Ketchikan

Downtown Ketchikan, Alaska

Ketchikan is called "Alaska’s first city” because it is the first stop on the northbound journey from the lower 48 states.  With a population of 8000, it is the largest city on Revillagigedo Island,  one of over a thousand islands in the Alexander archipelago which forms the "panhandle" of Southeast Alaska.    Our “Welcome to Ketchikan” couldn’t have been more appropriate…rainy!   It was pouring rain as we drove off of our ferry boat and continued to rain as we set up camp and set out to explore our surroundings.   

View of city from ferry boat not real inviting!

Bernie got a lot of use from his "Liquid Sunshine" coat

Ketchikan receives fully 13 feet of rain per year, more than any other place in Alaska, so although heavily forested, there is absolutely no risk of forest fire here.   There are also no poisonous snakes or ticks—did you hear that, Wisconsin?   This region of Alaska and the Pacific Coast all the way to Washington is considered “temperate rain forest”, and is the largest such ecosystem in the world.   It is cooler in temperature than “tropical rain forests” with temperatures averaging a low of 32 and a high of 52--all year 'round!   I read in a museum that this ecosystem produces more organic matter per acre than any other in the world, including tropical rain forests!   Mosses covered absolutely everything—picnic tables, street curbs, outhouses—everything!    Bernie said at one point, “it reminds me to not hold still for very long!”

Lily in her rain forest campsite

Mossy equivalent of "Cousin It"??

 

We learned that timber in the rain forest can be clear cut and will regrow without planting of any kind and produce harvestable logs again in just 50 years!   We were camped and hiked every day in old growth forests of western red cedar, Sitka spruce, western hemlock, and Alaskan yellow cedar that were jaw-droppiing in their loveliness, and had a kind of spiritual “presence” that was almost palpable.  The Sitka spruce can live up to 1500 years and grow to 250 feet in height.    How tiny and insignificant we felt in comparison, and what a privilege it was to be here!  

Really big trees...

Like all of north America, Southeast Alaska was home to complex and beautiful indigenous cultures long before European contact, people with great reverence for nature.   The dominant tribes here were the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian, all totem pole carvers.  These were cultures without written language and as such totem poles served the purpose of recalling family history and legends, recording historical events, and commemorating the dead.  Ketchikan apparently has more standing totem poles than any city in Southeast Alaska, and indeed they were plentiful, on city streets, in historical totem parks, in museums, everywhere!   In one totem park, called “Totem Bight”, we (illegally) joined a tour group and learned a lot from the guide!

Guide explains construction and use of Tlingit clan houses

Exterior of Tlingit Clan House

Halibut totem

The Tlingit did not intend totems to last "forever", but return to the soil when reclaimed by the elements.   In the 1930s, however, totems were recovered from all over Southeast Alaska from deserted villages, brought to Ketchikan, and replicas carved and protected for the future.   There are, of course, modern carvers as well.

Interior of another (modern) clan house

We did take a day to explore Ketchikan itself as all good tourists do, and it was interesting to learn about how the city saw successive waves of immigrants since the 1880s, in pursuit of riches from mining, fishing, and logging; but how since the 1990s this has become, instead, a tourist-based economy.  It reminded us of home, actually, except for the cruise ships!   Each cruise ship that docks in the Ketchikan harbor holds 1000-2000 passengers, and there are between four and six of them docked there every single day of the summer tourist season.  This is far and away the major source of visitors here, but cruise ship folk do not camp, so we had the campgrounds and trails all to ourselves!

Historic Creek street with brothels from the turn of the last century...only closed in 1954!

...and the salmon only once!

Jim and Bernie took a different route to Creek Street!

One of four cruise ships in Ketchikan port

Per usual, we went on some great hikes, with photos below showing some highlights.

Huge banana slugs come in brown, white, and yellow! 

Perseverance Lake at end of Perseverance Trail

We had a nice lunch and rest on a log at Perseverance Lake

Skunk cabbage grows everywhere in the rain forest.   Wish it was tastier!

View of ocean from Deer Mountain trail

And another...

We know you are wondering and yes, we’ve tried our hand at fishing a bit now that we are in Alaska and king salmon have begun their spawning run for 2015.   The actual catching of fish was less important to me than examining all the exotic sea life we saw around us--starfish, jellyfish, mussels, crabs, barnacles, and seaweeds of all shapes and colors!   We haven’t been to the Pacific Ocean in about 10 years, and very rarely before that!   Eventually I did catch a "rockfish"--inedible but, again, fun to look at!  We fished both in the ocean and on a lovely freshwater lake, inland.  At all times we were surrounded by the loveliest of scenery.  Perhaps our luck will change in the future and we'll actually be able to put some fresh Alaska fish on our dinner plates!

Poles in the water

Crab

Barnacles!

Starfish cone in red...

Purple...and orange!!

Rockfish...isn't he a neat-looking guy?

Bernie fishes Connell Lake

Next stop will be Wrangell.   Here we are waiting in line at the ferry dock with our tag, "WRG", on the windshield.    What adventures will we have during our next 7 days there we can only imagine!