When docked in Ketchikan it was a gray misty (rainy) day. There was also another cruise ship in town.
One of Polly’s friends had a niece who lived in Ketchikan and she offered to show us the town. It turns out she is the Owner/CEO of a company that does EH&S related work including drug testing for workers in DOT related jobs. She has lived in Ketchikan for 20 years and is very active in the community and in the state. And, she was a great tour guide.
Rick, Renee our guide, Polly, and Caroline.
While we were waiting for her to pick us up, we had fun with a moose and a bear.
On the left, salmon swim up this stream to spawn. The spawning season has not started yet, but when it is going on, bear like to get a salmon dinner in this stream. We did see a bear nearer where this stream entered the bay. He was far away and the light is not good, but I did get a picture.
Picking salmon berries along the road.
We drove through a beautiful park and campground. Renee told us they try to keep the tour buses away from this area and keep it nice for the locals. It was very pretty. Hiking trails, a lake to fish in, camping spots. Very nice.
We went to a totem park where the native maintain totem poles. It was quite nice with multiple totems.
This totem was inside a meeting house. It is a structural support for a huge
log that hold up the roof. Caroline gives you an idea how large they are.
Some beautiful flowers.
One of the good things about having a local guide who knew the city very well was we learned many things about the city and the area. Renee took us by the high school and other schools. Until just recently they played all of their outdoor sports on gravel since grass is to slippery in the rain. They have now replaced the football field with artificial turf so football and soccer will be played there. But they still play baseball on a gravel field. In fact there was game to be played that afternoon. The field was very wet and had standing water on it and she assured us the game would still go on. When you get 16 feet of rain a year and your opponents travel by ferry or by plane to your city for a game, you play no matter what.
It rained most of the time we were with her. It was a slow rain and she brushed it off as high humidity. Locals don’t use umbrellas—they are a mark of a tourist. Rain is a fact of life for the locals. It can get quite stormy in the winter. She said, “In Florida 100 mph winds are considered hurricanes, in Ketchikan they call that Tuesday.” Renee takes a boat from her house to town every day (an 8 minute ride). If the wind is under 60 mph she goes to town, 61 mph and above she stays home., It doesn’t snow that much here, and when it does it melts quickly.
Two quotes about the rain in Ketchikan from Joe Upton’s “Pocket Guide to Alaska Cruise Ports”.
- Visitor to Child: “How long has it been raining?” Child to Visitor: “I don’t know. I’m only four.”
- “Southeast Alaska is the closest you can get to living underwater."
They have a beautiful recreation center, a nice library, a medical center, and an airport. The population is 13,000 in the area. Major employers are the Federal Government (forest service and Coast Guard), the hospital, and tourism. Occasionally, they get 10,000 cruise ship passengers in one day, descending on the town. Today was more like 4,000.
It was a fascinating day in an interesting town.
After dinner we were walking to the comedy show and saw the end of the sunset. It was nice to see the sun after an overcast, rainy day.
Panorama taken with an iPhone.
Rick and Scott cloned. This is a scary thought.