We are camped tonight about 15 nautical miles from Juneau... how cool is that?
We are just completing an eye watering beautiful section that says.... you ain't in the Mid West and you've certainly left British Columbia behind... so sit down, shut up, put your man pants on.... you are in AAAHHHLASSSKAAA now. The snow capped mountains reach higher and stretch further. The water is colder cause the glaciers keep the icebergs flowing. Oh, and your whale sighting count will double in a day cause if BC shows you one humpy at a time Alaska will surround you with 10. Yea, we're in Alaska.

Wrangle set the scene with our first view of the big snow capped peaks... my dream scene. We were greeted right away by a friendly jet skier as we approached town. He made sure we knew what marina to go to and shared what our hotel looked like from the water. Nice guy... nearly escorted us to the dock.

Get the chores done. Laundry... thank god, shower... phew... gorge on good food... ahhh. Find the post office, get food drop... pack bear canisters. Time to relax and figure out what route we want to take to Juneau.

We have been eyeing the Leconte glacier and after talking with a local guide, Bob, from Alaska Charters and Adventures, we decided we'd check out the glacier on a day off as we made our way towards Juneau. Bob walked us through our passage of dry straight and route to Leconte on Google Earth. As the name implies, you must navigate Dry Straight, North of Wrangle a few hours, into a rising tide because even a kayak can quickly become grounded in the deposits of the Stikine River.

We tried to push the earlier side of our window to cross the delta, but no luck as our kayaks bottomed out. Fortunately, we brought some yogurt and berries and enjoyed our breakfast in the unusual setting of the ocean creeping in around us. After 20-30 min the kayaks were floating and we were on our way.

Icebergs make kayak travel even more interesting, with their crazy shapes and brilliant colors. As we paddled up to our camp site past the glacier sculpted discharge we knew tomorrow's paddle to see the glacier would be special.

That afternoon we were pleasantly surprised by Bob and his tour boat swing by the campsite to say hello and dropping off a cold beer. Really! Pretty awesome these Alaska people!

We awoke to a gift the tidal exchange left us during the night... a ginormous piece of ice grounded by our camp. Today was going to be amazing!

Don't ever miss a chance to see a tide water glacier. Our day off of our quest north was spent paddling (can you believe it?) to see the Leconte Glacier and it was spectacular in every way. The deep fiords it created and the thousand foot waterfalls and of course, the ice of a thousand shades of blue...humbling and stunning. Best day off ever.

As we continued north west up Fredrick Sound the weather remained exceptional and we actually got to experience the sun with out its evil parter the wind. Nice!

Camping at Cape Fanshaw was a panoramic sensory overload with monster ice capped peaks surrounding us, whales sounding in the distance and sea lions cavorting just off shore. It was odd putting up a tarp for sun defense, but not as odd as dipping your body in 55 degree water to get a break from the searing heat. Honestly, we were not exactly ready for 80+ degree plus temps, but we enjoyed the day immensely.

Leaving this amazing campsite we knew it would be a treasured, highlight of the trip, but Alaska wanted to make sure it was etched in our brains forever. The solitude of paddling dead calm water towards Whale Island from the cape at 5AM was interrupted by a few feeding humpbacks. Then a few more.... then a few more. Lauri and I shared our paddle surrounded by no less than 10 humpies of all sizes. Some as close as 20 yards away. Let Lauri tell you how startling it can be when a humpback blows right behind you. Best day of the trip so far as we enjoyed the whales feeding and breaching as if rewarding us for our efforts so far.

Juneau... ahhh Juneau

The end is in sight. We were in Juneau in 1999 and although our memories are a bit vague the city has a familiarity about it. The last three days getting here were challenging with Mr. Wind putting following seas behind us and our rhythm became paddle, paddle, brace... repeat. It puts us a bit on edge and when the occasional wave set exceeds 3 feet, the tension increases further. The conditions were well within our skill set but it wears on you and damn that water is cold. Who turned off the Sun? But we are elated to be in Freaking Juneau. 5 paddling days left!

We are spending an extra day in Juneau and might spend an extra day in Haines. We will have too much time in Skagway if we don't. The forecast is not temperature friendly with frozen rain making a brief appearance in the Skagway outlook.... hmmm. Fortunately, the revised forecast showed a bit of a climb in temperature, but Lauri and I face 40 and 50 degree temps and rain to finish the trip. Paddling won't be a problem, but camping might involve extended "tent" time.

Skagway here we come!

We are missing all our friends and family so much... although re-entry I'm sure will be a challenge, knowing that we are headed back on the ferry on the 28th and pointing the truck east after A few days in Bellingham means we soon will be seeing our family and friends. That is a wonderful feeling.

Addie and Max told us we'd like Meyers Chuck... they were right. What was good for them and their Dory was also amazing for us.

The Chuck is a small community built on a series of inlets, affectionately called "chucks" and they have a small marina managed by the Wrangle Harbor master by VHF radio nearly 40 miles away.

Just as we approached the dock, Carol, (new owner of what used to be the local school), invited us to set the tent up on her property and assured us we could use the absent neighbors covered, back deck and picnic table. We are living large! Rain cover without a tarp, seating that you didn't have to blow up and the flattest tent spot of the whole trip. But it gets better.

Soon Ron and his wife Suzy, from Seattle and Will and his wife Trish from nearly everywhere, but mostly Australia, came by for a visit. Carol must have filled them in on our trip, or we could have looked malnourished, but we got invited to the docks potluck dinner? They were promising real food and we wanted to hear their stories, so of course we immediately accepted and immediately started worrying about what we could bring. We chatted for a bit and after hearing a few more details about our trip Trish says "Good on you mate" with her thick, charming, Australian brogue. We'd paddle another 700 miles just to hear that again.

So the dock feast was on... Nachos, pasta, red pepper primavera ( yea Lauri! ), brownies. Lauri and I were feeling very conspicuous about how much food we were taking.

Helen and Burt from a troweler, the two couples we just met from sailboats and one other solo sailer, John, joined the story telling...er... I mean potluck. Good food and amazing, inspirational stories of living aboard these boats year around, cruising all over the Inside Passage and the Asian Pacific, kidnappings, bear tent invasions and refurbishing old boats. Lauri and I were in awe... and a little sad this wonderful group was heading south while we were headed north.

So Meyers Chuck has no roads, no real amenities other than the dock, but special people gather there and the residents make you feel like family... oh yea, if you check out the message board there is a resident Chucker that will deliver fresh, hot, home made, cinnamon rolls to your boat each morning for less than Starbucks. We loved this place and we are coming back!

Big exposure, but calm seas

Seas were settling down as we paddled out of Oona on the rising tide. Lauri and I would make our way around Porcher Island and evaluate the opportunity to make the exposed crossing to Kitson Island. Dixon's Entrance... gulp. We could abort the crossing in the Lawyer Island group at the 2 mile mark if need be, but there were no identified camping spots. It would be another 5 nautical miles to Kitson, crossing a Cruise Ship route... To use Lauri's phrase, the water was like buttercream frosting we decide to go for it... and it went perfectly. So Nice!

After a great sleep (so incredibly happy to have that crossing completed) on Kitson we again waited for the tide to rise so we could avoid the crazy long kayak/gear carry to the waters edge... then off to Prince Rupert.

This has been the longest section of our trip with few options to acquire food and we were on fumes in terms of food supply. Lutz had graciously given us some pasta, and cookies in case we were delayed getting to Rupert. Thankfully, we didn't need it...it's pretty unnerving to get that low on food. Our food cache shipment and the box forwarded from Shearwater made it safe and sound to Rupert thanks to the logistics support of our Bellingham shore crew, Damon. Thanks Damon!

So much fun to get the charts and food for the next section! This time we have a half way stop in Ketchikan to go through Customs as we get back to the good ole USA! I'm quite sure we will never get that low on food again.

The Crest Hotel would be our camp spot in Rupert and Cow Bay Marina would be the kayaks home for the next two days. Addie had suggested this marina and the facility and folks there were terrific. Thanks Addie. I still laugh at the thought of calling the harbor master on the VHF radio to dock my kayak. They aloud us to pull the boats right on to the dock and store them there... it was perfect.

The Crest hotel didn't have any regular rooms for us that first night and they withstood all the negotiating Lauri tried with them... so we broke down and got a suite for our first nights stay in Rupert. One night your in a damp, some would say dirty tent with an inflatable mattress and pillow and the next night you have a king size bed and more pillows than you could possibly use. Life is pretty damn good!

We have about 4-5 days that we need to worry about Dixon's Entrance as we leave Rupert. That and we have to cross Portland Inlet... we hate crossings anyhow, but the exposure we face adds to the anxiety. When we are anxious we paddle more and a bit faster. We start earlier and often paddle longer. Daily average grows from 16nm to 20+... we can save one day every three essentially by kicking it up a bit. One day less of exposure to the Pacific is worth the extra work.

On our way to our campsite out of Rupert we saw our first pod of Orcas. Pretty amazing. Hard to take pictures of, but still amazing. Our point and shoot cameras have a hard time focusing when it's foggy. This coupled with the Wales apparently knowing when we have the cameras ready to go, decide to stay beneath the sea. Arghhh. But they are so beautiful!

At lunch we still had cell service and dialed up USA customs to let them know we were crossing from Canada tomorrow and would need to land on US soil prior to officially checking in at Ketchikan on Saturday. They were great and "had us on their board."

We staged ourselves to do Portland Inlet first thing in the AM and started across near what should have been slack water... not quite. The tell tale sign of eb meeting flood are little wavelets and rips in the water AND it really seems like Wales like feeding near the turbulent water. So we had a bit of fog trying to hide our destination, some medium chop and 5 or 6 humpbacks feeding and intersecting with our course. So we did the sensible thing and changed course for the humpy pod! How many kayakers get to say that?

Shortly after our successful crossing of Portland Inlet we had another shorter, but more significant crossing... Lauri and I can officially say... we paddled to Alaska! Canada and its wonderful people were so great to us, but it felt pretty good to be in the US of A.

Ketchikan was still a few days away, but with continued effort we could maybe save a day. The long range forecast was all the encouragement we needed as gale force winds were predicted for the beloved Dixon Entrance for Friday and Saturday afternoon. 20nm on Thursday and Friday would leave us 15nm to safely be in harbor at Ketchican Saturday.

Early Saturday, felt a bit like a race against a wind that would accelerate our trip to Ketchikan. Weird I know, but having the seas kick up behind us as we approached a new, busy port that is known to have 6 or more cruise ships in Port at anyone time... Let's just say we valued "control" over the winds assistance. It was not to be.

We made it to Alaska's first city in record time, but as we approached the various harbors there was a 2 ft swell behind us and wind trying to pull the paddles from our hands. Any other time it would be YEE HAA, but today we had large ships on our mind. Shockingly enough there was zero behemoths in Port... so thankful to not have to deal with them... particularly with them docking or leaving dock, right across our side of the channel.

The Bar Harbor Marina had kayak racks ready to store our boats for our little shore leave. Ketchikan was in in between food drop city so we had less travel chores to do and we got to wander the city albeit in full rain gear. Very thankful that we were in Port versus camping. Let's just say, LOTS OF WATER was falling from the sky. Oh, and the cruise ships came, boy did they come. Maybe 5 at one time? Quite the sight and quite the economic impact to these coastal communities.

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