Into the the wild (well 7.5miles in)

We booked a forest service cabin at Eagle glacier 30 miles from Juneau, the cabin was at the end of a 7.5 mile long trail. We had been told that hitching in Alaska was not easy but we had a new found confidence given our extensive training on San Juan island.  After around 20 mins a guy in a jeep gave us a lift, he had moved from Los Angeles to get away from people and said he got his job at the hospital by accident. When going to the hospital to register, the day he arrived on Juneau, he was meet by a man at the desk who said he was currently too drunk to do his job, the hospital employee pleaded with him to cover the responsibility of patient suicide watch that evening - after much convincing he agreed and got a job at the hospital as a result. 

Our vain attempt to do something "Wild" is nothing on this guy, check out this http://www.dickproenneke.com/alone_in_the_wilderness.html it's amazing and was recommended to us by a nice chap called Dave we met at the driftwood hotel in Juneau.

Hitching to the trail head, Fi would lure them in and then I would jump out of the bushes once they had stopped

Skunk cabbage (the thing on the left) not to be confused with the stink produced by the one on the right

A load of salmon, these one were humpies or pink salmon. They were so big that we thought the noise they made was bears hunting them rather just them splashing about 

porcupine - we also saw a black bear and cub on this trail

They move pretty fast

Man with wearable mosquito net that we met on the trail (they were the only people we met all day and had been in the cabin the day before us)

pretty swamp/lake

The trail was quite varied and had a lot of board walk

Bear spray practice

The trail had lots of marshy bits

nearly there

The cabin in all its glory

Manly wood chopping for the wood stove

Chopping in the twilight is not advisable

Porcupine poop - he had been making the most of the wood store in the winter

The glacial lake in fronnt of the cabin. We saw a large adult beaver swim across here at night, I had put too much wood on the stove (no we are in america resources no longer seem finite) and went to cool off on the porch in my pants (are you enjoying the mental imagery?) and there it was happily swimming along.

We started the fire with someone's left over rabbit targets

A selection of cool looking fungus from the trail.

(Hump) back on the water

We felt quite at home on board the MV Kennicott, nice to be back at sea!  The Alaska Marine Highway is a state run ferry system which is the only way you can reach many parts of Alaska without flying.  If you don't manage to get a cabin you can pitch your tent on the deck or sleep on the sun loungers.  It got quite competitive at the beginning with people bagsying tent space or sun loungers.  We slept in the Solarium with some cool people.  Susie was on her way up to live and teach in Homer, Desi was visiting friends in Juneau and the two guys next to us, old school friends on their annual boys holiday were really excited about their 6 week sea kayaking trip.  It was a really nice atmosphere and people were really friendly.

Ralph hard at work as ever

Between Ketchikan and Juneau is an area called Frederick Sound, home to lots of humpback whales.  We saw at least 12, first the water spout,then they roll forward so we saw the fin and then they lift their tail.  They weren't very close to the boat but quite near the coast, we could see and hear the spout from a long way away.  It was amazing, we never expected to see so many from the ferry.

Russ - here's Ralph modelling his eye mask!

The ferry goes along the Inside Passage really close to Vancouver Island and lots of other islands and through really narrow channels such as Seymour Narrows once home to Ripple Rock and described as one of the vilest stretches of water in the world.  See link for clip about explosion that removed the top of Ripple Rock.  We went through here in the middle of the night.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOh20xpFmZI&feature=related 

The lights were on all night (and day) so Ralph fashioned this highly advanced lampshade so we could sleep.

This shows how narrow some of the channels were.

At the ballet bar

Ralph met an enhanced mermaid in Ketchikan.  Our ferry stopped for 4 hours at the skeggy end of Ketchikan, all the massive cruise ships dock right at the end of the main street.

D'Andre with his cute puppy.  It was like being with a celebrity, as we walked round town everyone was stopping him to have a pat of the pup as it was so cute.  

Poop pup looks a bit concerned!

Luckily we got a chance to meet Alaskas first lady, the lovely Sarah P.....thankfully just a cardboard cut out.  Scarily a fellow passenger said he'd forgive her horrible policies as she's got nice legs!

Creek Street Ketchikan, Ralph waits for Fiona outside the brothel...its not how it sounds, I went on a tour of the historic red light district.  During the prohibition alcohol was smuggled from boats in the creek up through a trapdoor under the brothel built on pilings.

Floatplanes were taking off and landing right by the ferry while we were docked in Ketchikan, it sounded like the battle of Britain.

Camping at the Co-housing

We travelled through a strange dry valley between the Rockies and West Coast mountains of British Columbia.  

The last Cinnamon bun

Joffre Lake on way to Whistler - Billy Elliot eat your heart out

After taking a wrong turn just before Whistler we saw this dog running loose on the road, a strange sight as dogs aren't allowed off the lead by law.  He narrowly missed getting run over a couple of times and there was no sign of anyone around so we stopped and he came running over, obviously very pleased to see people. He was very affectionate.  We knocked on someone's door and they rang the number from his collar and after a bit Jake was collected by his owner and off he went in the front of a pick up, he was such a cute dog, I half hoped he had no owner and we could keep him!

On the way back in to Vancouver to drop off our hire car after our 2 week Rocky adventure we somehow (Ralph's navigating and the massive amount of road works) went massively wrong and were helped out at at gas station by a lovely chap with this cute pic on his van.

Ralph in his natural habitat

We left Canada on the train from Pacific Central station in Vancouver to Bellingham, Washington, US.  There were lots of passport checks and I managed to smuggle 2 potatoes out of Canada.  The US border guards were as aggressive as ever.  They came down the train grilling everyone as to the purpose of their travel into the US and made the man in the seat in front say how much cash he was carrying.  We were met in Bellingham by a great chap called Gary who we had met mountain biking in Whistler.  He lived at a really cool co-housing where everyone has their own house but gardens, workshops complete with every tool imaginable, bikes, kayaks and orchard are shared and managed by everyone.  They have a really cool renovated farmhouse which they have functions/big meals in.  We camped in the orchard.

While setting up the tent we were visited by three white tailed deer, two males with antlers in velvet and a female, she's hiding behind the clump of grass at the back of the picture!

Bellingham co-housing

A huge can-o-worms with a specially adapted pedal mixer

The gardens contain lots of edible plants, everyone is expected to contribute 9 hours of their time a month to various tasks such as gardening/general maintenance.

Renovated farmhouse for functions, childrens playrooms, library.  We borrowed bikes and cycled to town where the farmers market was on.  There was a cycle route which went out over the sea on a raised boardwalk/pier.  Its a really great place.

A lovely lady Carol, Garys neighbour, dropped us off at the Alaska Marine Highway terminal ready for our trip north through the inside passage to Alaska.  We got there early so we could bag a good spot on deck as we were sleeping there for the next 3 nights.