The Return Trip - Days 3 and 4

The last couple of days have been on the ferry down from Haines. We left on Monday evening and stopped in Juneau in the early hours of Tuesday morning - too early for me to get up and I think too early for Juneau to get up. Then we moved on to Sitka where we had a couple of hours in the afternoon to have a look around.

Sitka had a very nice feel to it, that is with the exception of all the touristy enhancements for the large cruise ships that come to town. When these behemoths arrive the town is overwhelmed with literally thousands of tourists for just a few hours - they are whisked around town on various tours with the obligatory shopping opportunities on the way and then they disappear just as quickly.

I guess all the towns up the Inside Passage are much the same (Skagway, Juneau, Ketchican, etc), they do this deal with the devil when they agree to let cruise ships in - great wealth for a few shop owners, certainly a lot of jobs, but the town is never quite the same.

From Sitka, we went on to Petersberg (in the middle of the night), Wrangell (early Wednesday morning) and then in the afternoon Ketchikan (where I am posting this). Ketchikan was chaos, with three cruise ships in port at the same time (our little ferry docks out of town and discharges maybe 75 folks, the big cruise ships discharge 1500 - 2000 or so each). All the streets and shops were thronged with people just a short while ago, now the ships are gone and the streets are dead - how strange.

The ferry trip has been great - not crowded at all, there are plenty of viewing areas to watch the world go by, a restaurant, a Parks Service Ranger to give talks about where we are and what we are looking at. There have been lots of Humpback Whales, but no Orcas as yet. Bald Eagles abound - particularly in Ketchikan where the fisheries make for lots of food. The scenery is also quite stunning - possibly the best part of the trip.

Tonight we set of for the lower 48 - we should be in Bellingham on Friday morning.