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July 4th 2007

Published: August 6th 2007

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carrieandcolin

ketchikan

the views of ketchikan alaska

Kitchikan to Petersburg Via Wrangell

It took us 6 hours to get from Prince Rubert to Kitchikan, we arrived in at 2am on the 4th of July! Independance day for any of you that don't know because I (Colin) didnt lol. We stayed in the Newyork Hotel and were picked up off the ferry.
The following morning which is still the 4th July we went into town. There was a big street party that went on all day it was packed, we walked around all the shops and into the carnival. I threw a baseball and hit the target and a woman fell into freezing water lol it was really funny but we felt sorry for her. We watched the parade in the lashing rain and were soaked through so we ended up having an early night in bed watching films on the tv, as we were up the following morning anyway at 5am to get to the ferry to take us to Petersburg.

We made it in time for the ferry which sailed at 08.30am, we listened to a few different rangers talking about the area and wildlife and went to watch a movie on whales. The rest

Ketchikan

4th July parade

of the time we spent smoking our brains out and eatting as there was nothing else to do apart from drink and we didnt wanna hike to the hostel blocked.
Ten hours later after stopping in a small town called Wrangell we finally arrived in Petersburg.
The views were amazing but we just couldnt wait to get to the hostel to chill out.
Petersburgs hostel was great, really homey and it had free net!!! The following day was the 6th July and we just went hiking (in the rain), we seen lots of wild deer and stopped at a look out point to see if we could spot any whales. (we didnt fs) That night in the hostel we chilled out with the Brennan family from Oz.

07/07/2007 -boat trip to the iceburgs (LeConte Glacier Bay)
fcuking hell, where do we start, what a day........
Its Saturday and the first day that we've been in Alaska that it hasn't rained.
We took the boat trip with a man called Mike, he's been a fisherman most of his life and knew the waters well round Petersburg. We traveled out through the Harbour to the Glacier and stopped at a

Ketchikan

4th July parade

buoy to watch the seals......We started to see smaller iceburgs just floating along in the sea, but nothing compared us for the real thing in Glacier bay. The sea was beautiful, a real aqua colour, there were hundreds of iceburgs of all shapes and sizes. (some looked small on the surface but most of the iceburg is underwater and we had to be really careful in the boat....encase we sank lol). Mike gave us all smoked Salmon that he had done and we had birthday cake as it was Vickys 13th bithday- (We met a family of 5 from Oz at the hostel and they done the trip with us).

We didnt get to see the mouth of the Glacier as there was no wind to make the iceburgs travel out to sea, so we had to stay in the bay- but even that it was all unreal. i really didnt think we'd see anything nicer than the rockys as they were hard to beat, but this comes right up there on the "wow" factor. The scenery was unreal, the snow capped mountains, the forests, waterfalls, iceburgs, wildlife, just the whole calm and cold of the place.
when we

Ketchikan

4th July parade

started to head back we stopped at mikes crab nets, he showed us how to kill and gut them lol (yuk). Colin had a go at doing one- he lifted it with both hands, then pulled the shell off from the metal handle on the boat, then broke it in 2 and shook its guts out. the two parts of the legs are then put in the bucket. Mike was so good he gave us the whole lot, they were Dugeness crabs the best you can get.....they are around $50-60 dollars for a pound in the restaurants and he gave us the lot for free. it fed everyone in our hostel with still some left over....

I have to say it was one of the best days we've had so far.
Carrie and Colin

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