THE ALASKAN ADVENTURE Day 96, 97, 98 & 99 August, 20,21,22,& 23, 2009 Ketchikan, AK to Prince Rupert, BC

It turns out that we picked a great day to fly yesterday as the rain was back and by the looks of things it’s going to rain the rest of the week. We invited our camp hosts for dinner and since our campsite is not set up for rainy nights, we trusted they would agree to have us cook at their site. We headed into town to see what trouble we could get into.

After getting coffee at guess where, we decided we didn’t want to get wet so we headed to where we have been watching the bears to enjoy our coffee. We sat there for about 90 minutes and watched 2 or 3 bears come down to the river to have a look at the salmon. However we had more fun watching the tourists from the Cruise Ships as this was a bear watching stop on the town tours. The real fun was listening to the guides explaining to the tourists what they were seeing. The stories differed from guide to guide and we came to realize that the same guides told different stories depending on their crowd. We realized that when we started to recognize the guides we had been in Ketchikan too long.

We left the bears and headed to Safeway to get a few last minute items for the night’s BBQ. We stopped at Ron and Lisa’s on the way back and they agreed to have us cook at their site. So that’s what we did. We set up a couple of our tables and we brought down what we needed and started the evening.

So here we are, we invited them to dinner and we are doing everything at their place. It was very nice of them and we appreciated it. We also had a very nice evening, the steaks were good, the potatoes weren’t over done and Kathy’s chocolate dip with apples and cheese was a good end to the evening.

Ron and Lisa are two of the nicest people we have met in Alaska and we hope to run into them again in our travels.


It was a very good night.

On Friday we had the pleasure of taking a 4 ½ hour boat trip out to the Misty Fjords. We had met a young lady, Kat at Ron and Lisa’s pizza party. She works for Allen Marine for the summer and offered us complimentary tickets for the trip. We set an early alarm to make the 7.30 am departure. We were to meet Lisa at 6.30 and when she came knocking at 6.35, we realized that our alarm battery had lost its juice. We scrambled to get ready. Kathy told me she hadn’t moved that fast in a long time. I couldn’t resist yet one more reminder of her run with the bears. I intend to do so at every opportune occasion.

The trip would take us through the same canal as the one we had flown over. We tried to compare the two trips but really couldn’t. They were both spectacular and of course we took pictures.

The following pictures are of New Eddystone Rock which is a volcanic plug or flume. It is the hardened core of an old volcano. The rest of the volcanic mountain was eroded and carved away by glacial ice. There is an additional 600 feet of the plug below the waters surface.

This is the same shot as above but was taken when we flew over it earlier in the week.

The next two pictures look like a black layer in the rock but they are actually mussels. They cling to the rocks and are exposed when the tide is low. They are edible and were a stable food source for the very early residents of the area, as well as a main subsistence for starfish and eagles.

When the cruise was over we headed back to the campsite, packed up and said goodbye to Ron and Lisa as were we leaving today for Prince Rupert. We had a few stops to make before heading for the terminal and one was a last look at the bears.

The ferry boarded around 9.45pm and we headed immediately for our berth and took no time at all in hitting the hay. We arrived in Prince Rupert at 4:15AM Alaska time and 5:15 Prince Rupert time. It took us a long time to get through customs so we headed down to the Coast Hotel for breakfast. It was the only place open. After breakfast we headed for the RV Park and settled in for the day. It was raining so we both had naps and then spent the day in the camper.

Sunday was a lazy day, very much as Saturday. It is still raining and the forecast is for 5 more days of rain. The rain does give you small space syndrome but we are coping. Chocolate. However, we did go for groceries and did laundry before setting up again and hunkering down for the day.

It is calling for rain tomorrow