A few days after I got back from Italy I found myself driving to San Jose to start a 3-week trip north with my mom, Vicky. At the station, I got to hang out with my sister for an hour and return her car. The Amtrak Coast Starlight train goes from Los Angeles to Seattle. I boarded around 8pm and in Emeryville, my mom joined. We set up our little “roomette” sleeping compartment then had a drink in the observation car.
The nice thing about this route is that you go to sleep soon after boarding then you wake up cruising past Mt. Shasta. The day passed easily, eating in the dining car, talking to other passengers and looking out.
After dinner, we pulled in to Seattle and were met by my aunt and uncle. They live just north in Edmonds and it was great to finally see their new place. They have a great view of Puget Sound, with ferries crossing etc. In the morning we did some shopping for our ferry trip, then had a great lunch with two of my cousins. All too soon we had to leave to drive up to Bellingham to catch our ferry. It was exciting boarding and I rushed up to the top deck, the Solarium, where deck passengers sleep. I snagged us two of the last covered spots just missing out on the long deck chairs. Sleeping flat on the deck that’s covered with a soft carpet is probably more comfortable anyway.
Around 6pm we finally took off, the start of a relaxed three days cruising the Inside Passage. The first day on board there were no landings; we cruised north past the length of Vancouver Island. The second day, we stopped at Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg. We got off at each stop and walked a bit. The weather was mostly drizzling rain, but we remembered to bring umbrellas. There are heaters in the ceiling of the Solarium and the first night I was too hot, sleeping out with practically nothing on. But the next two nights it cooled off and was fine. My new ultralight 425g sleeping bag worked great.
The third day we stopped at Sitka where I had never been. The terminal is far from town so I took advantage of a bus that drove into town and guaranteed I’d be back in time to the ferry. My mom met a friend at the ferry terminal and had a nice reunion. I had about 90 minutes to walk around Sitka and was able to walk to the Totem Trail, the famous route that passes a bunch of Haida and Tlingit poles. It was around 6am when I got there, so I had it completely to myself, which was a little creepy due to all the “Warning: Lots of Brown Bears around here” signs. But I did the whole trail, walked back to town, saw one of the Russian churches and walked up to the site of an old Russian Castle. There were many signs about the history, the Tlingit vs Russian battles, the sale of Alaska to the U.S., etc.
Back on the ferry, I took a nap since we got up before 5am. After lunch, we landed at Juneau and again, the terminal is far from town. So we just walked a little bit, then hung out on board until we left for the final leg to Haines. We arrived at Haines after midnight and our friend Irene was there to pick us up. We had stayed with her in 2017 and 2018 on our last two trips to Alaska, so it was familiar driving to Haines, then out to her place, switching cars at the bottom of the last two km steep 4WD road to their house. It was after 2am when we went to sleep, so peaceful in an off-grid house in a gorgeous noise-free setting.
In the late morning the drizzle stopped and the sun actually came out – first time I’d seen it since California! We went for a great hike to Rutzebeck Lake. It was so nice sitting in the sun at the shore. In the afternoon after lunch, Ben and I went for a bike ride. He lent me his fat bike and we cruised down the driveway, then on the paved road part way back to town. We looped back up a dirt road and visited a friend of his, inspecting a cabin that had sadly just been broken into by a bear, then drinking local Haines Brewing Black Fang and talking (local) politics. l learned a lot.
The route back had some exciting single-track, very overgrown, but the fat bike just goes no matter what! Climbing back up the driveway wasn’t as tough as I expected and the big bike felt lighter and easier than I expected too. We had a delicious pasta with salmon dinner then settled down to sleep.
In the morning, I didn’t feel quite right, a little queasy, but that passed during the day with the help of a nap. I still felt weak and it was raining in the afternoon so we didn’t do anything special until it was time to go to the ferry. We drove down, checked in, then had time to drive down to the end of the road where neither of us had ever been. The road ends at Lutak Inlet and we went up the river a little to Chilkoot Lake, a huge, glacial lake. It’s gorgeous with waterfalls coming down the cliffs and clouds up high on the mountains.
Back at the terminal we boarded the Hubbard, a smaller ferry, and took it to Juneau, arriving about 10pm. A friend brought us a car and we drove to another friend’s house, right on the water near Auke Bay. I was feeling better so had some dinner, then settled in an upstairs bedroom with a gorgeous view out over Auke Bay. In the morning I felt fine and cooked up some eggs with smoked salmon my mom’s friend in Sitka gave us and we took it easy the rest of the morning.
Our trip is about a third over. From here we’re off to Anchorage, Homer, Dutch Harbor and Cold Bay via ferry, Anchorage again, Adak, then home.
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