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Published: August 15th 2007
On Friday 10th Lori dropped us off at the Greyhound bus terminal in downtown Vancouver. She had kindly provided us with a packed lunch for our journey south to Bellingham. Crossing the border from Bellingham to Washington State took a very long time because everyone had to get their luggage off the bus and go through customs. Our bus driver said we were very lucky it took only an hour, it can take up to 6 hours! We arrived at Bellingham at 3pm (was meant to be 1-20pm!) but still in plenty of time for our 6pm departure on the ferry M V Columbia which was to take us up the inside passage to Skagway.
There was no queue at the ferry, we walked straight on and up to the solarium where we got 2 sun lounges which were to be our beds for the trip. While Sal set up our beds I went to the supermarket and bought provisions for our trip including our favourite foods this trip:blueberries & peaches. It was fun in the solarium, some people set up hiking tents on the deck and others slept on lounges. They all had a story to tell including Harriet,
a lawyer from Juneau who had all her luggage stolen on a family holiday in Vancouver. Her husband and 2 children flew home while Harriet bought new camping gear and took the ferry home. We also chatted to Megan, a photographer, who was heading to Alaska to photograph glaciers.
From the ferry we had a fantastic view of the islands and ocean. During our journey we saw some Orca whales, seals, dolphins and many birds. We took 2 days to get to Alaska and our first stop was Ketchican on Sunday 12th. We went for a lovely walk through the forest there and got great views of the town. We saw a huge number of salmon swimming upstream against a strong current. After a trip through the Wrangell Narrows which required careful navigation by the captain we stopped at Petersburg for an hour. A family of 8 plus their Alastian dog and cat were moving to Petersburg so got off there.
On Monday 13th we were to arrive at Juneau at 7.30am but there were engine problems so we did not get there until about 9am. At Juneau they announced that the ferry would not leave until at
least 8am the following day. There were no other ferries that day so Sal & I decided to fly to Skagway so we would not have to change all our bookings. Car drivers had to stay in Juneau because there is no way to drive out! Hariett kindly offerred to show Megan and us the Mendenhall glacier. We planned to go on a walk to see a waterfall near the base of the glacier but the path was closed because a bear had been seen there. We saw the bear walking near the path and also the remains of some salmon meals that other bears had eaten. We walked to the falls by a diffent path and admired the falls, glacier and floating icebergs. Harriet dropped us at the airport at 1.30pm for our 2pm flight on a 8 seater plane. I sat next to the pilot and had magnificent views of snow covered mountains, glaciers , Haines and Skagway. We arrived at Skagway just before we would have got there in the ferry after a fantastic trip through the Inside Passage!
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Ron & Marjorie
non-member comment
Fabulous
You were lucky to meet Harriet on MV Colombia! The delay at Juneau may have been a good thing! Trust all is well.