Lessons learned from a first trip to Alaska

(And I would sail 500 miles, and I would sail 500 more . . .) We left Denali by train, taking a scenic railroad car with a glass top to Fairbanks, our last Alaskan stop.  It was just a place to sleep for us:  We were on an early morning flight back to Seattle and [...]

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Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve Photo Gallery

      Sylvia checks conditions   Mountains!

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“They look like golf balls”: Rafting in the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve

  When we arrived at the bank of the Tsirku River, I was loaned standard-issue rubber boots and a wool hat (since my Tilley hat blew off on the catamaran ride over), and our busload of travelers was divided into four or five rafts.  Mom and I chose to join Sylvia, a thin but strong young woman who [...]

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C.P.’s Alaska 2: Waste Not, Want Not

I just did a quick Google search on “Haines Alaska CP” and found an article in the Chilkat Valley News  about a brown bear that was shot, declawed, and abandoned in the Chilkat River. It’s a good illustration of local attitudes about subsistence living. Incidentally, I love the fact that the other people in the story are identified by first and last [...]

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C.P.’s Alaska: “Salmon are everything”

  When we got off the catamaran at Haines we were met by our guide, C.P.—a hunky, boisterous, bearded guy with great comic timing.  We had just traveled down the deepest fiord in North America, and were on our way to see the largest collection of bald eagles in North America, but what C.P. talked [...]

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“The Real Alaska”: Rain over Mendenhall

As we docked in Juneau, we were greeted by rain, clouds over the mountains, and the same types of tourist shops we had seen surrounding the docks in Ketchikan.  (“That’s the real Alaska,” I heard over and over again, every time it rained, from everyone who worked in the tourist industry.)  In general, people don’t [...]

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