Social interaction during the first 4 legs (from start to Prince Rupert) has almost exclusively been a thing I’d enjoy in towns every 5–10 days. In between I had oftentimes literally for days on end not even seen (not even from a distance) another human (let alone spoken to anyone). That’s been quite an experience. Mostly a good one, actually. And while I’ve done many solo trips in remote areas before, I had just never been 100% on my own for more than 2 days. It’s really hard to escape civilization…
Then, once I got to Prince Rupert, 5 days ago, things changed. I met other kayakers. Hung out with several different people over the course of 36 hours. Basically I was busy socially. Really busy. Wow. Quite a change. Not a bad one though.
I left Prince Rupert together with Jacob, paddler from Sweden, and Joan, from L.A. We stuck together on the stretch from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan which meant camping together and partially kayaking together, but also long stretches per day of self-paced paddling. That was quite a great combination. I guess that’s what you get when you put 3 very independent people together, where everyone enjoys social hang out time at camp but also really values their independence, own pacing, and just alone time in nature.
Aaaanyways… it’s been a great leg. A bit faster than originally planned, but I guess 30 is the new 20 (in terms of mileage). The first 2 camp sites were on little islands. Gorgeous. I mean, almost every camp so far had been amazing, the last ones were even better. White sandy beaches. We’re in neap tide time which also occur in the evening instead of the spring tides which always seem to be in the middle of the night (just means more simple camp spot picking and gear stashing). We ended up skinny dipping in the afternoons after kayaking. Shirtless afternoons at the beach (I got sunburnt in Alaska!). Camp fire. Loooong sunsets. Couldn’t be much better really.
I crossed the Canada-US border (just an imaginary line on the map near Dixon entrance) at 6:42am local time on June 24th, 32 days and some 710 miles after having left from Orcas Island on May 23rd. My 2nd border crossing of this trip. Can you imagine? I’m in Alaska now! The last frontier! By kayak! So stoked…
(Picture below is taken when crossing the border… well, not that much to see I guess)
And the best thing is I have 400 more miles to go. Coming into Ketchikan one can tell that the landscape is changing. Mountains are bigger. More snow capped ones too. More rain (definitely rained when paddling into the harbor, classic). Much more fog and mist everywhere. As you would expect…
Now, in Ketchikan, it’s party time (for my new standards anyways) again. We’re meeting the tail end of the R2AK race — all the badass kayakers, rowers, row-sailors, self-made boats, hella fast mega adventurers. The last 2 boats should come in today. Awesome community!
Ketchikan is also a bit of a culture shock. Those cruise ships! Loads of tourists and the shops to keep them happy. On a “good” ray, like Friday June 30th, an announced 16,295 cruise ship guests will be flooding the streets of Ketchikan, a city of 8,100 permanent residents.
Luckily, the Yacht club offers a nice home for us stinky self-powered water-craft lovers. And the Methodist Church has some interesting but well-working sleeping arrangements for all…
