Wrangell Island
June 30 – Our ferry from Ketchikan to
Wrangell left bright and early at 7:30, so check in was at 6:30 (if this is a
vacation, why are we getting up so early?) We arrived at the dock a few
minutes early and found the office closed (but the ferry was there). Around
6:45 the office opened and we got our destination card and lane assignment.
Dave was 
reassured that he bought the right truck when he noticed that all of
the trucks in the line up were Ford F-250 diesels. We were traveling aboard
the Aurora, one of the smaller vessels so there were no lectures by the Park
Service. One the way we saw the Guard Islands lighthouse. Upon arriving at
Wrangell (only three vehicles got off) we set about finding a campsite (see Finding Nemo for the scoop) and setting up camp.
July 1 – We started the day at the
famed Petroglyph Beach (Wrangell’s main and perhaps only claim to fame).
Thousands of years ago natives carved many (40 have been 
located to date,
there are undoubtedly more) designs into the rocks on a stretch of beach. No
one knows what they mean, but they are interesting to see (and find since there
is no map as to where exactly they are). We were able to locate 27 of the
carvings. The petroglyphs shown on this page are modern copies – the originals
are so worn that the detail is lost when the pictures are reduced and
compressed for use on these pages. Pictures of the originals can be seen on
thePetroglyphs page (but it will take a long time to
load). Our next stop was Chief Shakes Island, which was located in the center
of the boat harbor connected to by land by a boardwalk. The island features
several totem pole copies and a replica of a clan house (like Totem Bight State
Park in Ketchikan this was built by the CCC in the 30’s). We walked through
town for lunch (as the campsite was about 15 miles away) and observed a curious
going-on.
The police had closed down a road and there were
two plywood and tarp booths with people selling food. They were too small to
be a carnival and too makeshift to be a year-round stand. Each booth was
plastered with signs telling you to vote for Jenny or Talea for 4th
of July Queen. On the menus for each 
establishment the prices
were mostly followed by “+2 QT” or “+3 QT”. Well, we had to ask a townsperson
what was going on. As it turns out, the 4th is a big deal, but this
little town (population around 3,000) has never had the money for any kind of 
celebration
in its budget. So many years ago someone decided to raise money by holding a
raffle with a big grand prize. To encourage people to go out and sell the
tickets, a prize was also given to the person who sold the most tickets. It
seemed that girls usually sold the most tickets and in a few years the winner
got to be known as the 4th of July Queen. Well the title stuck and
it became a contest with a coronation and all that. Somewhere around 20 years
ago one of the girls in the competition got the idea to sell food and along
with the meal you would get a queen ticket (QT). It was a good deal, the buyer
got a reasonably priced meal and the girl sold another ticket. Needless to say
that girl won and the food booths have been a fixture ever since. This year’s
competition started on June 1st with a huge salmon bake and the
booths have been open everyday since. They publish menus with their specials
in the 
newspaper each week. We had lunch at Talea’s booth (she was cuter
and more hometown looking) and were given 5 queen tickets. Top prize is
$5,000, 2nd is $3,000, and 3rd is $1,000. The queen gets
$1,000. The big winner was the fireworks budget – over $40,000 is raised in
this raffle. In years past when the town had a bigger population they had been
known to raise $70,000 and that’s a lot of hot dogs and fried bread.
After lunch we drove deep into the forest to
the Highbush Lake trail. Our research indicated that it was a 400 foot walk to
a small lake. Our plan was to carry the kayaks down the trail and launch them
for an afternoon paddle. Upon arriving at the trail head we found that it was
a 400 foot walk to the start of more of those cursed stairs. There weren’t too
many stairs and the lake was pretty so we decided to carry the kayaks down the
stairs. One of the unique features of a rain forest ecosystem is that trees
will spring up anywhere. Since it rains so often they don’t need to get deep
roots to find water. The picture shows a tree and grass growing on a fallen
log in the middle of the lake! The tree roots absorb water and nutrients from
the rotting log. We had a great paddle until the end when we had to carry the
kayaks back up the stairs! It wasn’t too bad though. We called it a day and
headed back to camp.
July 2 – It was a cold and rainy night
and in the morning we didn’t really feel like doing anything outside so we sat
under the canopy at the picnic table and created the Ketchikan web pages. The
rain 
got lighter so we got moving. We hiked the Rainbow Falls trail
which, as the name would imply, led up to a nice waterfall. We then went into
town and had lunch at a local diner (and listened to the locals mock the cruise
ship tourists and their expensive designer rain suits). We then stopped by the
internet café and sent in a bunch of web pages. Our next stop was the Wrangell
Museum. The museum was an eclectic, but nice collection of memorabilia from
the city’s history. The museum was created a few years ago by soliciting
donations from everyone in town. We went back to camp, but decided that it was
too early to quit for the day so we decided to hike the Turn Island trail - we
were curious to see if the Forest Service had tried to build a trail to an
island (given their keen sense of direction). The map indicated that the trail
was a half mile long and led to one of the other clusters of campsites in the
campground. What the map failed to show was that this was another stairmaster
trail! We decided to tackle it anyways, hoping that the trail would at least
give us a few good views and it did! We crawled back up the stairs and headed
for camp having earned some time in a chair by the fire.
July 3 – We had a late afternoon ferry to
catch so we had some more time for exploring. We decided to try the Thom’s
Lake trail a 1.2 mile hike to Thom’s 
Lake. The trail started off
as expected, a nice bridge across a creek and then the all too familiar
boardwalk through muskeg meadow. We figured that at any minute the trail would
enter the forest and turn to more stairs. But, this time we got a new twist on
things – the boardwalk had sunk into the meadow! Small surface streams from
the rain were running over the boardwalk. Next we hit spots where the boards
were missing. We were glad we had our Xtratufs (knee high boots see Ketchikan,
part 1). And finally, as we should have expected the boardwalk just plain
ended. The trail still existed, sort of (there were orange reflectors nailed
to trees marking a route) but we had to try to find a path through the standing
water and sinkholes. Dave didn’t do so well crossing one puddle and sank in
knee deep! We did make it to the lake and as is always the ending with trail
stories, the view was amazing. We headed towards town, but still had 5 hours
until check in. We pulled off at a log transfer facility along the road (there
was, after all, only one main road) and looked things over. The facility was
used to take logs off of barges and transfer them to trucks for the ride to the
sawmill (why don’t the barges just go straight to the sawmill??). There were
logs piled all over, but no activity. So, we changed clothes and put the
kayaks in. We had a good paddle after conquering some rough water. After
drying off we still had 2 hours until check in. There was no choice but to
take in some local flavor (and a few Alaskan Ambers) at a place called the
Totem Bar. They were in the process of getting ready for their karaoke contest
(part of the 4th of July festivities, they were having a toga party
on the 5th), but luckily no one was warming up. We made it to the
dock at check in time and found that we were the only vehicle getting on the
boat!
This ferry trip was an overnighter. We didn’t get a cabin on the ship because we’re on a budget and we had heard it was common practice to set up a tent on the rear deck of most ferries and then strap it down with duct tape. Although we had brought magnets to hold our tent down (and duct tape), we decided not to set up as it was raining heavily again and instead found some seats in the “recliner lounge”. The seats were nice and they did recline, but they weren’t something you could fall asleep easily on. Fortunately this ferry’s next stop was in Petersburg, about four hours later and most of the people got off there. During the exodus we were able to grab a pair of couches that faced each other. While the couches weren’t long enough to stretch out on, we each did manage to get some sleep.