Are we there yet??: Alaska Marine Highway - Prince Rupert to Wrangell

The bit of the Alaskan panhandle known as The Inside Passage stretches for 773 km and is 160 km wide. There are numerous settlements all through the myriad of islands and it has a rich history of gold mining, fur trading, logging and fishing. But there are no roads links to the mainland – just at the far northern end at the towns of Haines and Skagway. Even Juneau, the state capital of Alaska has no road link. Of course, there are roads within the communities but nearly every family owns a boat of some description. An excellent ferry system services all these communities. The ferries we travelled on are somewhat smaller than the Inter Islander but able to carry cars, trucks, RV’s etc. Because they travel such huge distances, they come complete with cabins (grandly called staterooms), showers, cafe, observation room, upstairs covered ‘solarium’, movie room etc.

We have 10 days cruising The Inside Passage on the ferries, stopping off for a few days at settlements along the way. Prince Rupert to the island of Wrangell was our first leg. It was dark and wet when we arrived and we were tired after a very early start- and 14 hours of scanning the seas for the tell-tale spray of passing whales. The town roads had no markings and our satnav completely lost the plot. As we pulled over to cuss the satnav, the local sheriff pulled in behind us - he thought we were intoxicated! Nope - just old, lost and confused! Welcome to Wrangell and Dave’s first run-in with the law!

Actually, we loved Wrangell – it’s not very big and by the time we left three days later we seemed to know quite a few folk. We were greeted at the RV park by a young man, who actually was intoxicated, but he handed us a lovely bit of frozen halibut and didn’t seem too put out when Dave suggested he might prefer listening to his wife’s directions for backing the RV back rather than the rather slurred instructions he gave.

We are very early-migrating tourist birds so nothing is really geared up for the season yet. Everything in Alaska starts on 1 May! The town was devoid of tourists so our flight path backwards and forwards for the next 3 days attracted lots of waves and cheerful greetings. Tourist boat excursions haven’t started yet but we were lucky enough to find a very obliging chap called Eric who was running his light landing craft up the Stikine River, past the Canadian border in order to pick up some gear for the equivalent of DOC. They had been micro-chipping salmon smolt up-river in order to track them as they grow. As we sped over the water we munched on dried, smoked ‘hooligan’ fish and spotted dozens of bald eagles, colonies of fractious sea lions and sea otters. In April as many as 1600 bald eagles arrive to feast on the annual hooligan run. No moose or bear though – still too early after an unusually cold winter.

Our final night in Wrangell we treated ourselves to a meal at the Stikine Inn – the place where everybody goes for a meal and no-one can get through their portion. We were greeted as long lost friends by one of the men we had picked up-river and given lots of advice on what to do and what to see at our next destination Sitka – the old Russian capital of Alaska.