FRIDAY – 12TH- IN PORT AT KETCHIKAN

We woke this morning to the scene above as we docked in Ketchikan. It is said to be the salmon capital of the world and the rain fall capital of the U.S. The rain fall is so high here that it is measured in feet, not inches so everybody was preparing us for wet weather but it turned out to be a perfect day, although a little cool. Our cruise ship was one of four in port today but the good news is that, the other three were heading south. I wonder how many more we will see.

We enjoyed dinner last night while watching small whales as the ship passed. The resident naturalist thinks they might have been minke whales. The whales we will supposedly be seeing are humpback whales but these were too small for that. After dinner we watched a stage show starring a group of very energetic and talented dancers.

We had a floatplane excursion booked for 10:00am this morning so we went exploring the town at 8:00am. The main focus of tourism activity in the town is Creek Street and the creek after it is named, Ketchikan Creek. The buildings are all very historical, some to such an extent they have stickers on the doors stating that they are not fit to be occupied but the well maintained ones contain tourist outlets. The claim to fame of Creek St is that it was where the brothels were located in the early part of the town’s history. As the photo shows, the buildings are all built on boardwalks over the creek.

We had stories of salmon being so thick that you could walk across a river on their backs. That’s obviously an exaggeration but there were thousands of salmon in the creek. Hopefully the photo tells the story. Unfortunately there were a large number of dead ones lying on the banks of the creek creating quite an aroma but we gained an understanding of the life and death cycle of the poor salmon most of whom are doomed once they spawn.

We dutifully returned to the ship to find that our excursion had been cancelled. We were supposed to have been given a letter advising us of that but somehow, that didn’t happen. The excursion organizer was appropriately apologetic and we have been assured that our other planned excursions are definitely on. It ended up turning out for the best in that we turned to one of the dockside vendors promoting flights and ended up as the only passengers in a Beaver floatplane flown by Mark who gave us an incredible tour of the nearby parts of the Tongrass National Park and an honest assessment of the prospect of seeing bears, which we didn’t of course, but he tried. The pictures tell the story.

We flew very low along creeks looking for bears.

We flew down valleys looking up at the mountainous scenery above us.

We skirted the top of snow dusted mountains. We had a ball.

The sign “Souvenirs, Spirit of Alaska” sums up the commercial side of cruising tourism very appropriately. Fortunately we are here for the scenery and wildlife, not the numerous souvenir outlets.

Tomorrow we spend the day at Juneau and hope to do a helicopter tour of the glaciers (if it isn’t cancelled).