Month: January 2020

Prince of Whales – Part 3

Travel

This is part three of our adventure to Prince of Whales, Alaska. If you missed part two you can catch up quickly here.

By 8am, a new installment of cruise ships arrived for a nippy, rainy, foggy morning in Ketchikan. The hotel provided another Sourdough cab ride to our float plane, which was to take us to our destination: Thorne Bay, a tiny town on Prince of Whales Island. A few other customers came into the office to ship packages, and we moved our luggage down to the four-wheeler with a wagon on the back, so it could be rolled down to the plane. One of the pilots came in muttering under his breath, and asking for a magnet. It seems the keys to his favorite plane had dropped into the water.

The flight was a thirty-minute panorama of fantastic postcard views. Breath-taking water ways, mountains, and small islands dotted the landscape.

The Thorne Bay Lodge owner picked us up in a 350 Ford, gas-powered crew cab with a camper cover on the full-size bed. The Ford could have easily been our abode for the week. But instead of camping in a pick-up truck he drove to our newly-constructed, modern, “rustic” home for the week. The cabin was located less than a mile from the one grocery store, gas station and bait shop that make up Thorne Bay.

We stowed our gear, had a hard salami and crackers snack and piled in the truck for a deer scouting afternoon. We drove to higher elevations, around three thousand feet, to get above the muskegs and alpine forrest terrain. We spied nearly a dozen large does and two-year-old fawns, but only one buck with a fork. He was more of a “last day” shooter. Coming back down the mountain we stopped at a river running into the sea, which was plentiful with salmon making their final run. Focused on fun and dinner, we brought five eight-pound fighters home. We cleaned our fish and headed out in a different direction to scout a little more.

Our second expedition didn’t turn up much, just a few more does, so we stopped at the grocery store for supplies for the week. After we organized and stowed our stuff, we enjoyed fresh poached Alaska salmon for dinner, and then turned in, ready to start the hunting and fishing in earnest in the morning.

In part four, I put my baking skills to use, and we find out why the bait shops in Ketchikan sold so many lures.

-Kate Riley

Prince of Whales – Part Two

Travel

This is part two of our hunting trip to Prince of Whales, Alaska. If you missed part one you can get caught up quickly here.

The 6:15am flight to Seattle was uneventful except for a delayed start. I napped, entirely missing out on wheels up.
Our late departure made for a late landing in Seattle, and we watched in trepidation as our plane coasted right by our gate and kept on going. We had to sprint it through the airport, peppering our fellow travelers with “excuse mes” to create a path. We made it to the gate with four minutes to spare, partly in thanks to a pilot who saw us running and pointed us in the right direction. En route to Ketchikan, I visited with a couple local ladies and learned a little more about the town.

Ketchikan’s airport is on an island. The mainland is accessible by a seven-minute ferry ride. We carted our suitcases down a ramp and fell in line with the rest of the passengers. It was easy to spot the fisherman headed in the other direction, loaded up with boxes of frozen fish. We dumped our luggage cart and handed it off to a large group, struggling under the weight of their success.

We watched the locals from the ferry and took in the scene. Flannel shirts and rubber muck boots were the common attire on everyone. There were no suits or fancy Dans and the vibe of the city was rustic.

Our reservations were at the Gilmore Hotel, and they had a deal with Sourdough Cab to give us a ride from the ferry dock. Our driver was playing both cabbie and dispatcher, and was quite the character. When we stepped back for a picture of the hotel, he was happy to be featured.


Because we’d left Houston early and changed time zones, we had arrived before noon. We spent the rest of the day exploring Ketchikan, the quaint little sea shore town with a giant influx of tourists. Locals told us some days there were five or six cruise boats at the dock. The giant ships dwarfed the rest of the town, and the tourists flooded the streets, buying fish dinners, Alaska t-shirts, and the occasional totem pole.

Kids were toting fishing poles down to the bridge and we followed them to enjoy their efforts. The water was teeming with salmon, and it was cool to look down from the bridge and encourage the fisherman. “They’re right there!” “Oh, they’re over there now! Big ones!”

All the shops and activities are poised to take advantage of the bee hive of cruise business, with customers only available until the sound of the horn. Shops line the streets selling everything under the Alaskan sun. Orca corn, anyone?

I don’t know what it is, but I’m not putting it on my lips.

By seven pm the ships closed their doors, and the shops did too. Ketchikan returned to a quiet fishing village. We chose a spot for dinner and enjoyed chatting with the waitress about her plans after high school. (Frankly, not specific enough to our liking, and we encouraged more exploration and fine tuning.)

Next up: We take a float plane to Thorne Bay, check out our cabin, dump our gear and discover that the deer are everywhere…. but there’s just one problem…

-Kate Riley