THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE Day 81 & 82 August 4 & 5, 2009 Capital Hill

The original plan for Tuesday was to bike to the Raptor Centre but you know what happens to plans. The Raptor Centre will have to wait for another day. We packed a lunch, got out the bikes and headed off. We stopped for what we thought would be a short time at the Sitka National Park and see the small part we had missed the other day. Well, it turned out we had missed a lot more than we thought. We started out by watching a short film they have in the visitors centre about the early days of the area and then we started walking.

We took in the Russian Memorial which is dedicated to both Russian and Aleut warriors that were killed in the Battle of 1904. We hiked along the river for awhile and watched the fish jump as they were getting ready to spawn. But most importantly we learned how the mosquito came to be. During our walk we came across a totem pole which was titled “The Mosquito Legend”. It is a legend pole and tells the story of a chief’s son who was given a pointed hat as a symbol of his position. The story goes on to say that the son stabbed his mother with the pointed hat and then ran away. He proceeded to kill other members of his tribe until he was trapped and killed by his uncle. His body was cremated. His wind scattered ashes became mosquitos and he continues to stab his victims today.

That is how the mosquito got here. According to legend.





We decided to have our lunch at the park and we found a bench with a view of the bay. Unfortunately the smoke from the forest fires was just a little heavier that the day before. Today we could smell the smoke. The view of the bay looked like a large fog had rolled in. However, it was still a nice day and a nice relaxing lunch.

We continued our bike ride after lunch and decided not to go to the Raptor Center as it wouldn’t give us enough time to explore it fully. So we turned around and headed back to town. Rod needed an ice cream cone.

The next and final stop for the day was Capital Hill. The hill overlooks Sitka Sound and has played a prominent role in the history of the town. It was first used by the Klingit as both an observation point and a refuge in case of attack. It was from here that they probably saw the Russian ships for the first time.

After the Russian’s took control of Sitka they built several different structures between 1804 and 1867. The main building being a log house for chief manager Alexander Baranov which was surrounded a log palisade. In 1818 they had to rebuild the house and the palisade and this time they added three watch towers and 32 cannons which they used for defense against the Klingits. In 1837 the last house was built on the hill and it was an extravagant structure and became known as Baranov Castle.

In 1867 when the US took possession of Sitka they used the housing as federal building until 1894 when it burned down. It was rebuilt and used until 1955 when it was torn down and the hill was declared a National Park.







After leaving the park we headed to the RV park, had a light supper and called it a night.


Wednesday was a hair day for Kathy. She got scalped by a local Alaskan hairdresser who was originally from Oregon. Rod did blog. This was the first place I have not been able to get Wifi at the RV park. I have been doing the blog in word and today I headed down to the local library to get caught up. It was not a surprise to find that it took most of the day. However, it was kind of nice to have a down day.

We finished at the library and headed back to the RV park to have supper. It will be an early night.