THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE Day 85 & 86 August 9 & 10, 2009 Petersburg, AK

We awoke on Sunday morning to an overcast rainy day so we took it easy until we had to check out and then went exploring. We drove to the end of the road which follows Frederick Sound and Wrangell Narrows. The end of the road is at mile 34. We took pictures.

We then took one of Fodor’s recommended drives called Three Lake Loop which is 21 miles long and goes over the mountain to the other side of the island and back. It would have been a spectacular drive except for fog and mist. We did stop at a lookout for La Conte Glacier but could not see anything except for the icebergs floating in the bay.

When we finished the drive we headed for an RV Park and settled in for the night. However before we could completely settle in a little clean up had to be done. The truck and camper were just covered in dirt from driving the wet gravel roads all day. Once that chore was done we called it a night.

Monday, more rain. I think we have reached the end of our good luck as far as the weather goes. Especially here in the Southeast as it has been raining for 4 days now with no end in sight. We have been incredibly lucky to have had such good weather this far into the trip. The area we are in and have been for the last 3 weeks is a rain forest and parts of it can get up to 300 inches of rain a year. Last year in Petersburg it rained every day in the month of July and almost every day in August. It has been the perfect summer to come to Alaska.

Undaunted by the rain we headed out and our first stop was Blind River Rapids. It is a fishing spot for both bear and man. You have to cross a bog to get to it but the city has been a boardwalk not only to the fishing spot but completely around the bog. It was a nice walk. Oh, no bears. We may go back later at night.

Our next stop was at Man Made Hole Lake which is a swimming spot for the locals. It was pouring rain so we when we did the walk around the lake we had it completely to ourselves.

It was during the walk that we realized the trees are starting to get a little bigger than they were in the north.

This is a large Sitka Spruce. So what’s it doing in Petersburg?

In the early afternoon we headed into town for some lunch and to stop at the Visitors Center. We learned that Petersburg is mainly a commercial fishing town and one of the more prosperous cities in Alaska. It has a little bit of tourism as the only other source of revenue, as logging has come to a halt. Petersburg “Alaska’s Little Norway” was first discovered by a Norwegian and it still has a lot of that heritage in evidence. They still have a Little Norway Festival every May. Petersburg sits on Mitkof Island which is 23 miles at its longest point and 16 ½ miles at it widest point.

After our visit to town we headed to the RV park as it was still raining. On the way we ran into a couple of these fellows.

These are Sitka Black Tailed deer and are all over the island. We have actually seen quite a few of them in our travels over the last couple of days.

We reached the RV park and settled in for the night. Tomorrow is our last day here in Petersburg before we move onto Wrangell.