We could board the ‘Kennicott’ at 3:00 pm for our trip on the ‘Alaska Marine Highway’ and through the ‘Inside Passage’ and we left at 6:00 pm. We didn’t have a cabin, but we heard you could sleep on deckchairs in the solarium so we brought our sleeping gear. We got on board quickly and that turned out to be a good move, because there were not many deckchairs. Fortunately we were able to get 2 of them and we spread out our sleepingmats and sleepingbags.

When we had installed ourselves, we checked the ship out. We could get free hot and cold water and there was also ice to put in our drinks. And there was a microwave which we could use to heat food. We brought enough food to last us the 3 nights and 2 days on the ferry. Of course there was enough to eat in the restaurant, but that wasn’t exactly cheap…

The nights were not nearly as bad as we had expected. We could sleep very well on the deckchairs and there wasn’t too much noise. So we were able to sleep pretty well. The first day was long, but we had books to read. When we left Bellingham, the weather was beautiful, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. But when we woke up the next morning, it was grey, foggy and rainy. That did cause a mysterious and spooky atmosphere. The clouds were hanging low between the forested and hilly islands. We saw many whales and no matter how often you’ve seen them before, it keeps being a special thing.

The second day started with a 3 hour layover in the town of Ketchikan. We left the ship to explore the town. It wasn’t a very special town and very touristy. We were there together with 4 big cruiseships. All towns on the Alaska Marine Highway are very touristy and they rely on the many cruiseships that come every week in the summer. The shops also; the one souvenir shop is followed by another jewelry store. Such a shame for those towns. Since there’s an average rainfall of about 160″ (4,5 meters), it wasn’t strange that it rained when we were there. But fortunately just a little.

The morning of the third day, we arrived in Juneau, where it was cold and cloudy. But we were glad it was dry, since here too the average rainfall is around 160″ (4,5 meters) per year. It was about 25 kms (15 miles) from the ferrydock to town. On the way, we saw the Mendenhall glacier, not far from the road. We had arranged to stay with another Warmshowers host. When we arrived at the house, John was already waiting for us. They have a very nice house, right at the waterfront and not far from the town center. Stephanie came home later. That night she took us on the tram, up on the mountain. There, we had a beautiful view on Juneau and the surrounding mountains and water. And the same cruise ships we saw in Ketchikan…

We had planned on staying in Juneau for a day or 2 so we could have a good look around town. So we wanted to take the ferry to Skagway on Thursday, 2 days later. But somebody decided differently. Because of some organisatory thing, there was no ferry on Thursday or for the next week or so. The only sailing in a week was on Wednesday afternoon. So that was a disappointment! We had to choose; either leave again the next day, or stay for at least a week. We were welcome to stay that long, but we thought it was too long. So we decided to leave the next day, even though we really regretted that. We would have loved to stay a bit longer and John and Stephanie knew many things to do, but it wasn’t meant to be.

And so we left again the next morning. On our way back to the ferry dock, we did a small detour to go to the glacier. You can get pretty close by road. And again we ran into the people from the cruise ships. On busses this time… Then we continued to the ferry terminal and boarded another ferry, to Skagway. In the meantime, the weather had cleared and the sun came out, so we left Juneau in rare sunny weather.

This time, we didn’t see whales but we did see many dolphins. Beautiful too! The weather changed along the way and it became cloudy and chilly again. We arrived late in the evening. Here also, we had arranged to stay with people from Warmshowers. We could camp in the yard.

Many villages along the route live off fishing and tourists. Skagway does too. But Skagway was founded by the people of the famous ‘Klondike goldrush’, around 1897. The prospectors arrived over the water or hiked in on the White Pass trail. A lot of the men spent their gold/money on booze, gambling and ‘painted ladies’ in town on their way home…

We stayed for 1 day and again were surprised about the many souvenir shops that all sell the same stuff and the many cruiseship tourists that walked around here too. We also did a trip by bike to a place where once was a small indian town which turned into a busy town during the Goldrush of 1898 and we visited the cemetary they used back then.

Tomorrow we leave for the first real kms in Alaska. We cross the Canadian border and hope to arrive in Whitehorse the next day.