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57 14.563 133 32.282 WHITNEY ISL SO MUCH HAPPIER WHEN ITS NOT RAINING.MANY EAGLES,FLOCKS OF SEABIRDS

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FARRAGUT BAY 57 06.248 133 11.013 RAIN RAIN RAIN FOG WHALE GOODNIGHT

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56 58.114 132 49.199 THOMAS BAY BOAT IS ALL FIXED UP.HAD SUN & CLOUDS MOST OF DAY,RAIN TO CAP IT OFF.SCORED A CABIN AGAIN

Petersburg, day 2

I've had a very pleasant day, got my errands done, visited the local museum, ate fresh foods and went out for coffee with a local minister who is an avid kayaker. It's getting to be close enough to the end that I'm starting to work out those logistics, and even to think about finding a place to live for September. Somewhat tricky to do with only brief periods of phone and internet access. And yet I still have three weeks left which is quite a lot of paddling. I'm excited to be on my way again. Hope all is well with all of you.

Petersburg

Even if it's only been a few days, I'm happy to be in a town again. Camping in the rain is starting to get to me a bit. Petersburg has Scandanavian roots, with Norwegian style painting on many tourist focused buildings. I've decided to stay for two nights, to have a couple repairs done on my boat (actually they probably got them done this afternoon, shortly after I dropped off the boat; I'm quite glad the local shipwrights were willing to take such a small job) and because I felt like I didn't have enough time in Wrangell, getting in late afternoon and having to take off in the morning before things opened up.

I'll be mailing off the latest set of photos tomorrow, and when they go up, they're going to be great. I took enough photos of bears and icebergs that there have to be some spectacular ones in there.

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56 46.747 132 37.909 NORTH OF LECONTE BAY WENT TO SEE LECONTE GLACIER,WOW!PADDLING THROUGH ICEBERGS IS EXCITING & BEAUTIFUL

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56 44.095 132 33.606 CAMP ISL,NEAR LECONTE BAY PETROGLYPHS IN MORNING,ICEBERGS IN AFTERNOON.BIG MTN VIEWS CAME OUT FROM HIDING

Wrangell

In town again, out of the rain and clean and comfy. I find the pace of Wrangell much more congruous coming in from being solo than I did Ketchikan (though I had a great time there). Wrangell is small and slow, and there's only a little tourist infrastructure. Actually it's quite annoying because the one grocery store in town closes at 6, but I thought I had until 7. But I'll be in Peterberg in a few days and can get more perishables there. And the library is open from 7-9 on Tuesday night. I'm off again with an early tide tomorrow to cross Dry Strait (part of the delta of the Stikine River that dries at low tide).

 

Marine weather forecasts in BC were only for 2 days ahead, but in Alaska they do a full week forecast. It's quite depressing when the entire week ahead has rain predicted.

 

 

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56 21.131 132 07.14 WRANGELL ISL NOTICED FRONT BULKHEAD WAS BROKEN THIS MORNING,NOT SURE HOW THAT HAPPENED.TOO RAINY TO TRY TO FIX NOW

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56 13.52 131 55.91 BLAKE ISL GOT TO SEE ANAN BEAR OBSERVATORY!BLACK BEAR CUB CLIMBING A TREE.GRIZZLY EATING HEADS OFF SALMON.AWESOME!

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56 03.680 131 58.065 FROSTY BAY MORE RAIN THAN SUN.SAW PORPOISES TWICE.THE PROSPECT OF A CABIN IS A GREAT MOTIVATOR,I WIN AGAIN

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55 47.798 132 09.720 VIXEN HARBOR OUT OF WAVY WATERS BY AFTERNOON.TODAY,WHEN NOT EXPECTING ONE,I FIND A CABIN,GO FIGURE

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55 38.982 132 12.274 NO CABIN COVE WIND CLEARED FOG BY MID-MORNING,WAVY CROSSING,WAVIER REST OF THE DAY

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55 28.864 131 49.61 PUP ISL SUNNY DAY BUT FOG STUCK IN BEHM CANAL UNTIL 6PM,PUT OFF BIG XING TIL TOMORROW.MANY SPORTFISHING BOATS ABOUT

new photos

Neil here. This is a special guest post just to let everyone know that
there's a bunch of new photos to see:

Amanda's from mainland BC
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44629959@N00/sets/72157600841741711/

Amanda's from Haida Gwaii
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44629959@N00/sets/72157600842125495/

Neil's from Haida Gwaii
http://www.flickr.com/photos/neilbanas/sets/72157600859241714/

you can also skip straight to the bears:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/neilbanas/832300384/in/set-72157600859241714/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44629959@N00/822337435/in/set-72157600842125495/

Ketchikan

Given the rain, I pushed the extra distance yesterday to make it to Ketchikan a day early to stay someplace warm and dry. There were four cruise ships in the harbor as I approached, and I heard that there are 6 arriving today, so it's a bit of a sensory overload. But my senses were so happy last night in clean, dry clothes, after a shower, going out to dinner. Yum. I ordered crab because I had turned down an offer of free crabs a couple days before from some friendly folks on a motorboat who had too many. In order not to smell attractive to bears, I don't want to cook fish while camping, but it sure was tempting.

Today is beautiful and sunny, but instead of paddling I'm doing errands in town. But I also am leaving my wet things out to dry. Tomorrow I head out again.

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55 13.44 131 09.38 ALAVA BAY HARD RAIN LAST NIGHT,LIGHT TODAY,HARD AGAIN TONIGHT.CAMPING IN SHELTER BY CABIN OCCUPIED BY FRIENDLY FOLKS

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54 57.168 130 56.451 FOGGY BAY LUCKY TO HAVE GREAT WEATHER WHILE EXPOSED TO DIXON ENTRANCE.BIG FISH JUMPING.22 FT TIDES

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54 46.246 130 44.279 TONGASS ISL,ALASKA!WAITED OUT THICK FOG & THUNDERSHOWERS THIS MORNING,STILL MADE BIG XING B4 WINDS INCREASED.TIRED

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54 38.311 130 26.041 MASKELYNE ISL MOTOR BOATS OUT ENJOYING PERFECT SUMMER EVENING.BUGS DROVE ME INTO MY TENT,BUT VIEW STILL MAGNIFICEN

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54 25.326 130 28.878 TREE BLUFF HAPPY TO BE ON MY WAY AGAIN.SUN GLORIOUS SUN!CAMPING ON BEACH WITH LOTS OF TRACKS,LISTENING TO BELLBUOY

back in Prince Rupert

I took the ferry back to Prince Rupert today and will set out north again tomorrow. First I'll fill in some of the details on our Haida Gwaii trip. Gwaii Haanas is the giant park in the south of the Haida Gwaii. We had a sailboat take us and our kayaks down to the southern part of the park over four days, with stops along the way for at least one amazing activity each day. Then Neil and I paddled on our own for three days, and got the weather window we needed to paddle out to Sgang Gwaay (also known as Ninstints or Anthony Island among others), which is the village site of the Kungit Haida, with the most remaining poles and house remains in the park. It was spectacular and beautiful.
And then yesterday we waited around for hours for the speed boat that would take us back up, and then it sped us back up (with fine weather), splashing all the way, just in time to make the last small ferry of the day back over to the town where we had a hostel reservation, but after the taxi in town decided to stop for the night, but we made it there eventually, and I made my ferry back here this morning and hopefully Neil made his flight back to Seattle this afternoon.

Next city stop is Ketchikan. Hope summer is treating you all well, today it actually feels like summer weather here.

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52 09.757 131 06.636 STORMY MORNING TURNED TO SUNNY AFTERNOON.QUIET PADDLE EXPLORING UP ROSE INLET

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SAME CAMP,SGANG GWAAY DAY TRIP.KELP,URCHINS,EAGLES,PUFFINS,SEAWOLF,RAVENS,BEARS,GUILLEMOTS,FROG,SOME CARVED ON MORTUARY POLES

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52 07.646 131 09.828 MORESBY ISL BETTER WEATHER IN TIME FOR KAYAKING & CAMPING.LAZY AFTERNOON ON BEACH,HELLO MR BEAR

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52 08.994 131 05.189 ROSE HARBOR LAST DAY ON SAILBOAT.BIOLUMINESCENCE IN HEAD.

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52 21.135 131 20.740 BURNABY NARROWS HOT SPRINGS BLACK BEAR ON BEACH.BLACK BASS COOKED IN KELP FOR DINNER.MORE RAIN

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52 34.684 131 26.002 TIDEPOOLING.NOT SEASICK.HALIBUT FOR LUNCH AND DINNER

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52 54.680 131 38.255 LIME GREEN SAILBOAT,SEASICK SEAS.TOTEM POLES BECOMING NURSE LOGS

off to the ferry

Neil and I take the ferry to the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) today, We'll be there until July 10, sailing, kayaking and seeing the sights. I'm still planning on sending blog updates, but maybe not every day. Yesterday we went to the Museaum of Northern British Columbia, which had some great artifacts, art and history. Sun is out today, hurrah!