Juneau and the Great Bear Hunt on Admiralty Island

Several weeks prior to our trip, Ronnie was browsing some things to do in Juneau and ran across Pack Creek Adventures.  You have a private guide and he takes you by seaplane to Admiralty Island which is a Brown bear sanctuary.  We learned that Grizzlies and Browns are the same bear....called Brown in the coastal areas and Grizzly inland.  Anyway, we decided we'd go for it, and made reservations.

Juneau

So, we got off the ship to search for transportation to the airport where we were to meet our guide.  We were to be there by noon.  There was one taxi at the cruise dock then (8:30 a.m.) and that made us leery.  We walked about Juneau a bit --not much there.  Juneau has no roads in or out so everything is done by water.  We saw no taxi's around town which made us nervous.

After a bit, we decided we'd go back to ship and get all our gear for the excursion and seek a taxi in earnest.  And we found one....altho it was only 10:30, we hailed him down and went to airport arriving quite a bit early.  But we waited.  Around noon, the guide arrived...nice guy, Jeff.  He told us another couple was supposed to go with us, but they never showed.  We waited until about 12:30 and then he got us geared up with knee boots, hip boots, rain suits (heavy rain suits), lunches, water and snacks.  

Jeff, guide; Trooper Bentz, me, shuttle driver, pilot on steps

Went back into airport to wait for 1:00 p.m. flight by Alaska Seaplanes to the island.  After Jeff talked to attendant, he told us that we would be delayed just a few more minutes.  An Alaskan State Trooper needed to hitch a ride with us to a little village called Angoon in the same general area we were going.  Actually on the other side of the island from where we were going.

Trooper Bentz, Pilot, Ronnie, Shuttle driver

If anyone watched Alaskan State Troopers TV show, you know that each little remote village has a Village Public Safety Officer, and when there's trouble, he holds the perpetrator until the Trooper can get there....by small planes.  So, Trooper Josh Bentz (noted the name) arrived, thanked us for letting him hitch a ride and we loaded up into a van to be driven to the waterstrip (as opposed to airstrip).  He said he'd been on the TV show 3 times....how cool.  

We had to put on waders in preparation for landing and wading to shore....ummmm.. Last time I had on waders, I fell into the Little Red River and froze my butt off.  But didn't fall down this time...waders fit a little better.

I actually thought I'd be so nervous about the plane ride, but it was soooo much fun.  Smooth.  Taking off and landing on the water was a treat.  Enjoyed it a lot.  

Take off

Landing

After about 30 minutes we landed in the waters off Admiralty Island and were met there by a Ranger.  It is  known to the Tlingit as Xootsnoowú, which is sometimes interpreted as "Fortress of the Bear(s)", Admiralty Island is home to the highest density of brown bears in North America. An estimated 1,600 brown bears inhabit the island, outnumbering Admiralty's human residents nearly three to one. However, the name is a false cognate in Tlingit as the term actually comes from Xhoodzee Noow or "Burning Embers Fort" in reference to a large fire that occurred one time on the island and is not connected in any way to a reference to bears, but the mis-nomer continues. Angoon, a traditional Tlingit community home to 572 people, is the only settlement on the island, although an unpopulated section of the city of Juneau comprises 264.68 km² (102.19 sq mi) (6.2 percent) of the island's land area near its northern end. The island's total population at the 2000 census was 650.

There are only 24 people allowed on the island per day.  We were the only two that day other than the rangers.  One of the 3 rangers stayed with us at all times with a .338 rifle and bear spray.  They were game and fish/naturalist/ranger.

Jeff,  our guide, Ronnie and the ranger....

When we got there, we put on the knee boots they provided us....wet and muddy...and proceeded to walk about 1/2 mile down the beach to the mouth of Pack Creek.  We had actually seen bears there as we flew in.  And they were still there.when we walked up.  A sow and her THREE cubs were feeding on salmon all along the creek.  Another sow and her two cubs were seen in the distance.  We watched for an hour or so...until they went back into the forest.  We walked back to the landing area and ate lunch. 

Then we walked about 1/4 mile to trailhead and proceeded up the trail to a tower ...another 1 and 1/2 miles up through a rainforest.  It was beautiful but very strenuous in places.  The tower was about 15 feet off the ground and right beside the creek.  Good views.

And it was only about 3 minutes after we climbed up, here comes a bear wandering down the creek....started chasing salmon and eating....in a few minutes, here's another BIG bear walking right under the bridge we'd just used to cross to get to the tower. 

This bear was not more than 30 ft from us.  We watched for a long time....what a sight.  Even the guide and ranger commented how unusual to see this much activity.  Jeff even commented that we might be stuck in the tower awhile.  I was anticipating a helicopter rescue.


Finally, one wandered on down the creek and the big sow lumbered off into the woods.  After a bit, we left the "safety" of the tower and slowly walked back down the trail.  It wasn't 15 minutes til we met up with the big one on the trail.  Bear spray was handy, along with rifle, but she just watched us as we slowly walked past.  Wow.

Got back to the landing area and then walked back to the mouth of the creek....9 bears out there feeding.  One was so full, he could hardly sit up....still slapping at salmon and couldn't even get it to his mouth....it was hilarious to watch.

Soon, we heard our plane approach so off we went to put on waders and waded out to the plane for our trip back to Juneau.  Got a taxi and got to the ship just about 30 minutes before it was to leave.  

What a day!!  We were exhausted....legs hurt, knees hurt, back hurt, but it was worth it.

Ketchikan, Alaska

Cute little gold rush town.  Enjoyed it first several years ago on an Alaskan cruise...it's about the same.  We walked up (in the rain) to Creek Street which is a restoration of the old town.  Known as the red-light district .  It meanders up by the creek which is full of salmon.




We had decided to do the "Ride the Duck" tour.  As you know, they are all over everywhere, but we'd never done one.  Not sure it was a wise use of our money....Ketchikan is not that big and we pretty well saw it by walking.  We did go out into the bay and had a good look at the fishing boats...it was enjoyable.

Afterwards, we walked back to Creek Street... and this time, we walked to the end and then followed a trail on out to another street --people were fishing.  The salmon were thick in there.

Totem poles are all over the city--they consider them proper gifts for birthdays and anniversaries....I prefer chocolates, myself.

Stopped in a souvenir shop....things were sooooo cheap there.  Wanted to buy coats, hats, jackets...but didn't need another thing.  Well,,,,bandaids.  But we resisted the coats and went back to ship.

It was a good, wet, cool day.  Late that afternoon, we cruised through Snow Passage and saw humpback whales swimming in the channel....cool to watch.  Missed dinner in the dining room because we stayed on the deck for such a long time, but it was worth it.  And the Horizon Court food is good so we certainly didn't miss anything foodwise.

Humpbacks in Snow Passage

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North to Alaska, on total recall......

Decided to do a "recall" blog....will probably be very short.  We can't remember what day it is...how can we remember two weeks ago???  Pictures will help.

Wednesday, August 27:  Up at 2 A.M.  Ummmm....had a 6 a.m. flight to Dallas; then to Phoenix; then to Vancouver.  The further west we went, the earlier it got.  We'd been flying for hours (well, it seemed like it) and when we landed in Phoenix, they said, "welcome to Phoenix.  The local time is 8:35 a.m."    But the flights were smooth, on time (if not early) and we proceeded through customs in Vancouver.  There begins the tale of lines.  long lines.  Little did we know, our lives would be in a line for the next two weeks.

But it went smoothly and just as we walked up to baggage carousal, there were our two over-stuffed bags...no waiting.  Walked out through immigration and there were two Princess reps who grabbed our two over-stuffed bags and we never saw them again until we got to our room on the ship.  Efficient.  Got on a motorcoach (little did we know then!) and took the route right through the middle of Vancouver.  I guess they wanted us to "visit" Vancouver, but I can't believe there wasn't a shorter, less traveled route.  But we did see Vancouver downtown.  Could not believe all the highrise apartments.  There is a huge influx of immigrates to that city.  They are making 200 sf apartments and selling them for $800,000.

Eventually, we got to the terminal and went quickly through the check-in.  We were the last of the passengers to board (it was now around 4 p.m. and the ship sailed at 4:30) so it was easy and quick.   We sailed on the Island Princess--a beautiful ship.  Loved the ship.  It held about 1900+ passengers and we never felt crowded.  We could just about always find an elevator that wasn't packed when we needed one.  Easily found our cabin and had just enough time to get settled and then muster call.  Got that done and found our cabin again to get ready for dinner.  We had chosen traditional dining at 5:15--didn't know if that would work or not, but it was better than the 8:00 p.m. traditional dining.  The Anytime Dining on our last cruise did not work out at all, so we were not going to do that again.  This 5:15 time did work on most nights.  We really got to eat around 6 which is what we do at home.


After dinner, we walked around a bit to acclimate ourselves to the ship.  Found the expediate route to the dining room and the Horizon Court buffet.  The important things. We walked around the ship a bit....beautiful ship.  Went to the Wheelhouse Bar for some fairly good dancing....who knew you could zydeco to a band like that....lol.  But Ronnie rubbed a blister on his foot so that ended the dancing.

The three hour time difference was also there the next morning, so we were up early.
After a great breakfast in the Horizon Court, we sat out on a deck and read a bit...just relaxed and enjoyed not having anything to do.   It was formal night, so we doodied up a bit that night for dinner and that was about all that day.

Keeping in mind that we were up at 2 a.m. and had lost two hours in timezones (another hour was lost during the night), we realized we'd been up and going for almost 18 hours.  So we went to bed--at 8:30 and went right to sleep.