September 15, 2004

September 15, 2004

This morning we awoke docked in Ketchikan.  Ketchikan is very cute and most like what visitors think of an Alaskan town.  A tiny river runs thru the center of town.  We follow it upstream.  The first stretch has wooden houses on stilts lining both sides of the river.  Originally red light district residences, they are now a series of tourist shops.  We follow the creek further upstream watching the last of the salmon scurry up the shallows.  We are too late for the peak of the salmon spawning run.  Aside one of the shallows is the Deer Mountain Hatchery and Eagle Center.  We tour this hatchery learning about the life cycle of the salmon.  Salmon are born in freshwater streams but live their life in the ocean.  They always return to their place of birth to spawn.  The journey takes a tremendous toll on the salmon and they die after mating.  The hatchery also has a pair of injured Bald Eagles and a Great Horned Owl.

Also along the river is the Totem Heritage Center.  This museum has a bunch of original, mostly unpainted totem poles displayed indoors.  Totems are sculptures carved from large trees by the Indians that inhabited the Northwest.  Unfortunately totems decay quickly in this wet environment so few old totems exist.

We head back downstream to where the creek empties into the sea.  Looking down from the last bridge we can see thousands of salmon in the water.  A local fisherman tells me that the salmon linger here until they acclimate to the freshwater.  They don’t feed but sometimes will snap at a fishing lure out of anger.

Back outside the ship, ready for lunch, we stop by a few booths selling flight-seeing tours.  There is one open spot on a seaplane tour leaving immediately. The vendor makes me a deal I can’t pass up, so I kiss Aimee goodbye, and jump in the van that drives us to the float plane dock.  I climb in the rear of the small plane and we take off heading east. We fly into Misty Fjords National Monument.  We land on a small remote narrow fiord inside the park. We get out to take some photos of the gorgeous scenery. Back in the air, we head west skimming the water trying to spot whales. No luck. We fly at eye-level right by the cruise ship as we land.

That evening we leave port early as the ship is going to make a detour into Misty Fjords. The ship gives me a different view, cruising up a long fiord with sheer cliffs. Along the way I am wondering how this large ocean vessel is going to get out of here. Amazingly, the ship is able to make a 360 turn and sail out.