Our daughters friend Jeff joined us in Juneau on July 23rd. The next day we toured the Mendenhall Glacier which is just a short bus ride. They have a fabulous interpretive center there as well as the glacier is quite interesting. After having a beer in the famous Red Dog Saloon, we had dinner in town that evening. The next morning when we departed, the weather changed from warm and sunny to rainy and it stayed that way for almost the whole 10 days Jeff was with us. Nonetheless we had a fun time. Our first night heading south from Juneau we tied to a dock in Taku Harbor and then explored the old cannery ruins located here. Our next stop was going to be Tracy Arm where there are two calving glaciers and spend the night there at anchor. Unfortunately the fog had moved in and there was no reason to go in there with visibility at near zero. So we had a longer day and tied to a doc about the same length of our boat in a small harbor called Hobart Bay and Harbor Island. This dock was so small and weak that when we stepped on the one end the water actually rose above the dock. None the less, it served its purpose and we had a restful night. The next day we went to Petersburg, where we enjoyed walking as well as we did laundry and grocery shopping. It was a very relaxing time. Then for the most wonderful part of our trip we traveled to Wrangell, Ak. population about 2,200 where we took a tour on a jet boat to the Anan Bear Observatory. Check it out at this web site.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/recreation/wildlife_viewing/ananobservatory.shtml
This was a spectacular trip, about an hour or so by jet boat, then a 1/2 mile hike up to this observatory where you could watch mostly black bear but also some brown (grizzly) bears feed on the salmon trying to work their way up the river to spawn. Often times we were within mere feet of wild bears as they passed by our observatory platform. It was exciting and a little bit scary to be so up close and personal. Several of the bears had cubs too, so it was interesting watching the momma bear keeping the males away from the cubs. The males want to kill the cubs in order to get momma interested in mating again. Kinda gory, but that is nature at work. On our hike out down the trail, we came head to head with a black bear. Our guide who was carrying a rifle as well as pepper bear spray stood her ground and talked to the bear as she spread her arms out side to side. The bear looked at her and us and then went off the path and up a hill. It was a bit intimidating as you can imagine. After two days in Wrangell we left and stopped in Myers Chuck for an overnight and then into Ketchikan on August 1st. Jeff departed on the 3rd. We will spend all of August in Ketchikan and will leave here about September 1st heading into British Columbia Canada. The border is about 50 miles south of here. The last 10 days in Ketchikan have been wonderful weather, sunny, and almost hot, highs in the 70's. One day I went fishing with my friend John and actually had to use sun screen. Oh yes, we caught three salmon and an assortment of bottom rock fish. A good fishing day. Now as I type this the weather has turned rainy and cool. We are glad for an electric blanket on our bed at night. Otherwise we are doing well and enjoying Alaska as we always do every year. We especially enjoy our time here in Ketchikan. The city of about 12,000 has really grown on us.
