we were on board.  Ms. Emmi was a trooper—she had to remain inside the truck camper but we think she slept the six hour trip away!  Skies were gloomy and there was a light mist falling but when we arrived in Ketchikan, the weather gods smiled upon us giving us one of Ketchikan’s rare sunny days.

Note the cowboy is minus his hat, it was a little too windy onboard the ferry for a cowboy hat!

Ketchikan gets 154 inches of rain per year, it’s been raining all day and as I type this blog it is still pouring!!!—for us to have had a sunny day was nothing short of a miracle!! 

Oh, no!!!  A Disney cruise ship, one of three cruise ships which docked during our time in Ketchikan, turning tiny downtown Ketchikan into a zoo!!!

We found a place to park finally and had a bite of lunch before taking off on a walking tour—lots of totem poles and fish—yep, everywhere you look there are salmon swimming upstream getting ready to spawn or dead after spawning.  We saw this cute sign on the side of a building:

Seems the men of early day Ketchikan would sneak up this trail:

for a visit to either Dolly’s or Annie’s!

Even the benches have fish themes!

After our parking lot camping experience and ferry ride, we were all tee totally exhausted Saturday night—our campsite in Last Chance USFS campground was awesome, creek side, dark and quiet—we all slept very, very well! 

In one of the campsites a large spruce tree had been cut—someone with a very artistic chainsaw had carved the remaining stump!

Today we took a boat excursion to Misty Fjord National Monument—as it was raining it was a perfect way to spend most of the day.  More on that awesome trip in the next blog!  Tonight we are not street camping but rather parking lot camping, Larry and Geri are in lane 3 ready to board the ferry at 2am and we are in lane 2—more tomorrow I hope, our Millenicom internet has not worked well up until tonight.  Our Straight Talk phone does not work at all in Alaska!

Prince Rupert And Street Camping

We arrived in Prince Rupert and our first stop was the ferry terminal where we obtained boarding passes for our ungodly departure time of 4:15am.  The Alaska Marine Highway System employee was awesome, she helped us with our itinerary for the rest of our ferry stops printing our tickets for all the legs of our journey.  Then we were off to explore starting with a picnic in a marina campground.  We visited the Museum of Northern British Columbia and were highly disappointed—the signage was terrible, not descriptive and in print so small it took a magnifying glass to read.  

Geri and I walked around in the downtown area checking out the cute shops along what is called Cow Bay.  When the early 1900’s ships brought cows into port, there was no dock so the cows were forced to swim for shore—all the shops have cutesy cow names such as Cowpucciuno’s and Udder Bay Trading!

The awesome clerk at the Alaska Marine Highway System office gave us permission and directions for where to camp for our short night—we had to be in line for the ferry by 2:15am!!!!!  We took boondocking to a whole next level parking in the ferry lines on top of the hill above the actual terminal and marina.  We set up our chairs and tables between the rear of Larry and Geri’s rig and the front of ours—protection!!!  We had a busy marina approach street on our right and a departing from the marina street two lanes over on the left!!!  The sun was shining, the wine was good as was dinner, all eaten while parked in the street!!!  It was to bed early for our departure to Prince Rupert!

Grizzlies, Glaciers and A Whole Lot Of Fun

Yep, we are having a whole dang lot of fun to say the least!  Any one who has hung out with Larry has to be a good sport—the man is a perpetual jokester!  If he isn’t on the two way radios giving me grief, we are stopped at a rest area and he’s telling me how it is!! 

Wednesday we traveled to Alaska so to speak—a little tiny chunk of Alaska hangs down the state and rubs shoulders with Stewart, British Columbia.  There is no border crossing guard to come from Canada into Alaska but the Canadian guards on their side of the border take their job very, very seriously!!

We made this little out of the way jaunt for a reason—to see glaciers and grizzlies—we were successful on both fronts!!

Afternoon light

Early morning light.

Now for the most exciting part—the USFS maintains a viewing platform over Fish Creek near Hyder, Alaska.  Several years ago Michael and I traveled to Hyder specifically to see the bears eating the spawning salmon in the creek—didn’t see one bear!!!!!  We really wanted to try again and our traveling partners were game—we hit the jackpot—only one bear but he stuck around for a long, long time entertaining the boardwalk full of visitors.  People were very polite stepping away from the edge once they had taken their photos allowing others to get closer.  It’s a little disconcerting to be on a boardwalk above the creek only 15 feet from an 800 pound grizzly bear!!!  There are rangers patrolling up and down the boardwalk constantly but still—!!!!!

We were all up early this morning, driving back out to the viewing area trying to spot more bears without success.  The ranger told us this is the biggest grizzly visitor they have, and they have about seven other grizzlies visitors and a host of black bears.  We were just tickled pink to have caught this big guy on video.  UPDATE:  YouTube is not being cooperative tonight so I will post this blog with just still photos and will do the video later when I have faster internet.

We worked up an appetite watching for bears and decided to have breakfast in Hyder before crossing the border into Canada and continuing our jaunt toward Prince Rupert.

Last nights dinner spot, The Bus—this young woman whose husband is a commercial fisherman manages to dish up the best fresh fish—all cooked in this old bus—it was delicious.

Tomorrow on to Prince Rupert where we will spend the night and then board the ferry to Ketchikan, Alaska on Saturday.

It’s A Long Way To Prince Rupert

Early Monday morning we left Lynne and Roger’s exquisite campground—I think Larry was the saddest to leave:

Lynne was very generous with the apple pie and ice cream portions!

Onward we traveled Monday trying to put some miles under our tires.  In Kamloops we visited Costco stocking up on traveling food, aka junk food, for the guys.  We ended up near Quesnel for the night, staying at a Canadian provincial park.  It was hot, what’s up with this weather???  The farther north we go the hotter it seems to get—as I type this blog we are in Smithers, BC, it is 90 degrees and we have the air conditioners running!  Thank goodness for municipal parks with full hookups!!  Geri made dinner last night—beef brats and salad—sure hit the spot! 

Today we stopped earlier than we usually do—I think it was a little longer than Geri and Larry usually travel—we have just about three hours travel time tomorrow to reach our destination for the next couple days.  We are all very excited and hope the animals cooperate at our next stop—more on that later!!

Monday we stopped to stretch our legs at a Canadian Heritage site at 108 mile house.  The cowboy and I have been there before and wanted Larry and Geri to see it.  The old log barn was built in the early 1900’s to house one hundred Clydesdale horses! 

Tonight’s spot along a beautiful river surrounded by all these stunning flowers—every town we traveled through has the most beautiful flower displays—hanging baskets and other containers—Jeane you would be in heaven!

Stay tuned for more adventures!

Campground Jackpot

We neither slept much last night—lots and lots of traffic noise—but boy did we ever hit the campground jackpot today!  Two level side by side spots with power, one even a covered spot, free wifi and the owner of the campground is even cooking us dinner!!!  The guys spent the afternoon sitting by the “pool!”

Seriously this beautiful spot just outside of downtown Salmon Arm belongs to Roger and Lynn, ATVing friends of Larry and Geri.  We rolled in just after lunch and have whiled away the afternoon talking and getting to know these great folks—I bet we sleep incredibly well tonight.  Their backyard is a huge cornfield and the front and side yards are hayfields, very, very quiet but less than a quarter mile from downtown Salmon Arm. 

The drive over here from Golden was spectacular through Revelstoke and Glacier National Park.  Not much photo taking as we’ve all been to these spots in the past.  We did pass through lots of these avalanche tunnels (forgive the dirty windshield!).

Geri and Lynn

Emmi is totally happy—lots of green grass for ball chasing!!

Thanks so much Lynn and Roger for allowing us to hang out in your driveway!

Fort MacLeod, A Quilt Show and Calgary

After a very quiet, restful night we all headed over to Fort MacLeod for a tour and musical horse performance.  Imagine my surprise and delight when we also discovered there was a quilt show in progress!!! 

Fort MacLeod was the first location of the newly established North-West Mounted Police, formed in May, 1873.  The fort was originally called Fort Whoop-Up by the original residents who were of all things making whiskey!  It was interesting to see all the artifacts and building replicas.  But having a quilt show on location was kind of special too. 

Oh, lordy, what in the world is Larry up to???  Seems this quilt was upside down, Larry was occupying a nearby bench when the ladies were discussing the upside down quilt and volunteered to rehang it for them—such a gentleman!—except when he said over the two way radios nobody in my truck would fit through the sliding window into the camper!!! 

We also watched these young people perform various patterns set to music—probably 4 of the eight horseback riders were women and one of them was only 14 years old—very well done!

On to Calgary—big mistake John and Brenda—boy did we ever get ourselves into a pickle trying to get through Calgary!!  Finally we were on TransCanada Hwy 1 and heading through Banff—traffic was so heavy we were thinking there couldn’t be anyone left in Alberta, they were all in Banff!!  .  At one point we were so close to where John and Brenda live and were so sick of traffic we almost headed on over to their house but we persevered and kept going--we plan on stopping back by their house on the way home to Montana. 

Tonight we are tucked into a campground in Golden, BC—not the nicest place any of us have ever stayed but it will do for tonight.  Tomorrow night we are staying with friends of Geri and Larry in Salmon Arms.  I dug out the grill, used the cast iron skillet and cooked bacon so we could all have bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches for supper, YUM. 

I’m missing Ms. Lora Elizabeth, wonder how she is doing???