July 15, 2013 Petersburg

July 15, 2013

Woke to a lovely sunny morning and had a hearty breakfast at the ferry cafeteria.  Then settled in to read, watch the scenery go by, etc.  There was a ranger on board who gave a talk about humpback whales and then we started to see them.  Saw quite a lot, probably 25 or so, though most were not close and I didn’t get good pictures of those that were… 

Later, the ranger gave a talk about Petersburg, our next destination.  It was founded by a Norwegian and still has quite a bit of Nordic flavor.  It has three harbors and three fish processing plants.  Its harbor and surrounding passages are not very deep, so the big cruise ships can’t come here, which is one of the reasons we did.

Buoy with sea lions, approaching Petersburg

Petersburg 

Visited the visitor’s center first, then walked around town, which didn't take too long.  Had been thinking of a whale watching trip, but at $310 per person (with no guarantees), we decided we had seen enough humpbacks. 

Sons of Norway

Petersburg is on Mitkof Island and we drove most of the way around it during the day, with stops at Sandy Beach, Whale Point and other scenic spots.  There are homes built around a good portion of the coast, some gorgeous, some pretty primitive. 

On Sandy Beach trail

At Blind Slough, we walked a bit and found these kids having a ball jumping from a bridge.

Blind River Rapids turned out to be a great spot with a long boardwalk.  The salmon were running but there was no fishing allowed at this time, so we had the place to ourselves and enjoyed sitting in the sun, listening to the river, enjoying the scenery and watching and listening to a couple of dozen eagles.

Saw a deer and a porcupine along the road and lots of red berries, which I later found out are Elderberries.

We drove further out the road and found a great spot to boondock by the water. 

There was one camper there, nice folks from Idaho, and a truck pulling a jet ski, whose owner, it turns out, is a native.  He came over and chatted a bit and then returned a few moments later with half of a huge (are there any other kind?)king crab!

  Said he had caught it earlier in the day and just cooked it.  YUM!   Greg was in the middle of cooking turkey burgers, so we had half of the crab and saved the rest for tomorrow – gotta get more butter!  

Nice evening, we sat outside for a while and watched the water.  There are little black birds that float and dive and stay under for pretty long times.

July 16, 2013

Woke to another beautiful morning, about 56 degrees.  Talked with the Idaho folks a bit and they told us about Three Lakes Road, a gravel road into the center of the Island that we had been thinking of taking.  Reports were good, so we headed that way, with another stop at Blind River Rapids (not much happening there this morning).  Saw a porcupine (saw one yesterday too), and then a bear that took off into the berry bushes quickly.

Three Lakes Road was a good gravel road that wound its way through mountains and valleys.  There were a lot of high bogs, mostly muskeg.  Nice view of LeConte Glacier and surrounding mountains at an overlook atop one mountain.  Saw a few ptarmigan which flew to a tree along the road.

Came across this doe with two fawns ( Sitka Deer).  Greg stopped and I followed the deer down the road a bit to get a picture. 

Heard voices up ahead and so did the deer, which decided I was less threatening and headed back towards me before finally leaving the road.  Beautiful!

We saw two more porcupines on this drive,  as well as a few more deer.  Stopped at a fish hatchery which had a lot of coho and king salmon fry. 

Headed back into town and found the library, where I worked on the blog and Greg found a laundromat!

Had halibut nuggets at Coastal Seafood, then walked around the harbor area.

 Time Bandit, from the TV show was in port.  There were lots of interesting urchins and things living under the docks.

Then we headed back out Mikof highway. 

Took Three Lakes and saw 8-9 porcupines along the way.

Back to Blind River Rapids where not much was happening – some salmon in the water and a dozen or so eagles, but nothing like yesterday.  Talked with a man from Quebec whose first language was French. He was traveling with a bicycle and canoe.

Went back to our boondock spot.  Someone set off fireworks nearby around 10:00 or so, quite pretty, and  a car came in around 3:00 but didn’t stay.