Sept. 14-24, 2018

The drive from Fairbanks to Haines was another incredibly scenic drive- 640 miles. A couple of lovely campgrounds on large lakes. Mountains, glaciers, forests, taiga and very few vehicles.
Haines is where we got the ferry- the Alaska Marine Highway is a ferry system that has been designated a Scenic Byway! Many cruise ships go the same route and stop at many of the same ports that we are doing on the ferry. We have five stops: Juneau, Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan and Prince Rupert. Because Rhylee must stay in the camper on the auto deck we have opted to get off for a few days at each port and not go beyond Prince Rupert because that leg is over a day long.

Haines- the sockeye salmon are running here, but slowly.

We saw a bear catching them in the river for her two cubs, but no people even fishing- so we went to Haines Fish Packing and bought fresh sockeye! The sow had an ear tag and radio collar, the cubs had ear tags.

 

Juneau- coho are running here and we fished to no avail, but the weather was sunny and warm and the locals at the dock were very friendly and chatty- they weren’t catching many either. On the dock you had to “fish” and just a 100 ft. away you could “snag” – meaning you could jerk you hook through the water and snag a fish any place on it’s body- even those folks weren’t hauling in too many. AND we could see them in the water- lots of them!  We  visited another Glacier- Mendenhall and saw bighorn sheep on the mountain.
Petersburg- got on the ferry at 5pm, got off at 2am…Parked at the ferry terminal and slept a bit and then found our campground. Beautiful island, with a small fishing town of 3,000 people.

 
Wrangell- morning trip through the 20 mile Wrangell Narrows-

 

an amazing narrow and twisty passage with over 70 aides for navigation. The ferry had to wait for the tide to come into port and we went down the narrows at half tide. 

 

 

 

 

Wrangell is another lovely small town with friendly people. Most of the boat tour operators were done for the season, however we found one that had to make a run up the Stikine River

to deliver some pipe to a summer house and was willing to take us along and show us some sights. 2+ hours on the river which was exceedingly low and shallow and watching Eric pick his away along was fun.

Petroglyphs…mostly covered at high tide, and historically unclear as to who, why and what they mean.

 
Side note- taking the ferry is awesome, however it is stressful…for us 🙂 we have to be at the ferry 2 hours before departure, get our boarding passes, and then wait, then turn off the propane, and load onto the ferry- sometimes backing down the ramp!, settle the dog in the camper, hook up the inverter to run the fridge. These ferry boats are big-400ft long, 7 decks. The departure times are all over the place and the length of trip are all different, sometimes arriving in the middle of the night, or the early morning. We are not used to “pressure” or reservations, or someone else’s timeline! LOL
Ketchikan- when we booked the ferry back in April our choices were 4 days here, or 7. We chose the 4. The RV park we are at is actually a Salmon Fish Camp with boat rentals, fish processing, dinning room, RV sites and hotel rooms and is connected to two other fish camps that land their fish here. Our first walk down to the dock let us see five bins full of Coho Salmon! The limit is 6 salmon per day per person and these anglers were trying to max their catch to have the fish processed and frozen to take home- some of them take home over 300lbs of salmon!
The weather has been sunny and in the 50s for the past 2 weeks, and so on the chance that the weather would hold we reserved a boat for the next day. They set us up with gear, bait and information as to where to go to fish- 25 miles up Clover Passage and Behm Canal. Within minutes of getting both rods set out- one used a down rigger which took a learning curve to figure out- we had two Cohos on! We landed one and lost the other.

And then we trolled for the next several hours without a bite. Of the 20 or so boats in the area, we only saw one fish caught every half hour or so…It was just lovely to be out on the ocean on a sunny, calm day- this island area is reminiscent of Penobscot Bay however 95% of it is protected temperate rain forest and their are mountains all around!
Finally, Prince Rupert at 8pm but we still have to get off the ferry and through the border crossing and then to the campground…in the dark.