Ketchikan to Bellingham

Ketchikan

The ferry ride from Ketchikan to Bellingham started off okay.  We watched couple of movies the first night - MIB3 and Battleship, which helped make time go by.  The rest of the 1.5 day ride didn't go so smooth....

We were on the Matanuska, a sister ship to Malaspina, the one I took from Bellingham to Juneau two years ago.  Malaspina was an old ship, but this one seemed even older, and it wasn't anywhere near as nice as Taku, the one we just took from Juneau to Ketchikan.  This didn't really matter too much though.  The main problem with the trip was that we couldn't get Millie to pee or poo for about 30 hours while on the ferry.  Since there are no port calls on this leg of the trip, we are given 15 minutes at 0815, 1415, 2015, & 0015 daily to feed and walk our dogs on the car deck.  It was quite distressing to not see her go pet call after pet call.  To make matters worse, I got like 2 hours of sleep the first night on the ferry thanks to a book I couldn't put down.  By the 18 hour mark I was worried sick about Millie, thinking how uncomfortable she might be and wondering whether she'd end up going inside the car where she has to stay the rest of the time.  Every other dog was doing their business but Millie and this one other dog.  The owner of the other dog seemed quite upset too and we kept asking each other "did your dog go?"  I'm not usually an emotional person but I was really worried sick and balled on the car deck.  The Watchman saw that I was upset and came over to reassur me that my dog is ok (she was wagging her tail) and it's not uncommon for some dogs to hold it the entire trip.  That made me feel better.  Due to the lack of sleep the first night, I spent quite a bit of time sleeping mid-day again.  Millie eventually did pee at about the 30 hour mark, but she didn't poo until after we got off the ferry.  (I stopped feeding her after the 2nd meal.)  I hope I never have to take a dog on a long haul ride again.

Ketchikan

View at Totem Bight Historic Park

With 6.5-20 inches of rain a month, Ketchikan is probably one of the rainiest places in the U.S.  Here we are though, for two nights, while we take a break from the 3 day ferry ride down to Bellingham.  Last time I was here it was a 7 hour layover on the ferry up to Juneau.  This time, there's no snow but plenty of rain.  At least this time I have a car to explore more of Ketchikan with.

Walk through the rainforest

The first place I found after getting off the ferry and checking into the hotel was Ward Lake.  There is an easy 1.3 mile loop around the lake that was perfect for walking Millie.  The trail here was well maintained and sheltered by the trees.  We walked around it twice to give Millie a good walk.  The next day, after checking out a few other places around Ketchikan (Saxman Park, Creek Street, and Totem Bight Historical Park), we ended up coming back to the Ward Lake area to try out portion of the Perseverence Trail.  It too was a well maintained trail.  It seems Juneau has too many trails to maintain and too many people using them so most of them are quite muddy.  Most trails I've found elsewhere in Southeast Alaska seem to be much better maintained.  Anyway, we didn't have much time to do the full trail, which was a shame, but we had to get back to the hotel before the evening rush for the laundry room started.

Our stay in Ketchikan is the last place where we will be in one place for two nights (aside from the upcoming ferry ride).  Here on out it'll be one night at each hotel, which will suck.  Well, tonight's our last night in Alaska for a while.  Tomorrow night we'll probably be in Canadian waters, and then onto the lower 48!