Our Trip To POW

Our Trip to POW.

We left at 5:00 from Parkdale Oregon, Traveled north on I-5 to Bellingham, Washington. Arrived at Bellingham at 12:15 with lots of time to kill before the ferry leaves to Ketchikan, Alaska. The ferry this year is the Malaspina (built in 1963) ~ which is 408 feet long and 74 feet wide, and travels 16.5 knots. It is designed to carry 701 passengers, carry’s 1,760 linear feet of vehicles. There are 54 four berth cabins and 28 two berth cabins. We were lucky to get a 4 berth cabin at the last minute! It takes 38 hours to get from Bellingham to Ketchikan Alaska.

After getting settled into our room we have a bite to eat in the lounge. You can bring your own food or purchase something from there restaurant. It is a nice relaxing trip to ride the ferry. All Friday evening the easy sailing. The weather on Saturday was nice, sun and a few clouds ~ better than Oregon weather. We met several new couples that are traveling and we met some of the travelers that we met last year on the trip to POW. We will travel in Canadian waters till about midnight on the 23, and then we will be in Alaskan waters.

We arrived in Ketchikan at 8:00 am May 23rd to a foggy day. Two large cruise ships were in port. Wow, what big guys they are! We depart the Malaspina , park the Geo Tracker in the parking lot and travel to Wal-Mart to get our annual fishing license~~ $390.00 for both of us this year! This means that we should get going fishing!

We left on the Stikine for our travel to Prince of Whales Island ~POW~. This ferry is 200 feet long, carry’s 30 vehicles and 190 passengers. This ferry cruises at 15 knots. This is a 3 hour trip. Arrive at POW at 7:00pm. Off we go to Coho Chalet. The first 54 miles are payment and the last 28 miles are gravel and BUMPS, and HOLES. This part of the road trip to Coho Chalet takes 1 hour and 45 minutes. Were we glad to see the end in site!

We arrived here just about dark. Went to turn on the lights ~~not working! Check the breakers~~ nothing! Guess that AP&T didn’t turn them on. We find the lantern and look around to see how things fared the winter ~ looks good!

Monday morning brings sun and that is good, as we have lots of things to unload from the truck. Finally we get electricity and the Whale Pass Fire (water) truck comes with a load of water for us. We had William put the water pipe in the water tank, but guess that there hasn’t been much rain the past few weeks. WE got most everything unloaded, then off to visit the friends in the area and see what the news is!

We have a few wildlife visitors in the area. A ruffed grouse and the resident doe that hangs out around the area. She will have a fawn soon, we hope.