Ketchikan, Alaska

We had made plans to go on what was described as a really neat day hike which climbed through the forest and took you up to sub-alpine areas. Unfortunatly, it was raining. So, change of plans. We drove to the south end of the island and decided to go check out the lower and upper Silvis Lakes. We hiked along a road up to the first lake for about 1 1/2 miles. We already had gore-tex jackets on, but stopped to put on our rain pants. This part of the hike was not very interesting, but once we passed Lower Silvis lake, we were on a regular hiking trail. The entire hike was climbing and up we continued to go. The trail is not maintained and was getting more deteriorated the farther we went. By this time, the rain had stopped and we were able to hike without our jackets. We stopped to eat lunch up above Upper Silvis Lake and enjoyed the view looking down on both lakes and further out to the ocean. After lunch we kept on going, but it didn't take long for the trail to get really bad...at this point we turned around. There were flowers blooming all along the hike...way cool! We stopped at an area that had these little "ponds" covered with Lilly pads. While taking pics, we saw two salamanders in the water, and a beautiful red-headed woodpecker...different than the ones at home.

On our way back to town, I spotted a tree full of bald eagles. We had to stop and play "tourist", which we hate doing...but hey, bald eagles. We walked around the corner and found that people were catching salmon and the birds were there enjoying eating the remains of the fish. So cool!!! Bald eagles are no big deal up here, there are everywhere. But we still get excited when we see them. We watched them for quite a while! That was a great way to end a good day of hiking!

We had to be at the ferry terminal this morning at 5:15. Since our cell phones were turned off while we've been in Canada, we tested the alarm on our clock in our trailer to make sure it would work. It did, but do you think I slept very well? Of course not...I kept waking up to check the time. 4 am came soon enough. Quickly we put together some food to take with us on the ferry, ate a little cereal, buttoned up the Casita, both inside and out and we were out of there a little before 5. Whew! A minute later we were dutifully in line with all the other people and their rigs waiting for the check in process to take place. This went pretty smoothly but it would still be several hours of waiting before we were on the ferry and leaving PR.

We woke up with the morning being cloudy and overcast. A little while after being on our way, the sun came out and we were blessed with another extremely beautiful day. Quite a lovely day for a ferry ride, I would say. Thank you Jesus!! :)

We left PR at 7:15 Alaska time and arrived in Ketchikan around 12:15 or so. We talked with a number of very interesting people throughout the ride. It was a very enjoyable experience. They have a full on "mess hall" with very reasonable prices. We walked around the various decks going both inside and outside. It was pretty windy on the outside decks, but we spent about half of our time hanging out outside...it was too beautiful a day to be inside.

We almost did not get off the ferry. We don't know why, but we sort of got over looked in being directed to drive off the ferry. Fortunately the guy behind us got out of his car and brought this to the workers attention...One would think these people should know what they are doing. So we were one of the last vehicles to get off the ferry. We were able to find the campground easily, and set up the trailer. Then back to town to look for some wi-fi and get some dinner. Free internet is hard to find, but I think we did find a place that has it. We ate dinner at a whole in the wall Thai/Chinese place. It was ok but would not be recommended.

I was able to talk to my girls before getting back to the campground. Don has crashed beside me, and I am ready to do the same. It is all of 7:30 Alaska Time, which means we lost an hour from this morning.

Good night!

We are camped next to a little lake named Ward Lake. After breakfast we decided to take the nature trail around the lake. Don grabs the binoculars and off we go. We hadn't walked too far when we came upon a mama duck with many baby ducks. A perfect picture moment and we have no camera with us. ARG!!!! I can't believe we have no camera. I was so bummed I didn't even want to look at them through the binocs. Then, we came upon a kingfisher sitting on a little branch just posing for a picture. I couldn't believe it. Never again will we go out without the camera. I think this is touring 101...we failed that lesson! When we had gone all the way around the lake we stopped by the campsite and grabbed the camera and went back out to the same spot. The mama duck and babies were still there but not in as good a position for getting their pictures taken. The kingfisher showed up for a little bit but he wasn't in as good a place for a picture either. We will go back tomorrow morning and see if we can get some better pics.

After that we went to church at "Good News Fellowship". They meet in an upstairs room in downtown Ketchikan. Three cruise ships had come in this morning, so the downtown was full of people so we ended up being a little late because it took longer to find a place to park. We both enjoyed the service. They had been having some kind of special event this week, and so they had a guest speaker. He shared on Psalm 23...very simple yet insightful message.

After church we went to a coffee cafe that was supposed to have wi-fi. They do, but not between 11 and 3. The owner doesn't want a bunch of computer users in the place during those hours because it is when the cruise ship people are there. We had coffee and scone and left. There were two guys sitting outside the place using their computers so I asked them if they could give me the code and they did. So we sat there with them and did a little computin'.

Later, we explored the north end of the island and took a short hike following a creek up a canyon with pretty waterfalls. The forest here is teaming with lush understory flora (this is a rainforest!). We are really enjoying the variety of plants, many of which are in bloom. Sphagnum moss covers the forest floor...the same stuff I buy in a bag at home!

It was still raining so our plans to do the hike we couldn't do yesturday were scrapped. We took one last walk around Ward Lake, with hopes of seeing the ducks and kingfisher again. We found a mama duck with babies slot bigger than the babies we had seen a few days ago. Was this the same family? Didn't seem like it could be. We got a few pics and finished the walk. Mr. Kingfisher didn't show up.

We prepared the trailer to be moved to a RV place so that we would have hookups in order to get everything charged up, take showers, and do laundry. We would be leaving at about 2 am on Wed. to go on the next ferry.

After getting hooked up and a shower (this always feels so good when one is camping!), we took off for town. The first place we wanted to check out was the Totem Bight State Park. This is a little park that has lots of totem poles and a recreated clan house. A "bight" is what they call a section of coastline that looks like a giant took a "bite" out of the coastline and what is left forms a little bay. This was very interesting. There were very few people there so even Don liked it. :)

Next we headed into downtown and visited the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center which is run by the Forest Service, and a local museum that is next to the library. Both were worth going to and nicely done. We enjoyed them.

The rest of the afternoon was spent running errands like grocery shopping and filling up one of the propane tanks...it was interesting because we asked a couple of people where we could get propane, and they didn't know what we were talking about. Propane is not used here except those little cans for a bar-b-que type thing. The homes are heated with fuel oil. Anyway, we asked a guy at the gas station filling up next to us and he did know what we were talking about. So, Don dropped me off at McDs so I could do a little computin' and he went to fill up the tank. Then back to the trailer and laundry while Don got things ready to go on the ferry to go to Wrangell.