Our boat arrived in at Petersburg at 10:45 PM on Tuesday. We had a reservation at The Trees RV Park about 8 miles south of the ferry terminal on the Mitkof Highway for Wednesday night, but had no set home for Tuesday night. We found a nice pull-off on the right near MP 5 and had a peaceful night, and checked in at The Trees in the morning.
Petersburg is an authentic working fishing village on Mitkof Island. No cruise ships here. In the nineteenth century, Peter Buschmann, a Norwegian immigrant, settled here, building a cannery, sawmill, docks and early structures. The settlement was named Petersburg after him, and it flourished as a fishing port. Icebergs from the nearby LeConte Glacier provided a source for cooling fish. The town had attracted mostly immigrants of Scandinavian origin, thus giving Petersburg the nickname "Little Norway". The Sons of Norway hall was built on one of the piers. Three other canneries were built and the four have operated continuously since. Throughout town trash cans are decorated depicting historic labels used by various canneries.
The weather during our stay in Petersburg was significantly better than it had been in Ketchikan. On a few days the forecast actually predicted a chance of precipitation less than 90%. One day the sun came out for a moment and briefly, we saw our shadows. That scared us, and we scurried back into our den.
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| I think beer and liquor are the big cash cows here |
The Trees RV Park is owned, operated and hand built by Larry, a retired engineer who worked for Tongass National Forest. He developed many of the roads throughout the forest and many of the facilities, including Starrigavan Recreation Area in Sitka, where we will camping on the next leg of our adventure. He was a wealth of good information and tall tales.
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| Fuchsia |
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Our camp at Trees RV Park
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Lee Sing Alley in Petersburg
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What's a Fartsdemper anyway?
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| Hammer and Wikan were common names in town |
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Pretty much everything consumed in SE Alaska is shipped in on containers by barge
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I never smoked and have never been in tune with the price of cigarettes, but this seemed awfully high.
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| Lung cancer is expensive ... coming and going |
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| Fish ladder on Falls Creek |
The boardwalk trail at Blind River Rapids on the Mitkof Highway, is a popular destination for fishermen and also offers a close-up view of muskeg. Muskeg covers about 10 percent of Alaska.
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| Blind River Rapids Trail |
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| Blind Slough on the Blind River |
We visited the
Clausen Memorial Museum in downtown Petersburg. Following are some photos:
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| Eagle skull and egg at Clausen Museum |
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| Classic salmon lures |
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World record 126.5 lb King Salmon at Clausen Museum
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Shacks on Hammer Slough
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| Loading up the family |
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| Let's all stand on the picnic table for a bette view! |
While at Blind River Rapids we saw several folks fishing. One fellow was coming in, and said he caught a fish, and he was anxious to show it to us. He promised us a Kodak moment Cool! I figured he had caught a
fish, but in reality he had caught a
FISH. He was camping in his truck camper in the trail head parking lot, and we talked with him again before continuing on our explorations. He said to come back later in the afternoon, and he would share his bounty. Super cool! Following is the tale of the fish:
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| 34" King Salmon ... freshly caught from the river |
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Portions of the 34" King Salmon, still fresh
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Serving of 34" King Salmon freshly broiled
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| 34" King Salmon with potato and coleslaw, ready to eat |
We ate salmon for four dinners and a lunch. Thanks Denny and Sue!
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Forest Service Road 6235, aka Three Lakes loop road, aka 21-mile loop road
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| Bear scat. Musta been a big guy! |
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More bear scat, but somehow different
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Later we spotted 2 yearling bear cubs, but they were shy and wouldn't pose for us.
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| Sand Lake Trail |
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| Hill Lake |
At all three lakes along the Three Lakes Road there were row boats available for anyone to use. There was no security, but they were all at least 0.3 miles from the road up a steep hill. It would be a tough portage if anyone wanted to steal one.
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Dorcas says: "Rowing is very different than paddling."
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LeConte Glacier is the southernmost tidewater glacier of the Northern Hemisphere. The glacier is known for its "shooter" icebergs which calve off underneath the water and shoot out of the water due to their buoyancy. We found a viewpoint for LeConte Glacier, as it were. LeConte Glacier, but it is best viewed by boat or plane.
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| View LeConte Glacier, sorta |
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| Alaska's state flowers? Lupine and dandelion. NOT! |
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| Porcupine says: "I'm not afraid of you. sucka" |
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| A muskeg meadow |
We got several contradictory opinions: Is this a ruffed grouse or a female ptarmigan in summer plumage? If we could have seen its tail, we might know for sure. Locally it is called a hooter, because it makes a sound like blowing across a pop bottle.
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| A "hooter" |
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| Hill Lake Trail |
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| Skunk cabbage is very common in the Tongass National Forest. It is HUGE. |
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| Enjoying a toasty fire at Sand Beach Park |
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| The Matanuska at the Petersburg terminal |
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| Driving the coach onto the ferry at Petersburg. "Watch out below!" |
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| The ferry ramp at Petersburg |
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| Dorcas parallel parking with two "helpers" |
I had to back out from here to exit the ferry. It was exciting. It was 245AM, and the owner of this car must have been asleep and failed to heed the call. He gummed things up for about 20 minutes.
We saw a number of humpback whales and sea otters on the passage from Petersburg to Kake.
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| The forward observation lounge |
The following photos are from the ferry departing Petersburg
Our passage from Petersburg to Sitka was a total of 13 hours. People are not allowed on the car deck while the ferry is underway, and pets are required to stay in their vehicle on the car deck. That means a long time for Matilda to cross her legs. Luckily, we had a stop in Kake after 4 hours, and we had a few minutes to take her ashore for a break. That still meant a 9 hour passage from Kake to Sitka. We had been told that on the longer passages they would open the car deck for folks to walk their dogs there. I don't know if Matilda could do her business on a steel deck. In any case, they have never opened the car deck on any of our ferry passages, either this year or during our trip 6 years ago. Sorry Matilda.
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| Is this what they call the poop deck? |
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| Walking Matilda at Kake |
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| The Matanuska at Kake |
3 comments:
I think speed bumps are more of a fart facilitator than they are a fart damper.
Nice hikes way back in the woods. I wonder if you have bear spray?
We do have bear spray. We have 2 cans we bought many, many years ago. I hope they still have pressure. I hope we don't have to find out. I stick one in my pocket anytime we venture into the woods, including walking around our many various campsites. So far the only bears we have seen are while in the car. Myron
I too wondered about Bears as those were HUGE piles of scat!!! BIG FISH......so nice of the guy to share with you!!! I can see there was a lot of planning that went in to scheduling the ferry, campgrounds, where you would be at certain times, etc.
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