Where to Next?: September 20 – Ketchican, Alaska

Weather

– 11º, cloudy first thing and then RAIN

Steps – 9,766

12 hours 19 min of daylight

Latitude – Calgary 51º, Ketchican = 55º

We were just coming into Ward Cove (a 20 min drive from Ketchican), our port for Ketchican as we woke up this morning. It was nice to see only clouds and no rain, that changed around 10:30, just as we were finishing “Lighthouse, Totems and Eagles” our AM tour. The rest of the day was pretty torrential.

eagle on a coast guard marker

We met our guide and tour group inside a massive brick warehouse. It was originally a mill building. The mill went bust and it was turned into a cruise terminal. The 20 min distance to town wasn’t ideal. It is always preferable to walk off the boat and starting into town.

always looking for a job

Our first tour was a 5 min walk from the terminal onto a boat, so our location wasn’t inconvenient for that at all.

totems and long house

Originally, we had a walking tour which included a walk in a totem park. This tour was cancelled for no given reason – I was disappointed. I was interested in learning about the indigenous history of this area. In the end, we learned and saw a bit, so thinks turned out ok.

“Lighthouse, Totems and Eagles” took us to see just that. A group of 19 of us

Alaskan specialities

boarded a boat for a cruise to first see American bald eagles. The tour description said eagles were ‘guaranteed’. Tour descriptions usually say, ‘wildlife

sightings are not guaranteed”. I figure there are so many eagles here, it would be hard not to see them. We say plenty of eagles. None close enough to get a really good shot or see how massive they are, it was super cool nonetheless.

Guard Island lighthouse

We also sailed past Tlingit and Haida hand-carved totem poles and clan house at Totem Bight State Park. This is the park we were supposed to walk thought, but it was impressive to see even from the water.

Last on our itinerary was to see the lighthouse on Guard Island.

All throughout our sightseeing cruise this morning we were along the shores of Tongass National Forest, the world’s largest temperate rainforest. We had

Alaska beauty

hopped to see more wildlife and especially whales…we had to settle for eagles and a couple of harbor seals.

During the morning tour we also had a couple of hot chocolates and local Alaskan snacks…smoked salmon dip, smoked salmon, pickles and dark chocolate with sea salt - all were very tasty.

Back to the ship for a quick lunch and then out again

for the afternoon pub crawl. By this point it was torrential. I brought good rain gear, so I didn’t mind the weather at all.

pub crawl

It’s rare that we can get 2 tours in one day, today is a rare day. The afternoon tour is a pub crawl. 10 of us, visited 3

Chris' hat matched

pubs while listening to stories about the pubs and history of Ketchikan. We didn’t have more than 15 minutes in each pub, so it was quick. We were offered 1 cocktail and 2 beers at each place. Chris and I both had beers. One of the beers I had was a Rainier, although not from Alaska, apparently Alaska consumes the most Rainier beer in the US!

These pubs were all different but the same…pretty dumpy. I guess that’s their charm. In the middle of the afternoon on a Friday they were pretty busy. I expected to see lots of cruise ship passengers (there were 4 ships in town today) but these folks were locals…yup, definitely locals.

It was a pretty torrential day, but my rain gear made it totally fine. Tomorrow is supposed to be potentially worse for rain, but having the right gear doesn’t make it at all worrisome.