July 6, 2013
This morning we added water, emptied tanks and headed out of
Seward. Back past Portage and other
glaciers. Light rain, low clouds, 51 degrees,
which we understand is pretty typical summer weather.
Access to Whittier is through a 5 mile long tunnel, which
doubles as a railroad tunnel, so we are driving on rails.
Whittier is very small town, where most people live in one
of two big apartment buildings built for the military back in the 40s or
50s. We were early for the ferry, so
walked around a bit. Bought “tunnel”
fudge from a shop run by a group of enterprising young women. Then shared an excellent Fish ‘n Chips at
Swiftwater Seafood and watched fishermen reeling them in.
Boarded the ferry and headed to Valdez. Unfortunately the fog gave us limited
scenery. Greg saw a sea otter, we saw a few seals on a buoy and some
floating ice, but mostly relaxed. This
ferry is pretty comfortable, with high back comfy seating, big windows and a
small cafeteria. Arrived at Valdez
around 7:30.
Drove the two main streets and stopped for gas. The attendant recommended Allison Point for
boondocking so we drove there. The area
was hopping because we found out the salmon run had just started the previous
day. Campers everywhere! There was an air of excitement and everyone seemed lively and energetic
despite the weather. Everybody and their brother were out fishing, either from
shore or from boats. We parked amongst
many and had some interesting talks with locals and others who were
fishing. Saw many salmon caught.
Tempting to throw in a line, but for us “foreigners” it is $35 for a 3 day license, and we figured $70 would buy a lot of fish… Alaskans pay $24 for the entire year which includes hunting license.
Most interesting was the flotilla of fishing boats all over the bay. They were waiting for some signal that it was ok to begin. Using the fishing boat and a small dory, they put out nets in a large circle, then gradually closed the circle and pulled in the fish.
 |
Sea otters and seals heard about the salmon run too and
could be seen patrolling the area.
Quiet night despite the numbers of people. The limit is 6 fish per day, so after
mid-night it was still quite busy.
No comments:
Post a Comment