After about 36 hours on the floaty boat, we were happy to arrive on time in Ketchikan this morning. Ketchikan is Alaska’s oldest city, older than Juneau by an entire day, with a year-round population of about 8,000 which doubles during the summer/cruise season. It’s at the southeast tip of the state on an island so the only ways here are by air or sea, no roads lead here….as is the case with much of Southeast Alaska.
Ketchikan claims to be the third rainiest city in the US, trailing Hilo, Hawaii and I’m not sure where else. This year the (unofficial?) rain gauge says they’ve gotten over 170” (over 14 feet/6.8 meters). We must be doing something right because today has been beautifully warm and sunny. It’s a balmy 70F/21F as I started typing from the comfort and beauty of my balcony as we slowly head toward Juneau, though facing west it soon became warm enough that I headed inside.
But this is about Ketchikan. We arrived at 7 and the 4 of us disembarked fairly quickly. We took a lovely walk, finding several caches and completing an adventure lab. We saw several impressive totem poles, and awakened my desire to purchase some native art, particularly something that includes the frog. We also watched salmon swimming upstream and even got to see (and take video of) a seal, though it wasn’t the only seal we saw today.
We walked down what used to be the Red Light district back in the day, namely an incredibly scenic boardwalk called Creek Street. We passed some local stores, some of which were already open, a wise move with 4 ships docked in town. My favorite store name was called Sam McGee’s after the Robert Service poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee which I highly recommend reading when opportunity presents.
We split up because I wanted to return back via Creek Street, so David and I went that way while Alison and Derek explored new areas. We continued up Creek Street, beyond where we started, and got to watch salmon jump onto a fish ladder.
Eventually we meandered our way to our tour. Only 7 intrepid souls chose to canoe and take a nature walk, and the other 5 were nice companions. Chad the bus driver drove about 20 minutes on paved roads and the last 9 miles (15km) on a recently regraded but nonetheless very bumpy unpaved road to Harriet Hunt Lake — an appallingly rare treat, I might add, to go to a place named for a female. We arrived at a parking lot with a few port-a-potties and a short walk down to a dock. Needless to say, I walked down to the dock where I had a stunning, and briefly private, view of a spectacular dark-colored lake about a mile (1.6km)long and half as wide. It was surrounded by coniferous forests and quite a volcanic and glacial mountains. I took a few pictures and successfully skipped a stone.
After failing to find the cache that we noticed was in the parking lot (previous searchers also failed to find it), the guide returned with his earlier group and started our experience. We received our gear — everyone got a life preserver and a paddle — but no paddling instructions. Our guide, Ricardo, was nice enough but was definitely not an expert in the local flora, fauna or geology. That said, he did know how to interact with the groups, and tried.
First we entered the canoe, with David and me fortuitously getting the front which gave us an unobstructed view. The paddling was easy, the lake was calm and there was very little wind. We paddled about half a mile (800 meters) to another dock where we were offered refreshments, though not what’s I expected and not exactly traditional Alaskan fare. Bread (but not sourdough), marionberry jam (marionberries were developed in Oregon), salmon spread, clam chowder, coffee and hot chocolate — a menu that wasn’t exactly designed for such a warm day. Then we walked maybe half a mile (sill 800 meters) through a forest that looked and smelled remarkably similar to forests at home — incredibly green, lots of spruce and cedar trees, several types of ferns, lots of berries, Devil’s club, skunk cabbage, and a variety of fungi. Yes, we are spoiled, and we like it that way.
The return paddle was a bit longer. I took a few pictures of David as we paddled and he returned the favor for me. Ricardo took us to a spot in the lake where it’s easy to hear echos. As a group we shouted “deer” and could hear it reverberate twice around the lake. Various people tried different other sounds — as a former soccer goalkeeper my contribution was “keeper” though I wish I’d also tried Gooooooooooaaaalllll!
The ride back to the ship was unremarkable, and as we only had a short time before the all-aboard the only thing David and I did before boarding was find the nearby geocache. I’ve now visited this beautiful town and stunning area twice, I wouldn’t mind returning but I’d rather see other places first.
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