Along the Frazier River

We've traveled east from Prince Rupert, BC, turned south at Prince George and are now traveling down the Frazier River Canyon heading toward Vancouver. I have downloaded a picture of the Frazier River canyon north of our night's stop at a tiny community named Boston Bar. This portion of our trip is very important to Garth as it is at Hell's Gate, (at the fish ladders installed there to aid the salmon migrating to their spawning streams) that Garth's grandfather, Senator Tom Reid was thanked for his years of service with a memorial plaque. We will visit there tomorrow and take many pictures.
After we visit for a day or so with Garth's cousins in Vancouver we head for home. IT HAS BEEN A GREAT TRIP!

Homeward Bound!

Here we are in Ketchikan, way far south along th Inside passage of Alaska. It is the totem center for the 3 tribes who made them. They were/are carved to tell a story, celebrate an event, or as a funeral totem. They were not worshipped and theyare not religious in nature. But they certainly are impressive. Ketchikan has several places where they are displayed along with many throughout the town.

To get into town from Wrangell we had to back the rig onto the ferry! Pictures tell all. The deck hands were very experienced and the 2 rigs went in rump first. I will try to upload a pic for you to see this! Well well, it worked!

We have spent our 3 days in Ketchikan and have come down on the ferry for our last trip to Prince Rupert, BC, Canada. We will separate from Jan & Walt tomorrow morning (our farewell BBQ is tonight) and we drive 900 miles in 3 days to Vancouver. After Garth has a couple of days to visit with his family there we drive for home, stopping only to pick some blackberries! Garth insists, he has such fond memories of this when the kids were small. No pies though as my arm is in a cast (doctor in Wrangell did a nice job on the cast. He was also very pleased to see an amazing amount of healing for 2 weeks).

So please come to the Clan picnic! Hope to see you there!!

Along the Inside Passage

The double eagle is on a Russian cannon atop Castle Hill in Sitka. It dates from the time Russia controlled this land. The ceremony concluding the sale of Alaska to the US is reinacted here on Caastle Hill each year. The original USArmy, the 9th Infantry, returned to Sitka 100 years later on the statehood year to participate again in ceremonies marking that momentous event.

As we work our way south down through the Alexander Archipeligo (named after Tzar Alexander of Russia) we are reminded of how much this land was influenced by the Russian-American Period. Place names, churches, family names... so many are Russian. Demetrioff is a very common family name here, and the Eastern Orthodox Church is alive and active in most communities along the Inside Passage. The town in the above picture is Sitka, grown a lot since 1965!

We have turned the corner of our trip and are on the homeward bound leg. This is a good thing as I am seeing a doctor today (we are in Wrangell, named after a Russian, what else?) to check on my arm. I suspect they will want to cast it, an event I hope to avoid!

Tomorrow we are on our penultimate ferry journey down to Ketchikan, and we will go through The Narrows, a water passage even more narrow than the one in the picture above! I hope to find internet again before we drop into Camp Pendleton for the Clan Donnachaidh Picnic.

Onto the Marine Highway

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As you can see we have begun a most exciting part of our trip! We have loaded both rigs onto the MV Malaspina for a 4-hr ferry trip to Juneau. This ferry was one of the 3 we were on in '65 when we came down the Inside Passage with my folks & 2 other rigs with family members. How exciting to be able to ride again on this elegant vessel!
The photo is of the rear of Jan & Walt's 5th wheel disappearing down onto what my 20-yr USN father insisted on calling "the tank deck".
And yet another glacier spilling down into Lynn Canal...
The less than exciting news is that in a hurry (there's a message there...) I tripped & fell inside the rig. Thinking to spare my knee I fell instead on my wrist and broke 4 bones in my hand & arm. Nice. Garth transported me 125 miles to the nearest Urgent Care where they decided the bones were nicely aligned, although quite broken, and I am the proud owner of a removeable-type cast, and a bottle of Make-Mary-Loopy Pills. It does allow me to unwrap it (well, it allows my RN mother to unwrap it!) so I can shower VERY carefully, with much help. All good for laughs. Well...maybe not.
I will not bore you with details, although there are certain elements of low humor.
We have really turned the corner here in Alaska. I said we were going to allow autumn to chase us out... and she is doing so ably! Temp overnight 2 nights ago was a very chilly 34 and days hover in the 50-60's. Gorgeous weather as the photos show but a decided nip is in the air indeed.
The bears gather at every salmon-spawning stream and our campground host in Haines said there were 20 bears living in the park vicinity. Makes you look carefully when you step out of the rig. And we don't leave the rig unlocked as bears can easily open the latch...and a bear would regard Pigs as a tasty alternative to a steady diet of salmon. Snack! Yum!
We are in a private park in the city of Juneau and the signs loudly state "Don't Feed the Bears!". Comforting, um?
In a day or so we will go as foot passengers out to Sitka (and Pigs will go to a Pet Nanny here in town) and we will stay overnight at a B & B there. We missed Sitka in '65 and are eager to see the capitol of Russian Alaska. Ghosts of cossacks and onion-domed churches.. how romantic!
Since this is all typed one-handed I will stop for now. We will be home in time for the Clan Donnachaidh Picnic. See you there!