THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE Day 95 August 19, 2009 Misty Fjords

We woke up Wednesday morning to a beautiful sunny day, the first in three days. So we did what I said I wouldn’t do and that was to get on a small plane. First we had to pack up the camper and head back into town. While we were on the road we called the Flight Company to see if they had any openings and luckily they had 4 seats open on the last flight of the day. We booked it.

We were going to fly over the Misty Fjords in a small plane, a six seat de Havilland Beaver to be exact.

We arrived at the air kiosk and were signed up by the lady who we first talked to. Her name was Sushe and she convinced us that SouthEast Aviation was the company to go with. She said her ex-husband was one of the pilots and that she had all the confidence in the world in his piloting ability. As he was her ex I asked her if it was a good pilot, bad husband scenario and she laughingly agreed.

Sushe is the one on the right. Her day was over as it was the last flight. I think she came down to make sure I didn't get her in trouble.



We then headed to the plane and met up with Ernie who was our pilot. I asked Ernie about the good pilot, bad husband scene and his comment was: You have to be known for something. I must add that both Sushe and Ernie were delightful people and we couldn’t have been in better hands.

Ernie Robb ( Pilot )

Ernie had two very endearing qualities that were very important to me. One he was able to get the plane off the water and two he was able to get it back on the water without getting me wet. I was very appreciative.

We were now getting ready to board the plane and I got the lucky ticket and drew the co-pilots seat. This gave me a panoramic view of both the front and sides that nobody else had. We were now boarded and off we went.

We have been in Alaska for almost 100 days to this point and we have seen a lot of spectacular scenery. Some of it I thought we would never surpass. Today in my opinion we surpassed it. I am not even going to attempt to describe what I saw and felt today other that to say it was breath taking. I took and posted a lot of pictures even though I am sure they do not do the day justice.

We did land in the Misty Fjords Monument on Punchbowl Lake to stretch our legs and to inhale the good clean Alaskan Air. It was pretty quiet and peaceful. When we got back on Kathy and I changed seats for the ride back.

After we landed we said goodbye and thanked Ernie for a spectacular afternoon. It is at or near the top of our Alaska highlight list.

We then decided to walk out our air legs and headed over to a historic section of town called Creek Street. Creek Street is a street built on the edge of a river that flows into Clarence Strait. When we got there we realized the pinks were running and the river was full of them. They were trying to get upstream and they had some pretty hefty rapids to get through. There was a fish ladder near the top to help them through the last little bit but a lot of the fish missed it and tried to battle the rapids. We walked up to the fish ladder and watched them for awhile before heading back to Creek Street.

Creek Street today is filled with shops but at one time was the infamous red light district of Ketchikan as most of the houses were houses of ill repute.

The most famous of these was Dolly’s House, named after the lady who learned at an early age that selling her favors was much more lucrative that waiting on tables. She opened her shop at 24 Creek Street and still owned it at the time of her death in 1975. Some say she still ran it as a house of ill repute into the early 70’s. When the police chief came down to tell her she had to close it she asked him for two weeks to do so. When asked why she said she wanted to run a “ Going Out of Business Sale”

When we got to the end of Creek Street we discovered a way that allowed entry from the trail that went through the woods. It was called Married Mans Lane and was used by the married men to sneak onto Creek Street for a sampling of the services. However if you were one of the sailors in port then you walked it boldly.

After touring the fish ladder and Creek Street we headed back to the camper. We lit and enjoyed a fire before having supper and calling it a night.

Today was an exceptionally good day.