North to Alaska

[Jeff]

Jeff:

      I really like your photo of the early morning departure of the fisherman.

Ron

Thanks Ron but I have to fess up. There is only one person in this motorhome who is up in time to see fishermen getting an early start and it isn't me!  ;D ;D

I'll pass your compliment along to Sue.

 

[Ron]

We been enjoying the photos and trip reports. Tell Sue I second Ron's comments on the departure of the fishermen photo.

 

[Jeff]

Thanks everyone. Went to Eagle/Safeway a few minutes ago. Sold Out!

We will be in Seward Tuesday or Wednesday and will try to get a discount book there.

 

[Jeff]

Day 24 Valdez

We enjoyed a quiet Sunday in Valdez, breakfast at the Totem, a drive out to the Valdez Glacier viewing area, and a visit to the Maxine and Jessie Whitney museum at the Valdez Airport.

The base of the Valdez Glacier is just a few miles east of town and extends down to almost sea level. A small lake has formed at the site and the bright blue glacier ice is at lake level.

The Whitney Museum is a gift to the University of Alaska from Maxine Whitney and is a personal collection of Alaska artifacts and beautiful animals in natural settings. It must have taken a lifetime to collect all the items on display.

The afternoon turned warmer with a little sun and the kayakers and Sea Otters enjoyed themselves. Jeff spent a few hours working on small projects on the m/h and Sue did some last minute laundry before going out for dinner. When we returned Jeff went over to check out the MV Aurora, the Alaska ferry we will board in the morning for Whittier.

We finally got to see out first tanker arrival at the Trans Alaska pipeline terminal tonight. It arrived around 8:45PM and took about 45 minutes to get tied up alongside the loading dock. It was escorted by three tugs, a steering tug with 10,000HP connected to its stern by cable and two escort vessels with oil recovery and storage capability. Since the Exxon Valdez incident there is a very comprehensive tanker tracking and escorting system (TTS) in Prince William Sound to try to insure 100% safety to the environment.

A few weeks ago we watched the same type tankers from here arrive  in Puget Sound and tie up to the refinery docks in Anacortes without seeing the same type safeguards. For those who have been up around the San Juan Islands you may recall how narrow the passages are around Fidalgo Island. Evidently Alaska has been able to leverage a greater degree of control through its oil.

We have to be up early to be at the ferry docks at 7:00AM

 

[Ned]

I hope you get your Toursaver book before you run out of places to use it

That moose at the Whitney is so large, they had to bring him inside in pieces and assemble him on site.

 

[Barb]

Toursaver.com web site

I wouldn't wait Jeff.  I'd order it online.  Or call the safeway and have them save one for you. 

 

[Jeff]

Day 25 Ferry to Whittier

We were up early to be at the Alaska Marine Highway terminal at 7:00Am to load on the MV Aurora for the trip through Prince William Sound to Whittier on the Kenai Peninsula. The trip was a beautiful cruise through sheltered areas of mountains, glaciers, heavily wooded islands. The US Forest provides an interpreter on the ferry system who provides running commentary of the area.

Shortly after leaving Valdez we passed through the narrows into Prince William Sound and we passed Bligh Island and Bligh Reef, site of The Exxon Valdez grounding and the resulting oil spill. The Sound has mostly recovered from the spill although certain species of animals, birds, and marine life are still affected.

We saw a couple of humpback whales, sea lions, porpoise, and birds.

Alaska has over 5,000 glaciers, most of which remain unnamed.

We arrived in Whittier around 2:00PM, picked up our mail that we had forwarded to the Whittier Post Office, and after a short stay got in line to exit the 2..5 mile long Anderson Tunnel, a tunnel shared by auto traffic and trains that is the only way out of Whittier except by boat. For fifteen minutes each hour auto traffic has use of the tunnel in each direction so if you miss the fifteen minute window it will be an hour wait for the next opportunity to leave Whittier.

We drove out onto the Kenai to Seward to spend a few days with Art & Jo Savoy, fellow Mexico caravaners last winter. Art & Jo came up from Prince Rupert, BC on the ferry and have spent the past two weeks touring Alaska with the their daughter and her friend. This is their second trip to Alaska by RV so they are more knowledgeable of the attractions. We had dinner in Seward and finally picked up our Great Alaska Tour Saver book at Safeway last night. We will use the book to plan tours and attractions for the next few weeks.

 

[Shayne]

That hurry up to get in line for the tunnel and then have to wait is for the birds.  Did too much of that is the service many many years ago    Hate to wait.  Keep the fabulous pics coming alone with the detailed info.

 

[ArdraF]

Jeff and Sue,

I'm amazed at how much snow there still is down low.  In two different trips I don't think we've seen that much that low.  And our second one we were in Alaska by June 1st, so equally early.  In fact, we were disappointed that it was too early to see whales on the Kenai because the salmon run is later.

Speaking of the Kenai, are you still seeing smoke from that fire?

ArdraF

 

[Jeff]

Shayne:

When you come to Whittier you are not in a hurry but in fact we waited about three minutes. ;D

Ardra:

Yes, there is still a lot of snow.

The Copper River sockeye run is over but we are waiting for most of the other salmon runs. Today the salmon were starting to gather around the breding tank outlets at the Sea Life Center here in Seward where they released young salmon two years ago.

We expect more in the next two weeks.

The winds have been off the water so the smoke has been blown towards the east and southeast. After the St Elias Range haze we have not seen any smoke yet. We will be here another day or two and hen head towards Kenai where the fire is located.

 

[Shayne]

I'm learning  Jeff  Thanks  I've followed your every entry  as well of the logs of Ned, Lorna, Russ, Betty, and Terry and not in that order, but collectively.  Thank you

 

[Jeff]

Day 26 Seward

We enjoyed another day of beautiful weather as our first day in Seward. The morning stated off with a young bald eagle checking us out from a tree overhanging the m/h.

Later we went downtown with friends Art and Jo to visit the Alaska Sealife Center where we spent a couple of hours engrossed in the research and displays being done on all aspects of Alaska sea creatures.

Art and Jeff were entertained when a Bald Eagle chased a seagull off his perch over the salmon chute into the harbor and the seagull spent 15 minutes trying to frighten the eagle away by repeatedly diving on it. The center raises young salmon and acclimates them to seawater and will release 50,000 of them Saturday morning into the harbor.

The discharge pipe has become home for 2 year-old salmon returning to the hatchery to spawn and all types of sea life including the birds and harbor seals gather for a fish dinner.

We returned to Stoney Creek Campground where we enjoyed fresh poached halibut and grilled Copper River salmon for our dinner.

Tomorrow we plan on moving down to the city campground on the waterfront and taking an afternoon/ evening cruise viewing Kenai wildlife  including a salmon dinner on Fox Island.

 

[Shayne]

Again  great pics and message   Boy that Halibut sure sounds good.

 

[Betty Brewer]

Jeff,

Someplace in Seward we went to a little museum or maybe library basement to see a film on the devastation of the earthquake.  It also had a film running on the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  Very informative.  Much more info on the oil spill in Seward than in Valdez.  Perhaps it was an historical society.  You will love the waterfront.

Betty

 

[Lorna]

Jeff and Sue

Really enjoying our trip from last year through both your postings and great pictures.  Hopefully the Sea Life Center has made some arrangements for all the salmon that they release from the inside of the building to spawn when they come back in two years.  When we were there last year the guide that I had didn't know where they were going to be able to spawn because of being released inside the building.  Keep up the great postings and pics.

 

[ArdraF]

Jeff and Sue,

Now that's one aggressive seagull!  I didn't know they'd divebomb an eagle.  Thought it would be the other way around.  He must have REALLY wanted that perch!

The contrast of the bright flowers against the snow in the background was neat.

ArdraF

 

[Jeff]

Shayne:

It was delicious!

Betty:

Our plans were to take the Kenai Fiords tour this afternoon (returns at 9:00PM) and leave in the morning but it is another clear day with twmps in the 7u0's so we may stick around for anotrher day. We drove deown to the city park this morning and drove right into a waterfront w/e site which will be hard to give up.  If we do stay I will try to find the museum/historical society.

Lorna:

Thank you, we are having a great time! They still have not come up with a solution to the returning salmon so right now they are trying to jump up into the pipe which goes to a 20' sluice and ends. Most of them are just swimming around waiting for the seals and eagles to get them. It will become a real mess as more arrive.

Ardra:

The eagle tried to ignore the gull which infuriated him and the swoops got lower and lower. The eagle finnally jumped down on the rocks to eat some salmon entrails.

 

[Lorna]

Ardra

In Whitehorse last year I watched a seagull dive bomb an eagle that was setting on top of a pine guarding the nest of young eagles.  This one didn't give up easily but finally figured out that it was useless.

 

[Ron]

Enjoying the photos Jeff.  Keep them coming.

 

[Jeff]

Day 27 The Kenai Fiords

Some days are just near perfect and this has been one. The skies were clear and the temperatures in the mid 70s. It is Sue?s birthday and we decided to stay in Seward for another day or two but to move downtown to the Seward City RV Park on the water in Resurrection Bay. The park does not accept reservations and is full this time of year. We expected to be parked without hookups but pulled in just as someone left a hookup site so we are set for the rest of our stay.

We also decided to celebrate with a six hour dinner cruise of the Kenai Fiords National Park. Yesterday we finally were able to pick up an Alaska Tour Saver Book at the Safeway here in Seward. The book is full of 2-for the price of-1 coupons, including today?s tour.

We met Lee & Jean, a couple from Deland, Florida, yesterday who came up on the Alaska Marine Highway with Art & Jo Savoy. We all purchased the tour books and Lee & Jean decided to take the cruise as well so we had outstanding company all evening.

After pulling out of Resurrection Bay here in Seward at 3:00PM we spent four and a half hours cruising outbound with stops to see eagles, sea otters, the endangered Steller sea lion, humpback and orca whales, penguin-like common Murre birds who can fly, porpoise, puffins, glaciers, and a black bear.

There is an active program out of Seward to determine why the Steller sea lion is rapidly becoming extinct. This project includes remote cameras installed on Cheval Island that facilitates daily counts and monitoring of the relatively large herd of sea lions living there. We had seen live shots from these cameras yesterday at the Alaska Sealife Center.

The humpback female whale and her calf were busily skimming for fish on the surface as we approached with a large flock of birds around for the leftovers. The humpback does not have teeth but use baleen to filter seawater for food.

The common murre is a penguin-like bird (no penguins in Alaska) who can fly but not steer very well because they have no tail feathers. Like the puffins we saw they appear to be working very hard to stay in the air!

The sea otter is a cute sea animal that was hunted to near extinction for their pelts, by the Russian hunters who were the first whites here, and later by Americans. They have been very slow to recover and their numbers are still very low.

The stop at the Alalik tidal glacier lasted 45 minutes with the boat engines shut down so that we could here the noise an active glacier makes as it grinds its way to the sea. The glacier was actively calving and very educational.

We also enjoyed a grilled salmon dinner that was very good while under way and were being entertained by the wildlife guide who kept us on the watch for the next interesting sea creature or animal.

We got back to the docks at 9:30PM while it was still bright daylight and walked back to our motorhomes.