Sitka Alaska

After Ketchikan, we rode another ferry to Sitka. It was our longest ferry ride – 24 hrs – unfortunately, our departure and arrivals were both at 1:00 am.  We went to the ferry terminal early, checked in and then slept for a couple hours in the staging lanes. After boarding the ferry we found a booth in the upper lounge and settled in for another couple of hours rest. Sort of like being off watch during an offshore passage, only less bouncy.

 

We considered making a few more stops at Wrangell, Petersburg and Kake, but the cost would have been much, much higher. So we settled for seeing the towns/islands from the ferry dock. After seeing them, we decided we made the right choice. The ferry schedules were such that stopping at any of them would have meant about a week long stay, and there wasn’t much town at any of them.

Loading and offloading from the ferries was one of the big unknowns. Given the 12-15 foot tides in Alaska, we had read that the angle of the deck to the ramp could cause problems. Fortunately, all of our loads and unloads were at mid-tide or higher, with a couple of the more worrisome spots right at high tide, so we never scraped or had any issues.

 

Whenever possible, we seek out a local church to worship with on Sundays. Grace Harbor was a great find! We met some incredibly hospitable folks who even had us over to their house to do laundry – always a chore when traveling. They have a Wed evening potluck and Bible study that was great and they also have a Sat evening service so we were able to worship with them again before boarding a Sunday morning ferry.

Sitka had a public library with free wifi and an amazing view. It was hard to stop staring out the window and focus on the chores. Might have been a good idea to pick a different place to sit, but…

The QEII visited while we were there. It’s huge!

We stayed at the Starrigavan National Forest campground. It was a beautiful spot with a nice walking trail. We were told that there were frequent brown bear sightings in the campground, but none while we were there – or at least none that we knew about.

We went to a bear rescue center where they have 9 bears in residence, 6 brown and 3 black.

This is why they say not to climb a tree to get away from a bear. They like to climb trees and are very fast at doing so.

 

Alaskan natives in this region were part of the Klingit people. In Sitka, there is a replica Klingit clan house where they demonstrate several of their dances and tell the stories behind the dances.

$7.2 million – not a bad price!!

 

Alaska was sold to the USA by Russia and Sitka was the capital of Russian America. There are still vestiges of Russian heritage around the town, including a group of women who banded together in 1969 to keep the old Russian dances alive. Today, there are 35 women in the troupe, only 1 of which has any actual Russian heritage. But the dances are fun to watch!

The Raptor center is for rescuing and rehabilitating eagles, hawks and owls. Those that can’t be rehabbed completely (usually due to severe injuries) get to live out their lives at the center. Turns out the good thing about having a cruise ship visit is that the raptor center puts on educational presentations just for the cruise passengers. So we were able to tag along with them.

Bald Eagles are everywhere in the inside passage – we started to think of them like seagulls in Annapolis. This bird flew in and sat in a tree overlooking the eagles in the raptor center that were injured. The injured birds were not happy and were squawking like mad. The folks at the center told us that was a territorial cry telling the interlopers to stay away!

Bear Aware is the big watchword. There are signs everywhere along with educational posters about how to tell the difference between a curious bear and an aggressive/defensive bear. Turns out that each should be handled differently. The big lesson stressed over and over again is to stay calm. Right!

Where’s Waldo(Greg)? This was an amazing little shelter on the hike, just a spot to sit and watch the birds and other wildlife in the wetlands.

Back on the Malaspina for the next leg up to Juneau!

 

But if not…