I’m pretty certain that Sitka is going to be our favorite stop on the trip. While Maddy and I both would place the extreme glacier trekking highest on the list of what we’ve done, the time we all spent in Sitka was pretty neat.
It was the longest time we had in port – although again we tendered in. There is no place to dock a cruise ship in Sitka (as we are now beginning to dock in Ketchikan). Our excursion for the day was sea kayaking.
We boarded a long open air raft – the kind you expect the Navy Seals or Israeli commandos to use on their way to a raid – and headed for the bay where the sea kayaks are – about four miles from Sitka, across Sitka Sound, and back into one of the fingers and fjords of Baronof Island.
Sitka was the capital of Russian Alaska – and it is where the Russian flag was officially lowered and the American flag raised when Seward committed his folly and bought Alaska for $7.2 million dollars – and we’ve had a pretty good return on that investment. Back in 1867 (when the US bought Alaska), you COULD see Russia from your window!
Anyhow, on the way over, we stopped to watch some humpback whales. While maybe not as entertaining as Orcas (which Carol and Torie saw a lot of near Juneau), it was still exciting for Maddy and I to see the humpbacks. A couple of them sounded, so we got good looks at their tails. We had seen whales several times from the cruise ship, but this was much more up close and personal. They’d blow and then surface, sometimes briefly and sometimes much longer.
After a while, our guide said it was time to go sea kayaking – enough of the whale watching. So we headed back into a bay (Cooper’s? – I need to google map this). There are a number of floating houses. The island walls pretty much shoot straight up from the sea, so floating houses are how they build getaway places. Some are quite impressive and beautiful, others were rotting and ramshackle.
The floating houses need to follow strict environmental laws (they are located within Tongass National Forest). You pay for a permit and start building. Most cost about $15-20k to build. I will post a picture or two when I get a chance – as always, way behind on pictures!
Torie and I headed out in one kayak, while Carol and Maddy took another. In our group there were four boats total (eight people) plus our guide, an outgoing young man who guides in the summer and splits/sells wood in the winter. His goal is to become a nurse. He’s half Tlingit and half Irish. We could hear him very well across the water – given the remoteness, voices carry well.
Our first efforts took us near two bald eagles perched across the way. One was down pretty low in the huge trees, and the other was higher. One screamed and flew off in anger as Torie and I got closer, but the higher up Eagle just hung out there. There are an estimated 40,000 bald eagles in Alaska, with many in the Southeastern part of the state (where we were).
(Current comment – yeah, it’s a mix of broken clouds and sun – haven’t seen the sun much here!)
Then, we paddled down to the end of the tidal bay. Our guide gave us great detail on the flora and fauna. There were lots of jellyfish in the water – and Carol saw a ton of starfish. As we got closer to the end of the bay, we could see the pink and chum salmon jumping out of the water, getting ready to head up stream and spawn. It’s an amazing sight – and we all hoped one would jump into our kayak. Our guide claimed that very thing had happened the week before, but I’m skeptical about the veracity of the statement – not that salmon won’t jump into a kayak, but just that it conveniently happened last week.
As a side note, there had been some interesting World War 2 activity back in that area – logging trails for wood to build for US troops and an abandoned barge as well.
After returning to our floating house/dock, we feasted on clam chowder and hot apple cider. It wasn’t that cold, and since it didn’t rain, the day was plenty pleasant.
We took the raft back to Sitka. Our guide gave us some suggestions on what to see in Sitka. I asked for a lunch suggestion. He said the best seafood was from a tent by St. Micheal’s Cathedral. The city is essentially three blocks long (well, it’s a bit longer, but that’s including residential streets). We headed north to St. Micheal’s Cathedral, walking past a stand selling Reindeer hotdogs (“Rudolph!” as Carol disbelieving cried out).
The Cathedral is Russian Orthodox, which is kind of unorthodox in the states. The church burned in 1966 and was rebuilt in 1967, but the townsfolk still managed to save most of the historical icons – so the inside was worth the price of admission ($5 for adults, free for children/students). The lady at the entrance was nice – I paid my $20, but when she realized ten of those dollars were for Maddy and Torie, she called me back and refunded the $10.
We then stopped by the “Wild One” food tent for the best seafood in town. It was great – Luke the chef was using two large Foreman grills set up on a card table. He also had a huge vat of rice going – 37 dry cups he told us. Torie and Maddy both had the prawns, while Carol and I paid a little extra for the combo platter – King Salmon, Halibut, and prawns. It was all really good – we sat out by St. Micheal’s as the church bells tolled (and don’t ask for whom the bells toll).
We wandered through town, stopping in some stores. Shockingly, I’m not a huge shopper, but I was generally patient as the girls looked at stuff. There is a LOT of Russian stuff for sale.
Once we hit the end of town to the north we headed over and “climbed” Castle Hill – which has been the most strategically important part of town going back to the Native Americans. It afforded good views all around of the Sound, the mountains, and Sitka herself.
Then, it was back south to Sitka National Park – a short walk from the center of town. There were many, many totem poles throughout the park on a trail through the forest. And it is some forest – 100 foot high trees towered over us. It’s a mystical place – given all the rain, these trees grow quite high.
Then, we came to Indian River, where there were more salmon jumping out of the water. As we moved up Indian River, so did the salmon. We came to a footbridge – the salmon were fighting to get to their particular spawning ground before dying. You could walk across the river simply by taking baby steps on the backs of the salmon (don’t worry, we didn’t ACTUALLY do it!). It is stunning to watch – I had no idea how many salmon will go up river. No wonder the bears tend to wait till the end of the river to make their easy/lazy kills!
After a heated discussion about how much time we had left before the final tender (it was 2:45pm, the final tender was at 4:30 – we had time!) we walked to the Raptor Rescue Center . There were rescue bald eagles, red tailed hawks, and more owls than you can see at the zoo. We lucked out – just as we popped our heads into the big room, one of the guides was bringing in a bald eagle on his arm (with the padding, of course).
The guide talked about Sitka, the rescued eagle, answered lots of questions patiently, and generally informed and entertained us. It was a great bonus to a really neat experience.
The nature trails outside of the rescue center are posted with warnings about this area being very good habitat for brown bears, so proceed at your own risk. We decided not to check it out (didn’t really have time, anyhow).
We headed back into town – Carol and the girls did some shopping, we got some fudge, I had a reindeer hotdog (at least I passed on the “Grilled Eagle on the Stick”! Just kidding, no such thing.) and we headed back to the tender.
