Troop 248 Alaskan Adventure Update

(Here's an update from Scoutmaster David Matzen on )

Day Three, July 24

We are currently at sea, with *gasp* no wifi, how rustic is that?!!  But we are manageing to survive.

Yesterday was  a very busy day, again.

Woke up to another beautiful Ketchikan summer morning, misty, light rain, upper 50’s, in other words, a perfect day in paradise.

Had a nice oatmeal, cinnamon roll and OJ breakfast. Seven of our members headed off to the Catholic service, where Ted Baer was invited to join in with the guitar music, the remaining 11 of us, went to the service at the 1st Lutheran Church where we were staying.  The whole congregation was around 40. We were entertain by a yond lady who was doing here missionary work in east Africa, in the country of Sengali. There she lived with a family to learn and teach with them.

After the respective services we hoping onto the local transit and headed off to Totem Bight State Park, here we walked around about a dozen or so totem poles and visited their Long House, and posed for the traditional group photo.  Totem Bight is right on the water, a beautiful setting. 

After an hour of walking around the park, munching on our sack lunches we boarded a van and cab to head to the Southeast Zip Line program.  We get there a bit early so we got to walk around the local marina, saw a few eagles (Yes, more eagles, they seem to be everywhere).

We all gathered at the zip line folks where they fitted with our climbing harnesses. This is when to look around at all these cables, and high-in-the-trees platforms and say to yourself, umm what did I get into here.

One guide even went to PLU, (I didn’t hold that against her) she even knew Dr. Roundy’s wife.  After a nice safety briefing we walked up this tall tower, hooked up onto the lines and ZIPPPPPPPPPPP off we went guiding through the trees on 7 different cables.  Oh this would have been enough but NO, there is more.  Tossed in to break up the zip lines was this  “bridge” made of looped ropes, another “bridge” made up of wooden platforms like you would use for a swing, a suspended log, a two parallel rope bridge.  Oh yea, all of these “bridges “are 20 – 50 or more feet up in the air!!  After the longest zip line, we were all feeling great, happy and satisfied, but oh no, there is even more!!

We walked up to 60-foot-tall climbing tower with three sides of different levels of climbing challenges.  Everyone got to climb as much as they wanted.  Once we were climbed out, they brought up back to Totem Bight State Park to catch the 4:10 bus back to our “home”.  The bus, as always around here was right on time (it arrived at 4:30), I think they run on island time and we thought our adventures for the day were over, but noooo  the day was still young.  As we were boarding the bus,  the bus driver was picking up here daily ration of  LIVE Dungeness crab from a local man, and brought these crab ONTO THE BUS in a cardboard box.  As the bus was rising from kneeling, the air line was leaking, so we waited for the pressure to build, and off we went.  We were are heading back to downtown Ketchikan, (7 miles soth of Totem Bight) the bus driver decides since the bus is full of tourist (the 18 of us nearly filed each bus we were on) she does a fast turn to the right to show a large eagle’s nest.  She opens the dorr, we ooh and awwwww, the dor close s and….(remember the air leak??) well this time is does not want to build up pressure.  So here we are in the middle of umm errrr hummm no where that WE know of, sitting with a bus that won’t go into drive since the air brakes are getting pressure.  The two locals sitting behind here who seem to know the driver are suggesting various ideas of who to call, (all of whom are not answering since it’s a Sunday). Three tries to get the air built up it seals and off we go, hoping that the driver can stop when we get to our stop. 

We do stop, and get back to the church, no more issues.

A very nice pasta dinner prepared by the adults, we pack up and wait for Mr. Bob, one of the scout leaders of Troop No. 4, and his wife come in his cab van and the wife’s car to take us all down to the ferry dock.  The Boat is almost empty (80 passengers of which all but us and two others have cabins) so the solarium is all ours to sleep in.

Free and HOT showers await us, as we rest on our lounge chairs, now for our way to Sitka.

Day Four, July 25

5:15 a.m.: “We are now arriving at Wrangle” is heard over the speaker system, (it WAS a nice night of sleep), most of us rollover and go back to sleep. 6:30 a.m. we are mostly al up, a few scouts are still asleep was we enter the Wrangle Narrows, a very narrow channel too narrow for the large cruise ships to get through. At times we are so close to shore you could throw a baseball from the boat. We wander through what is know by the locals as “Christmas Tree Alley” on the Wrangle Narrows for the red and green buoys guides the ships through this channel.

Many eagles are seen, a few salmon jumping, and three humpback whales have been sighted.

A short stop off at Petersburg and Kake, we are off to Fredrickson Sound, where we have been told there have been a fair number of whale sightings over the past few weeks.

The scouts are busy playing some of their video games they brought along, some are resting, building puzzles, and watching the waterways for wildlife.  Today is our down day to rest and recover from the fast paced three days in Ketchikan.  The adults, well mainly resting, reading, playing guitar and enjoying the boat ride.   It’s has been off and on rain, misty most of the morning.

We have seen more whales, but far off in the distance. A sea otter was also spotted, and many many salmon jumping all around.

A beautiful and relaxing boat ride, off and on light rain, fantastic scenery.  Many narrow channels to go through, some snow and glaciers in the distance. 

Arrived in Sitka, my favorite place of all, our shuttle bus arrived and brought us to historic St. Peters Episcopal  Church, built over 100 years ago, only the street between us and the ocean.

Tomorrow morning we start off early with a sea kayaking trip at 8:30, then  a day of touring Sitka and a tour of the world famous (really) Sitka raptor center  and dinner with the local troops from Sitka and Juneau.  Should be another fun-filled  day.

Your scouts and big kids are doing awesome, a really nice group and fun to be touring with.

Now it’s time for the Sitka Police Blotter and sleep.