Contentment

Contentment

An Ancient gaffer once I knew,
Who puffed a pipe and tossed a tankard;
He claimed a hundred years or two,
And for a dozen more he hankered;
So o'er a pint I asked how he
Had kept his timbers tight together;
He grinned and answered: "It maun be
Because I likes all kinds o' weather.

"Fore every morn when I get up
I lights my clay pipe wi' a cinder,
And as me mug o' tea I sup
I looks from out the cottage winder;
And if it's shade or if it's shine
Or wind or snow befit to freeze me,
I always say: 'Well, now that's fine . . .
It's just the sorto' day to please me.'

"For I have found it wise in life
To take the luck the way it's coming;
A wake, a worry or a wife -
Just carry on and keep a-humming.
And so I lights me pipe o' clay,
And through the morn on blizzard borders,
I chuckle in me guts and say:
'It's just the day the doctor orders.'"

A mighty good philosophy
Thought I, and leads to longer living,
To make the best of things that be,
And take the weather of God's giving;
So though the sky be ashen grey,
And winds be edged and sleet be slanting,
Heap faggots on the fire and say:
"It's just the kind of day I'm wanting."
                       -Robert Service

As you may have guessed from the poem chooses for this week, we have had some less than idea weather as we travel the inside passage of Alaska. We are, however, more than content to deal with it. Since leaving our lovely spot in Homer we have seen a lot more of this wide and varied state.  We will try to recap just the highlights.

Portage Glacier

We started out with a night in Portage where we stayed in a cute little cabin in a campground. We explored the local glacier- Byron Glacier with a hike. Yes, it was raining a bit and so we also spent some time at the beautiful visitors center. Then it was time to travel to Whittier and get on our first of many ferry rides. To get to Whittier you have to travel through a 5 mile one way tunnel. It was originally built during WWII  and helped the USA to have a 'secret port' where they were able to bring in equipment and troops. The town of Whittier has been described to us as "the armpit of Alaska" and after seeing it, we'd have to agree. It has an absolutely stunning surrounding, but is dirty little town of 250 people.

Almost all of them live in a horrible old concrete building. We saw about 5 single family homes, that was it for the entire town. They did have a cute boardwalk and a beautiful harbor, but it is hard to imagine what is like there in the winter when it is just the locals. In sharp contrast, our first stop on the ferrry was Yukatuk. This is a small subsistance villiage of about 600 people. The homes and buildings were all well cared for, the locals were out and about the town and it had an amazingly well stocked store. We had just enough time to do a bit of beachcombing before having to get back on the ferry and head to Juneau. So 36 hours after first getting on the Kennecot in Whittier, we finally arrived in Juneau. It was raining, but that didn't stop us from seeing the town.

Schaals in Juneau!



Reds Running

Fish Carcass left over by bear

Glacier Gardens

Upside down trees in Glacier Garden.

Juneau has a vibrant downtown area which caters to the thousands of cruise ship visitors it gets most days in the summer. We all enjoyed walking the streets on a little urban hike before hitting the trails. We went up to Mendenhall Glacier, where we had a tonne of fun watching a black bear devour a Salmon, only about 15 feet away from the crowds. It was only interested in the fish.  

Black Bear feeding on a Salmon

The rivers up near the glacier were full of Sockeye, making the final leg of their journey. Tim loves the "spawn till you die" slogan that the Salmon live (and die) by. We did get up on a beautful hike, the East Loop trail, which brought us through a stunning rain forest with spectacular views of the glacier.
After this hike, Anna had to take a stop at Glacier Gardens, a beautfiul garden with an hour long tour. It is amazing how well things grow, it is a short season, but a successful one with plenty of daylight of moisture.

Colton waiting for a chum to catch

While Anna did this the boys went fishing for Chum, or Dog Salmon, Now these salmon were on the last run of their lives, and in fact - many of them were already dead in the river. It really is quite disgusting, but you can't help but be impressed by this sight. The boys loved "native fishing" which means they were wading in the river, and were catching these fish with their hands. I guess this tells you how close to death these fish really were. Of course, these are NOT fish you would consider eating- it was definatley a catch and release activity.

Ethan with a native catch

The following day we took "the road" up to Echo Cove. This is where the road in Juneau actually ends. Although Juneau is on the mainland, there is no road access. In Echo cove the Pinks, or Humpies were putting on a great show. They were jumping everywhere. We had a blast catching and releasing these guys as well, although we did require fly rods for this. They put up a great fight!
We had excellent accomodations at the Juneau Hostel. They had a family room and for $30.00 a night, our family had our own room with a private bathroom and shared kitchen and living room. It was our first hostel experience of the trip - so far so good.

Humpy Jumping.

Colton reeeling in a pink

Pinks flying around everywhere!

Anna reeling one in

Tim's got one on!

The next day we were up early and off to Sitka. We were lucky enough to take the fast ferry - the Fairweather, which travelled at 33knots. This is amazingly fast, especially when going thorugh some narrow channels. In fact, it was almost too fast to enjoy all the whales we kept seeing.

Sitka was a fantastic little town. It has a population of about 7000 people. We enjoyed walking around this small town, which also caters to cruise ships. We had an epic kayaking day in Sitka. It was amazing,  but it wasn't raining. It actually felt like summer weather for a few hours. We went kayaking in Sitka sound , which opens up into the gulf of Alaska. We had never paddled in the open water before and the swells freaked us out a bit, especially as we were in double kayaks with the kids, who weren't able to help us paddle as much as would have liked. It was a bit daunting to suddenly loose the horizen as you were paddling because of the swells. This coupled with some wind, chop and other large boat wake made for an intersting first hour.
Luckily our guide was a great guy from VERMONT! That's right - Mitch Wentz - a Thetford boy, was our guide in Sitka. He kept us from crashing on the rocks and eventually brought us into some more protected waters where we could relax and enjoy the beauty of all the small islands in Sitka. Our paddle finished off with us docking on a small island, building a fire, having lunch and then getting picked up for a 20 minute boat ride back. Turns out we paddled over 8 miles in three hours. We were all sore in the morning, but it was a welcome discomfort!

Sitka National Cemetary

We also snuck in a quick hike in Sitka and a walk around the Sitka National Cemetary.  It was like a little Arlington, beautiful and peaceful. We stayed in the Sitka Hostel and loved it. Once again we had a private family room which suited us fine. Colton actually said "I like hostels better than hotels". We met some really intersting travellers and had a good time hanging out on the porch with them, playing guitar and sharing stories.  Ethan made friends playing his version of 'smoke on the water' over and over again on the guitar.

Coming in to Sitka

We left early in the morning (3:30AM) and made our ferry going to Petersburg. We'll tell you all about that on our next post.  For now we are content to enjoy every m inute of the remainder of our trip. If you wait for the weather to be sunny, you'll miss your opportunity for fun. Lucky for us, each day this past week has been 'just the kind of day we're wanting' and has been more than pleasing.