Alaska by Cruise Ship

We knew we would be out of our usual 'habitat' when Pete’s parents invited us on a family Alaska Cruise.
But it was an adventure nevertheless!

It was cool to see some of the places we had visited in sea kayaks and on river trips from a different perspective (namely from the top deck of a huge ship), the Zandamm. We cruised to Juneau, Skagway, Tracey Arm and Ketchikan. I was amazed by the number of whales everywhere in the open waters. After leaving Ketchikan I counted over 80 of them in an hour. The highlight was watching bubble-net feeding Humpback whales near Juneau and the trip into the narrow fjord Tracey Arm. We also retraced the route or the gold prospectors across White Pass 1896–1899 (an alternative route to the Chilkoot Pass), where the tree line is at 800 meters. We drove on to the small town of Carcross (short for caribou crossing), Yukon and played on the sand dunes there, not exactly what you would expect on an Alaska Cruise. Turns out the real challenge of the cruise was not too eat too much of the delicious food!

Alsek, June 15 -26

For twelve days we floated on the Alsek River through the northern Coast Mountains and Yukon, BC and Alaska. The river carves its way through an amazing ice-age landscape past jagged snow-covered peaks, surging glaciers and grizzlies. In June its light almost 24 hours a day, giving us lots of time for exploring, taking pictures and hanging out with a great bunch of river rats. As always after such a trip, I find it very difficult to sift through my many pictures. So for now, here is a fantastic selection from Josh Miller, a pro-photographer and great guy to do a trip with (like all the other river rats).


There’s a land where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows where;
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair;
There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There’s a land — oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back — and I will.

 From: The Spell of the Yukon, Robert Service

Taku, July 28 - Aug 13

The red line is the Taku and our route from the Nahlin/Sheslay confluence down the Inklin and Taku to Taku Inlet. The blue line is the Tuya River north of Dease Lake. We paddled it in 2003, our first self-supported multi-day into the 'unknown'.

Tatshenshini - August 4 to 12 (13..14..)

Still haven't managed to sort through the pictures. This is the problem with memory cards getting so cheap now. And with taking several cameras on the trip.

But the report and pictures will be up as soon as the rain starts to fall on the Westcoast. (And before it turns to fluffy pow.)