Alaska isn’t exactly around the corner—not even from Canada—so I spent another 24 hours on the bus to Prince Rupert, which is still in Canada but close to Alaska.

The trip to Prince Rupert was such that I wondered for a long time whether that was all worth it: through the bus window I saw a lot of green, a lot of earth and sand colors, and little new things.

That only changes shortly before the end, on the stretch between Terrace and Prince Rupert: on the left you see the Skeena River and the hills and mountains behind it, on the right more mountains, all covered in trees and everything bathed in beautiful sunshine— just gorgeous.

But inevitably, shortly before reaching Prince Rupert, a thick wall of fog descends on the beautiful landscape, and so my first impression (and also my second the next day) of Prince Rupert is: gray, foggy, rainy, boring…
Somehow, I just can’t get excited about it, even on my second tour of the city the next day. For me, Prince Rupert just doesn’t have anything to offer 🙁

Butze rapids

I decide to take a walk to the Butze Rapids: at least that way I’m doing something and could theoretically see bears and wolves. But even they stayed at home that day. At least I was back in the “real” rainforest and the sun even came out briefly towards the end of the walk.
The next surprise was that the rapids are tide-dependent and can therefore only be seen twice a day, namely at the change from low tide to high tide and vice versa. Unfortunately, no one had told me this beforehand, so the rapids were naturally not active when I was at the viewpoint.

Ferry to Ketchikan, Alaska

Since I had to be at the ferry terminal at 6 a.m. the next day, the evening was over quickly and the night was unfortunately much too short, because around midnight a Dutch family checked into the hostel, who were obviously unaware that they were not the only ones in the hostel. I can’t think of any other explanation for why someone would run through a wooden hallway in the middle of the night with their shoes on or talk to their boyfriend/husband/brother/brother-in-law across the entire hallway.
At some point, I finally fell asleep before the alarm clock rang again at 5:30 a.m. (way too early). Funnily enough, almost all of the guests wanted to go to the ferry terminal that day, so 3-4 taxis left one after the other from the front door.

At the ferry terminal, it was the usual stuff you have to go through when entering another country: customs declaration, insurance, assurance that you’re not planning a terrorist attack, baggage check, and then we were off to the boat. I spent the next six hours curled up on a seat because, once again, all I could see outside the window was gray and wet.

Some pictures of the ferry trip

Ketchikan 🙂

 

11:30 a.m. arrival in Ketchikan, gray, wet, and foggy again…seems to be the trend there. I can’t check into the hostel until 5 p.m., and since for the two days I only have a small backpack with me, I decide to explore the city on foot. The city stretches along the waterfront, and the ferry terminal is, of course, not at the same end as the city center, but when I arrive there, I immediately like the small touristy town center. There are wooden boardwalks and everything is small and nice and tourist-oriented, but still beautiful. The large cruise ship terminals are also located there, and tourists are stepping on each other’s toes.

I’m there just in time for the salmon run, which I only notice after a while. Having already wondered why such odd fish keep jumping out of the water in the harbor basin.

As I continue my walk, I pass Ketchikan Creek, where I encounter something I have never seen before: a river full of fish. Fish upon fish, a huge mass—I have never seen anything like it. Really impressive—and depressing, when you consider that all these fish will die within a few weeks. The place is already teeming with dead fish lying or swimming next to, behind, under, and above the other fish. Nevertheless, it’s an impressive natural spectacle!

Hostel in a church

When I arrive at the hostel or church door at 5 p.m. sharp, I am completely frozen through, and once again, a hot shower is my salvation.
The hostel in Ketchikan is unique in that it is actually located in a church. If the girls‘ dorm had windows, you would be able to look from your bed directly at the altar …hmmm…a strange thought. During the day, the basement of the church is a center for homeless people, which is the reason why the hostel is closed during the day, because, for example, the kitchen is shared by the hostel and the center.
The beds are incredibly cheap at $20 (US!!!!) dollars, but also incredibly uncomfortable because you sleep on worn-out camp beds. But it’s okay for one night, although one lady in our room was smart enough to put her mattress directly on the floor.
But after an early start to the day and a long walk, I probably would have slept soundly even in a much more uncomfortable bed.

The good thing about going to bed early was that I was fit and ready to go early the next morning, because I wanted to complete the Deer Mountain Trail before the ferry left for Prince Rupert again in the evening. An English woman who was also staying in my room had told me about it on the first day.
I assumed it would be a ‘normal’ mountain hike and hadn’t really given much thought to food, drink, or clothing. Of course, it was raining again, so I had my warm clothes and rain jacket on and wasn’t really prepared for what awaited me on Deer Mountain.

Deer Mountain Trail

I had heard of Grouse Mountain in Vancouver, but didn’t know there was anything similar in Alaska. So I soon had to abandon the idea of climbing a hill on a gently winding hiking trail and quickly got used to climbing stairs, scrambling over scree and roots, steps and bridges, and enjoying signs like “1/2 mile.”
At the start of the trail, I met an older gentleman in jogging gear who immediately asked me if I wanted to go all the way to the top today. To which I cautiously replied, let’s see how it goes.
I met him again shortly before the 1-mile mark, when he was already on his way back, and I asked him if he had already been to the top. No, he only ever did the 1 mile, so I asked him how far it was to the top (as I was already starting to feel a little tired). Oh, it it’s only 3 miles, although it wasn’t entirely clear whether that was the total distance or the remaining distance. And he gave me the tip to try the blueberries, of which there should still be plenty further up, if the bears hadn’t eaten them yet… Wait a minute! Bears????!!!!!! At the hostel, they had told me there were no bears…great, that’s so Canadian…oh, no, that’s American information policy…not so unlike the Canadian one, though…well, now I was on the way anyway – and there was nothing I could change about the situation right now.

So I continued slowly and steadily. In the meantime, it had stopped raining. Further up, I actually found blueberries, which tasted excellent, and there were no bears around. A little further up, I reached the tree line and a large sign with distances. It was still half a mile to the summit. And at this point I encountered something I hadn’t experienced before: ambition. And so, after thinking about it for about a minute, I decided to tackle the rest of the climb. The path was no longer so stepped, but it was narrow and still steep, and worst of all, you could see down because there were no trees anymore… scary.

But with Grandpa’s help, everything went well. Actually, I never met my grandfather, but I know he was an avid mountaineer. And the imaginary conversation with him calmed me down/distracted me to such an extent that the rest of the climb was no problem.
Twenty minutes later, I was at the top, where you can look down in all directions. What a great feeling! Unfortunately, I couldn’t see much except a lot of fog, and, as always, my camera battery went dead at the crucial moment. But the feeling of being at the top was amazing!
On the way back, I even saw a small snowfield that had obviously survived the summer, and – most importantly – I saw no bears :-).

And now, all the way back – part 1: ferry

Back at the hostel, I was allowed to take a shower and unfortunately had to put my sweaty clothes back on, because I hadn’t planned on doing any sports activities when I was planneing my trip. After that, I watched TV until it was time to head to the ferry, which was scheduled to depart at 9:30 p.m. In the meantime, I had decided to treat myself to a cabin for the return trip and sleep in a real bed on a real ship for the very first time— what a luxury!
For 59 US dollars, my wish was granted, and when I stood in my two-person inside cabin with plenty of space and my own bathroom, life couldn’t have been better.

But things got even better: I hadn’t eaten dinner yet, of course, because I had plenty of time to do so on the boat, but when I got to the on-board canteen, they had just closed or were in the process of doing so. However, one of the service staff took pity on me and I got a huge portion of spaghetti with minced meat sauce, vegetables, and a yogurt at a special price. Perfect!
Shortly after leaving Alaska, which I had to watch live from outside, of course, I crawled into my cozy bed and slept soundly until I was woken up at 4 a.m. by an announcement that we were already close to Prince Rupert and that we could now slowly get up and ready to leave (in a polite and nice way, of course 😉 ).

Part II: Back in Canada

Between 5 and 5:30 a.m., I was back in Canada and had to answer questions from the friendly customs officer, who was not in a good mood so early in the morning.
Of course, I hadn’t arranged a ride, and because it wasn’t raining for once, I walked back from the ferry terminal to the town center and arrived just before 7 a.m. at the Cow Bay Cafe, where breakfast is served from 7 a.m on.
There, I had a delicious chai and a warm berry crumble… yummy 🙂
After that, I was able to sneak back into the hostel and, after some begging and pleading, was allowed to kill time there until I could make my way to the bus to Vancouver.

At 10:30 a.m., I was already back on the long road south, which this time was heavily affected by the omnipresent bush fires. So when you looked out the window, all you could see for hours was smoke. When I got out at a gas station during a stopover, my eyes started to water after just a few minutes. The local residents had already been dealing with the fires for two weeks at that point, but everything seemed to be within the usual range and no one was particularly concerned. Still, I wouldn’t want to trade places with them.

Part III: I made it back in Vancouver

Back in Vancouver, I spent my last two days on the west coast and climbed the original Grouse Mountain on Tuesday. I am really, really happy with my time of one hour and 10 minutes.