You Have To Go To Get There

Once again, Judy and I have found that to see the world you sometimes have to leave it behind.

So it was with this trip.

It isn't the mountains, sparkling lakes or glaciers that draw travelers to Alaska every year but the magic in the land, an irresistible force that tugs on those who dream about the North Country.

It's mythical title, the Final Frontier, is as strong a lure today as it was in the past, when Alaska's promise of adventure and quick wealth brought the first invasion of miners to the state.

There are mountains, glaciers and rivers in other parts of North America, but few are in the same scale or as overpowering as those in Alaska.

If nature's handiwork doesn't affect you, then the state's overwhelming size will.

With over 580,000 square miles, one fifth the size of the U.S.A., the state is so broad, so unspoiled, and so roadless that small planes are more common than cabs in other states.

There are more private pilots than truck drivers and cabbies combined. Almost one half the state's 650,000 population lives in Anchorage.

Nearly the entire state is raw, wondrous wilderness. Minnesota is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes". Alaska has three million lakes.

Along with a handfull of modern high-rise buildings, there are countless one-room log cabins.

In Alaska, one is surrounded with natural bounty-- eagles and ravens soar above, perch in treetops and swoop to the water below.

Whales, otters and sea lions inhabit the bays and inlets.

Bears, deer and wolves live in forests of tall cedar, spruce and hemlock. Berries and greens cover the forest floor, while salmon, halibut and trout swim in the waters.

We have come away with an appreciation of it's fierce and wild majesty, it's huge untamed spaces and it's wonderfully independent people.

Despite Alaska's reputation for high prices, we were able to keep our costs down by planing carefully, using discounts often, and camping very economically.

Part of this affordability is because the greatest things it has to offer--its prime wilderness, abundant wildlife, clear water and miles of hiking trails, are either free or cost little to experience.

We have used the same travel plan for the last seven years across the U.S., over 20,000 miles throughout Mexico, and now for this Alaska trip. We would happily do this trip again without changing a thing.

We are Escapees and have learned how to travel via RV through this group. We thank our friends, Harry and Carole Melander and Mike and Terri Church for their pre-trip planning advice that was very helpful and added much to our enjoyment of this trip.

We also treasure the friendship of our other Escapee friends that we kept in touch with as they too traveled in Alaska this summer.

Our timing was perfect. We entered Canada the third week in May and left Sept. 30. We would take the same route again. For the most part, we saw very few other tourists on the whole trip. A few things were closed at the start and end but we didn't miss anything but a few tourist shops that don't interest us.

We liked ending the trip with the Alaska Marine Ferry. The "See Alaska Ferry Pass" was a great deal, allowing us to get on and off with the camper at different ports of our choice, staying as long as we wished.

The camper was easy to load and travel in and the fuel we saved paid for the ride.

Each ferry ride was relaxing and exciting in itself. Ending in Prince Rupert took us through British Columbia in late September and the scenery was beautiful. We really like traveling in our truck camper.

It is just so easy and economical and allows us to explore many places other large RV's cannot get to. It added immensly to this trip. We are flexible in our travels so we make no advance reservations.

We checked on Denali and the Ferry a few days in advance and had no trouble at all. We used the Milepost and "Traveler's Guide to Alaskan Camping", by Mike and Terri Church for route and campsite information. We use a Verizon air card in our computer for internet access and this worked fairly well.

Our Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS is also very helpful for finding anything anywhere and saves a lot of miles and time looking for things. We are members of Moose, Elks and Passport America and used their campgrounds as well as our Golden Age Pass in Government Campgrounds very often.

We highly recommend joining all these groups. They have many fine campsites and are very economical. We found many nice, free campsites on this trip, some with tables, water, free wood and sometimes free electric. Often these have the best scenery and wildlife.

We saw very few mosquitoes and flys, and only used spray two or three times. The roads were very good with only occasional construction and no real delays.

Bears are everywhere but are no problem if you leave them alone.

We bought the "Tour Saver" Book and used it to save a lot of money. The Stan Steven's Glacier Tour to Columbia and Mears Glaciers, Gold Dredge #8, the Discovery Boat trip, a number of museums, fishing trips and others are all discounted.

The trip to Cordova and Child's Glacier was one highlight of the trip.

Another was camping at Tetlanika in Denali National Park.

Two things we missed are a flight over Denali(poor weather) and the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights).

Was the 1,000 mile trip to Prudhoe Bay worth it? Depends on what you want to see.

It's a long, desolate ride and can be very treacherous.

I have always wanted to experience the Brooks Range and the North Slope.

There is some interesting geology there.

When is the last time you saw a herd of Musk Ox in the wild right next to your truck?

Finally, I'm the kind of person that thinks it's neat to bring the kids a bottle of water from the Arctic Ocean to go along with the bucket of glacial silt from one of the glaciers.

Where do we go from here? We have already spent a few days in Yellowstone National Park watching the first snowfall of the season-- just beautiful! It's mating time and the sights and sounds of Elk are everywhere. After seeing friends and relatives in the Midwest, we will slowly head to Hondo, Texas where this blog began. For the winter it's the desert Southwest, where one can camp very economically on desert land or, more likely, down the West coast of Mexico to some of those small, remote, fishing villages on the palm-lined beaches of the Pacific Ocean.

We paid $14 a day to stay here.

This is one of our favorite spots in a little fishing town. It's $6 a day.

Last winter Diesel in Mexico was $2.16 a gallon. Need I say any more?
Feliz Viaje! Hasta luego, Amigos!

Happy journey! See you later, Friends!

The Last Great Tlingit Chief

Ketchikan is known for the world's largest collection of totem poles and contains many original poles and pieces of poles collected from abandoned Indian villages.

Haida and Tlingit craftsmen are working to restore and preserve them.

Of the approximately 5,000 Tlingits in Alaska today, 900 live in the Ketchikan area.

The Raven-Fog Woman story pole is shown below.

The Raven

The Bullhead

Slaves holding bullheads.

Raven's wife with smoked and dried salmon.

The Fireweed in front of these poles has lost it's red color, a sure sign that winter is near.

The pole on the left is bare because there is not much to say about this man. The one on the right and the one below are Haida poles, distinguished by their layout.

Haida figures interconnect and overlap more than Tlingit figures, which are isolated from each other.

A beaver on top has "bucky teeth" and beaver tail.

Eagle has a curved beak.

Raven stealing the moon.

Raven stealing the sun.

Tlingit artist Nathan Jackson.

A Tlingit story pole. Figures are more rounded and separated.

We did not learn the story of this Tlingit pole.

Judy on her way to a clan house.

The first to enter before the arrival of the new chief.

This woman has come a long way to see the Last Great Tlingit Chief.

This four year old boy is from the Killer Whale clan. He is an exceptionally good dancer-one of the best we have seen all summer.

Arrival of the new Chief is a festive moment.

New Chief checking out his clan button blanket.

Looks OK to me.

Quickly taking command and issuing orders.

She seems to be looking for an explanation.


But this woman is clearly held in awe by the new Chief.


This boy looks equally just as impressed and certain of his clan future.

It's 6 hours by ferry from Ketchikan, Alaska to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, our last ferry destination. We had a smooth ride in choppy seas with lots of fog and rain.

We have been told that Haines and Skagway already have snow on the ground.

St. Paul's Anglican church at the Indian village of Gitwangak has a bell tower standing in front that houses the original bell from the 1893 bell tower.

Here we are treated to some of the oldest original totem poles we have ever seen.

There are several Indian villages in this area, but we have run out of time to explore them and the many other poles they contain.

We will come back on another trip when we explore the Pacific Northwest and the western provinces of Canada.


We get a distant view of one more glacier,

find the world's largest fly rod,

and a wonderful city park in Burn's lake, B.C. with another free campground. Tomorrow we pass through customs and enter the lower 48, or "The outside" as Alaskans would say.

Ketchikan

The path to Ketchikan is a wet one indeed.



With no roads to it, it can be reached only by air or water.



Although Anchorage has the largest floatplane base in the world, there is no shortage of them here.



DeHavilland Beavers such as this are one of Alaska's best bush planes.



The ships Columbia and Kennicott are already out of service for the year and are in dry dock.


The city is neatly laid out along a narrow, flat strip of land at the base of Deer Mountain on Revillagigedo Island.






There is only one cruise ship in port and most passengers are on tours-






-so once again we have the town to ourselves.






The funicular ride over the city reminds us of the one we were on in Guanajuato, Mexico



-but that city is much more picturesque.



Established originally as a fishing camp, the city is built right over the water in many places-the steep hillsides making construction extremely expensive.



Ketchikan was once an important mining and trading community, with an estimated 2/3 of miner's wages reportedly ending up in the bars and bordellos of Creek Street.






These two gentlemen are knocking on the door of Dolly's House, the most famous bordello on Creek Street.




Judy thinks this view from Dolly's bedroom might have been better than the visit itself. I'm still thinking that one over.


Creek Street is a collection of ancient frame houses and shops resting on pilings over the water, joined by boardwalks bordering Ketchikan Creek.




Ketchikan Creek is now crowded with spawning salmon.

Can't get much fishier than this.


You have to be a fisherman to understand the odor of this .

We watched this harbor seal fishing for his dinner.

The Southeast Alaska Discovery Center has world class exhibits on Southeast Alaska's peoples, public lands, and natural resources.

It presents the history of mining, logging, fishing and tourism in Southeast Alaska.

This beautiful home belongs to a commercial fisherman. He has his work boat, plane and pleasure boat all ready to go.

It is said that if you stay in Ketchikan longer than an hour, chances are good that it will rain at least once, if not several times. The city of Ketchikan gets the most rainfall in all of Alaska, averaging 162 inches a year. Here we find the largest selection of XtraTuf "Alaskan Sneekers" we've ever seen.

The ones with cleats are not Alaskan golf shoes. They are worn by hunters to get a better grip in this slippery, boggy soil of Southeast Alaska.

After passing through this tunnel, we drive a few miles out of town to a lovely National Forest Service campsite-free for us because it is so late in the season.

Wrangell

The North Country really begins in Southeast Alaska, the closest part of Alaska to the Lower 48. The ferry connects this roadless area to the Lower 48, making it the longest public ferry system in North America.

It connects 14 ports and serves 64,000 people. Just getting to these towns has been a very real part of our adventure. The best reason to end our trip in the Southeast is its scenery.

Few places in the world have the spectacular views found here. The foreign tourists we have met on these ships have attested to this.

To get here you have to float or fly. Rugged snow-capped mountains rise steeply from the water to form sheer-sided fjords decorated by cascading waterfalls. Ice-blue glaciers that begin among the highest peaks fan out into valleys of dark-green Sitka spruce trees and melt into wilderness waters that support whales, sea lions, harbor seals and huge salmon runs.

More than anywhere else in Alaska, each city here clings to its own character, color and past.

The Wrangell High School track team is returning from a weekend meet in Juneau-

-and slept on the ship last night as this is a two day ride for them.

They are running around Petersburg on the 1/2 hour layover here while we load our camper onto the ship. It's a nice break from the Monopoly game of the day.


We take our last look at Petersburg and say good by-

-from the heated solarium where backpackers had slept the night before.


Passing between Mitkof Island and Kupreanof Island, the ferry threads it's way through the 46 turns of the 22-mile long Wrangell Narrows, which in some areas-

-is just wide enough to accomodate the state ferries. The channel ahead is 19 feet deep and just a little wider than the ship.

The city of Wrangell lies at the northwest tip of Wrangell Island on Zimovia Straight three hours by fast ferry or 32 air miles southeast of Petersburg, the closest major community.

It is the only Alaskan city to have existed under four nations--the Stikine Tlingits, the Russians, Great Britain and the United States.

It began in 1834 as a Russian stockade called Redoubt St. Dionysius.

Today it is a supply hub for outlying fishing villages and logging and mining camps.

With a population of only 1974, it is a friendly little town.

Although it is neat and clean, and the few merchants we talked with would like a cruise ship to stop, there isn't enough there to make it worth their while.

We stoped at the very nice museum.

Saw Wyatt Earp's double barreled shotgun and smoking pipe. He was marshall here for 10 days before moving on to the gold fields farther north.

Billy Mitchel sent four planes through here in 1920 on their way from New York City to Nome to show how important aircraft could be in time of war.
They made the trip in 53 hours.

The Wrangell Sentinel is the oldest continuously printed weekly newspaper in Alaska. This is one of the original printers from 1902.

Chief Shakes Island features an impressive collection of totem poles and an excellent example of a community tribal house.

The first Presbtyerian Church is one of the oldest Protestant churches in Alaska.

It's red neon cross is one of two in the world that serve as navigational aids.

A walk along this nice beach revealed about 40 nice ancient petroglyphs.

What could I be looking out to sea and be dreaming of?

--How can I get Judy to help me fix this thing up so we can spend a life at sea?

The view from our camp in downtown Wrangell.

The "Little Norway" of Alaska

Our ship today is the 354 foot long M/V Taku and she will take us south to the northern tip of Mitkof Island and the town of Petersburg, the "Little Norway of Alaska". This is a 200 mile, 11 hour trip through some truly beautiful waterways.


We settle in for the long and leisurely journey.


The ship is comfortable and has a theatre,


a nice cafeteria with great food,




and the usual decor.




There are 44 sleeping cabins.


A enclosed, heated solarium where overnight campers often pitch their tents-


-or use the lounge chairs with their sleeping bags-


-and enjoy the view over this rear deck.


Others just use the ship's pillows and blankets to sleep on the floor.




We travel today through the Peril Straights--


-and the Sergius Narrows.


We are in the Inside Passage heading south in the Nation's largest National Forest, the Tongass. With 17 million acres, it includes over 2,000 islands and 14,000 miles of coastline. It is the largest contiguous temperate rainforest in the world.


We meet the Fairweather that we were on last week on our trip to Sitka-


-and have a quick stop at the village of Kake to unload freight and passengers.






We see 20-30 Humpback whales on the trip, sea lions, several pods of Dall porpoises and many different kinds of birds. Look closely here and you will see two whale tails in this picture.


Rain comes often to these moss-covered wetlands, rugged mountains, countless islands and fjords amidst an intricate waterway and the sky takes on many changing patterns.






It's a long day and we leave the ship in darkness to find our campsite.


Petersburg is home to one of the top fishing fleets in the world.




The first cannery was built here in 1897 and is known today as Peterson Fisheries, part of Icicle Seafoods of Seattle, Washington.


The main industry here is fishing, with several fish processing and cold storage plants along the waterfront.


These are stacks of semi trailers waiting to be loaded with fish products and shipped out by barge to larger ports on the coast.




There is a very large fish hatchery here. Chinook and coho salmon are raised here.


Coho will return here in about two weeks and their eggs will be taken for new hatchery stock.




This is the first Sitka Black-tail deer that we were able to get a picture of. It's smaller than Midwestern deer and has the distinctive black marking on it's tail.


Petersburg is off-the-beaten-path of large cruise ships, which cannot navigate the Wrangell Narrows, a winding, scenic waterway between Mitkof and Kupreanof Islands. We will be taking this exciting passage tomorrow afternoon on our way to Wrangell.


Located on an island over 100 miles from the nearest large city, Petersburg is necessarily a self-contained and self-reliant kind of place.


Here's a gal testing our her new all-electric car. It uses no fuel at all. It's a practical idea in a small town like this on an island where you really can't go very far or very fast.


The town's Norwegian heritage is well noticed with hand-painted floral designs, known as Rosemaling, on many buildings.








The memorial to those lost at sea touches many in this small close-nit village.


Unlike many Alaskan towns, Petersburg was never a tent-and-log-cabin boomtown.

It started with a cannery and sawmill-

-and still is marked by weathered boathouses on the waterfront.

The view from our campsite.

Why do Some Crosses Have Three Bars?

It is not known exactly when Orthodox Christians began to use a three- barred cross. However, this form of cross clearly shows the shape of the crucifix upon which Christ died. The top bar represents the sign placed on the cross by Pontius Pilate, which reads "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews," in Latin, Greek and Hebrew[John 19 : 19]. The middle bar is where our Lord's hands were outstretched and nailed. And the bar at the bottom represents the slanted footrest on which his feet were nailed.

The slant of the bottom bar refers to the two thieves who were crucified with the Lord. The thief on the left, where the slant points down, taunted Christ and blasphemed, while the one on the right, where the slant points up, acknowledged Jesus' divinity with his prayer, "Jesus, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom." To this Christ replied with the promise,"This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise" [Luke 23 : 42-43].

The slanting bars in this ancient Russian cemetery serve as a reminder to us to pay attention to the direction in which our lives are going. The cross takes many forms in Orthodox practice and not all have three bars. Notice how I have chosen to stand where the slant points up in the opening picture of this blog.

St. Michael's Cathedral is a centerpiece of downtown Sitka, it's onion dome and spire topped by gold crosses, commanding attention.

The original church, built in 1844 and the oldest church structure from the Russian era in Alaska, burned in Jan, 1966.

Nearly all the icons and historical artwork were saved and are on display in the new church, an exact replica of the original.

This is an active church with regular services still performed.

For thousands of years a Tlingit stronghold, almost a hundred years an important part of Russia and it's capitol in the new world, Sitka combines a treasury of Native culture, Russian history and Alaskan wilderness. Our planned three-day stay was extended to a week and this is another place we would love to come back to.