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Travel Adventures - Cruiser's blog on an adventure trip to Alaska

Follow the adventure of Shirley and Grahame aboard the yacht
TANGLEBERRY on a three month expedition trip along the Inside Passage from Vancouver to Alaska.

Page 1 - The Boat and the Crew
Page 2   Provisioning for the boat
Week 1    Week 2    Week 3   Week 4   Week 6  
Week 7    Week 8     Week 9  Week 10   HOME AT LAST

Week 6  July 21-27
The Hawk Air flight from Vancouver to Prince Rupert took slightly about 2 hours.  Meanwhile, hubby's sister, brother-in-law and their granddaughter drove all the way from Edmonton to Prince Rupert to join us for a portion of our cruise.
The weather was good, and the wind favourable, so we were able to leave the next morning.
First on our itinerary is a visit to Khutzeymateen Bear Sanctuary, located north of Prince Rupert along Chatham Sound. 

The Khutzeymateen Grizzly Reserve contains 45,000 hectares of protected sanctuary for the Grizzly bears.  In BC, there is an estimated count of 10,000 grizzly bears, 1,500 of them located on the Central and North Coast of BC.  A marine biologist (see photo below) stationed at the Reserve explained to us how he monitors the grizzly bears.  By his count, there are a total of 69 bears in the Reserve, 45 adults and 14 cubs. 

Ray (bro-in-law) & Zoe (niece) very diligently look out for anything interesting that may come up. 

Any little brown or black spot on a grassy flat could be a bear, and any ripple on the water could be a whale.

Sometimes that brown spot could just be a rock.  So, imagine our excitement when we did spot a little cub feeding near the river stream.  (photos below show a grizzly bear and a black bear).  Grizzly bears have a hump on their back.)



A tour boat (see photo below) operating out of Prince Rupert takes tourists to Khutzeymateen Reserve, so we could sort of guess where the bears hang about.  They usually stay near the river mouth or stream where salmon can be found or where there are berries and edible vegetations.  The station ranger told us that the bears move about in three elevations.

The distance from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan, Alaska's first port of entry is 90 miles, so we had to break the journey to two parts.  Our next stop is at Foggy Bay, Alaska (after getting permission from US Customs). There we anchored for the night.  Surprisingly, we were the only boat in the anchorage, with no cell phone or internet reception.

After Foggy Bay, we motored to Ketchikan- Alaska's First City with population of 12,000 people and annual tourists of 1,000,000.   The day we arrived at Ketchikan, Thursday, there were 4 cruise ships anchored plus another that came in during the night.

The famous Creek Street in Ketchikan is full of galleries and gift shops with bargain T-shirts, souvenirs and jewellery.

After Ketchikan, we motored to Meyers Chuck, a small coastal village with 25 summer residents and 4 winter residents.  Next visit is Wrangell, located at the mouth of Stikine River - famous for its Petroglyph Park on the beach.  A platform at the Park has displays explaining the background and history of these petroglyphs.


petrolygphs at the Petroglyph Park in Wrangell.

Here, we posed for a photo with a giant driftwood at Petroglyph Park.  Photo on right is our dinner on the boat.  Niece Zoe did not want her photo taken.

From Wrangell, tour boats offer trips to the Anan Bear Sanctuary, which is about 30 miles away.  We skipped this trip, but our friends went and they were simply thrilled with the experience of viewing bears at a close distance.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzMi4RzE6gE&feature=related
　

Page 1 - The Boat and the Crew
Page 2   Provisioning for the boat
Week 1    Week 2    Week 3   Week 4   Week 6  
Week 7    Week 8     Week 9  Week 10   HOME AT LAST

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