Monday, June 21, 2010

The Marine Highway Trip – 1980

During the summer of 1980 Karen and I were back in touch and looking for another adventure. She had been living in Hawaii and I was in Cincinnati, plugging along. I desperately needed another Alaska fix.

So we made plans to meet in Portland at the home o
f our good friend, Liz Croes, another Alaska friend who had worked the pipeline, lived on the Chatinka River and was a member of the Willow Street gang. I invited a friend, Susan Doody, whom I had met while I was working at Hoxworth Blood Center, to join us.

Susan and I flew out to Portland, met up with Karen and Gretchen and spent a day or so with Liz. Then it was by bus to Seattle where we caught the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry bound for Skagway.


Back in those days the cheapest ticket you could purchase was one that allowed you to sleep on the deck of the ferry, use the public restrooms which had showers for your facilities and the ticket would allow you to get off the ferry at any port, stay a day or two, or however long you wanted, then catch the next ferry coming through. And that is exactly what we did.

Our sleeping accommodations on the Ferry.

The Alaska Marine Highway Ferry is an alternative to driving the ALCAN for those who can afford the fees and want a more relaxed experience. And of course, the scenery cannot be beat. The Inside Passage going up the Pacific Coast was incredible. The Ferry doesn’t stop at any port in Canada, so you have a while on ship enjoying the sites before you get to your first Alaskan stop, which in our case was Ketchikan.

Ketchikan at that time was a small village that had boomed somewhat in that it had a port large enough to accommodate the large cruise ships so much of its economic based centered on tourism. Much of the village is built over the water and was very picturesque. We chose to stop there overnight and catch the next ferry. We found a youth hostel and quickly met many who were taking the same trip we were.
The very pretty village of Ketchikan.

Wrangall did not have the tourism base of Ketchikan and the prevalent industry that supported the community was timber. The timber mills were evident and it was not as attractive a village.

Angoon and Hoohan were very small indian villages that required less than a 30 minute visit to get the lay of the land. They were stops on the ferry route primarily to serve the local traffic.

Our second layover was in Juneau. That morning, when we pulled into port was a glorious morning. Unlike the majority of days, the sun was shining brightly, the air was crisp and life was good. As we toured Juneau many shops were closed with signs in th
eir windows that read, “Closed for Sun Day.” You gotta get your sun when you can!!

Karen, Gretchen, Susan and I set up camp in a state campground at the foot of a glacier. Almost immediately we were warned that a bear was coming into camp on a regular basis and raiding campsites of sloppy campers. For Susan, that became problematic.

She really had her heart set on eating gourmet meals in camp and insisted on carrying food that one would not normally haul around in a backpack….like eggs, butter and cantaloupe, etc. I warned her to be extremely careful because of the bear…but I don’t think she quite got it. I finally really lost my temper when she drained a can of tuna on the ground
right in the middle of our campsite. After that, she didn’t talk to me anymore. Oh well, better that than a bear crawling all over us!

Our next ferry hop took us to Skagway and that was the end of the line for us and the Ferry. Skagway turned out to be a really fun party town. There was an establishment on a side street called “The Bunk House.” That’s where we stayed. A lady rented out ‘stalls’ that had shower curtains across the front and each stall contained
just enough room for your pack to sit on the ground and for two bunk beds. I shared one with a new friend I had made on the ferry, Karen and Gretchen had one, and at this point, I’m not sure where Susan stayed. But when I asked the proprietress if there was a curfew when the front door would be locked, she looked at me with an evil eye and said, “Honey, I ain’t your mother!” I took that to mean there was no curfew. We partied all night and found our way back to the Bunk House in the wee hours of the morning.

The next day a small group of us who had met on the ferry caught the train from Skayway to Whitehorse, YT. It was the White Pass which is infamous in Alaska Gold Rush history and was an incredibly beautiful ride. We met a nice guy on the train who offered our group a place to sleep that night when we reached Whitehorse. He was a railr
oad worker our age and had a railroad house right next to the tracks. Basically there was a couch, table and chairs and that was it, but it was a free place to stay with a roof over our heads.
Our new friends, boarding the train for Whitehorse at Skagway.

The next morning we had a problem. We still had quite a ways to go to get to Fairbanks and no way to get there. The train ended in Whitehorse. We didn’t have any money for bus fare or airfare, so we walked to the outskirts of town and put out our thumbs. Today, I cannot believe that this is what we did, but back then, we really didn’t give it a second thought.

I think the four of us stood alongside the road for about 20 minutes when a woman in a big Ford Galaxy pulled over. She was wandering around Canada with no particular place to go and was very lonely in that big car of hers. She picked the four of us up, packed us in the car like sardines and offered to drive us to Fairbanks! Off we went.

Our first stop was in Dawson Creek. The town is a great party town, but before we could get started we had to set up camp. The Dawson Creek campground back then was on an island in the middle of the Yukon River. We took a ferry over to the campground, set up camp, and then we were off, for dinner and checking out the town. Late that evening when we returned to camp, we each went to our respective tents and called it a night.

However, all did not go well. In the middle of the night a storm came up and I awoke to a very wet feeling. Turns out I had pitched my tent in the middle of a water runoff, so as the rain began to fall, the water started to run and my tent was in the middle of it!! Karen and Gretchen graciously offered to share their tent with me.

We eventually made our way to Fairbanks and our ride let us off at Kevin’s house. By then she and Susan had struck up a close friendship and that was the last we of either of them. No problem.

By now Kevin was married and he and his wife Michelle put us up for a couple of days. We made our rounds visiting then I left Karen in Fairbanks as I headed south to Anchorage by bus. I stayed over in Tok Junction for 2 nights visiting with Red. He had left his job with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, purchased a lodge in Tok and was now the proprietor of that business. His wife happened to be stateside while I was there so I took over as the chief waitress and pie maker for the lodge’s restaurant during my visit.

This trip came to an end after a quick visit with Dale and Karen and then catching a plan back to Cincinnati. It would be more than 10 years before I got the opportunity to return.

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