THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE Day 83 & 84 August 7 & 8, 2009 Sitka to Petersburg, AK

Friday we planned to do some hiking but the weather took a hand in our activities for the day. We woke up to a very overcast day and as we started to get ready to leave it started to rain. We quickly wimped out on the hiking and took our time packing up. We could have done without the rain but they sure needed it here. The water level is so low that the salmon cannot complete their run to the spawning areas. This will have an impact on the salmon availability in future years. The main problem is that because the salmon have not made it upstream, the bears have come down closer to town to feed on the berries. There have been quite a few sightings and a couple of bears actually ventured into town. Nobody has been hurt, nor has there been any bears shot and hopefully this rain will solve everybodys problems and the situation will just dissipate.

We finally had to vacate the RV park as we are catching the ferry to Petersburg tonight. Well, the ferry actually leaves at 5:15AM and we have to be there by 4:15AM to sign in. To pass the time we took a drive up Harbor Mountain but with the fog we couldn’t see anything except white so we turned around and drove down. The road we were on was built by the army during WW2 as a lookout point for German U-Boats and Planes. None were ever seen.

After the mountain drive we did a few chores like laundry and some shopping and then headed over to the Ferry Terminal to wait until they opened at midnight. We got our tickets, pulled into line and went to sleep. They woke us at 2:30 AM as they were getting ready to board the people that were already in line. The trip to Petersburg is over 12 hours and because of this we had booked a berth. Immediately upon boarding we headed to the pursers office to check in and get our keys. Needless we headed for our beds asap and called it a day.

At least we tried to call it a day or night but with the remaining loading and announcements it was hard to get to sleep and even harder staying asleep. I managed to get a little rest and got up about 9:30 and went for breakfast, Kathy was still sleeping.

In looking at the route we were taking I realized that we covered a lot of ground to go 110 miles as the crow flies. We exited Sitka Sound and headed north into the Gulf of Alaska. When we reached Peril Strait (nice name ) we turned east and followed it until we had to turn southeast into Frederick Sound. We made a quick stop at the village of Kake which is on Kupreanof Island before continuing along Frederick Sound until we hit Petersburg. Its shame is was rainy and overcast as the scenery was incredible. The rain combined with the overcast skies and the grey water it almost looked like you were in a black and white world. Almost mesmerizing. I tried to get some pictures.

In was in Frederick Sound that I had been told that there had been a lot of whale activity lately so I got my camera and headed up top. I was not disappointed as for about three hours we were able to watch Humpback Whales. They were not real close and I was not able to get any really good pictures but in the binoculars the viewing was magnificent. We saw a lot of breaching as well as tale slapping, both methods of stunning their prey for feeding. I was almost sorry we reached our destination as it was a lot of fun just watching them.








Breaching










Tail Slapping












Tail Slappling











Diving














Diving












Diving

However, we did reach port and headed into Petersburg. We drove around a little and then headed to a campsite 22 miles out of town in the Tongass Forest. We had a late snack and called it a night. It has been a long 2 days.