August 2, Day 3, Ketchikan, Alaska, began fairly early. We received our wake-up call at 6am and the ship was already tied up to the dock. Sharon needed to be down on the dock for her walking tour of downtown Ketchikan at 7:45am so we got dressed and headed to the breakfast buffet on Deck 14…pretty good. I walked her down to Deck 5, where the walkway was letting people off the ship.
I walked her down the gangway and up on shore to where the tour people were holding up various signs with the appropriate number on them. We found her guy…an Indian called Joe…took a picture and then I went back upstairs to wait for my report time at 9:30am.
Sharon had a great walking tour of the town and heard a lot of history from someone who grew up in the area. He even remembered playing on the only original street still in operation…part of the tour in fact. She finished the tour downtown so did a little looking around before heading back to the ship.
I reported to my station on shore at the appointed time, waited a few minutes and then boarded a bus that took us about 30 minutes out of town to the base camp for the Kart Adventure. I thought the road the bus had to travel on off the highway was rough but it was nothing compared to what we actually drove on with the karts.
After the obligatory safety briefing and signing waivers…scares some folks away…we loaded up and strapped in. These karts were modeled after an Israeli military version that they use in the desert…capable of 100 mph. The ones we had might have been capable of 25-30 mph…on a flat road or going downhill…but I don’t think anyone
Anyway, I drove by myself…which means I didn’t have to let someone else drive back down the hill. I was number 3 behind the leader and a couple of college kids. They wanted us to keep about 100 feet between cars and as it turned out, that was not a problem. I couldn’t maintain 100 feet and I thought I had the peddle all the way down and still couldn’t keep up…no big deal, the cars behind me were strung out pretty good. There was a young lady in the rear kart that looked for stragglers so we never lost anyone. The leader would occasionally stop and let everyone catch up, especially when there was a fork in the road. It would have been relatively easy to take the wrong turn with everyone so far apart.
We stopped twice…once to take pictures of the island nearby and the waterway between them. He said the water was so deep that they had all kinds of sea life, including whales. He also told us about a semi-secret submarine testing base nearby that used the deep water to test their stealth capability under water.
After taking a few pictures, we headed further up the mountain. The next stop was at a small waterfall where we had a snack and some water while the guide filled us in on some of the history of the area, including a little about the flora and the fauna. The only wildlife natural to the area…besides small creatures like squirrels and birds…are the black bear, black-tailed Sitka deer and the Bald Eagle. There are no Grizzly Bears or Moose on the island. The island is considered a “temperate rainforest” because of the 13 feet of rain every year. We saw several examples of the plant life, including some ferns.
Following the talk, we all jumped back in our karts and headed down the mountain…really fast. I had a little easier time keeping up with the leader but it wasn’t easy. I think I hit every large pothole on the road…and I’m talking those that were 3-4 feet across and 6 inches deep…some with water. At times I thought I was going to lose control of the cart, but using my excellent driving skills I managed to maintain control and make it to the bottom.
About 30 minutes later…about 1pm…I was back on the ship and eating lunch with Sharon at the buffet…it’s the easiest place to eat and the food is pretty good too. After lunch, we headed back off the ship and downtown for some walking. She shared some of the information she had heard on her walking tour…pretty interesting. I’m sure you could spend a lot more time ashore walking around than we did. We were back on the ship by 3pm and in the room shortly thereafter.
Mom went to her massage appointment at 5pm and I stayed in the room watching the scenery slide by our balcony. I did go up on deck to get a better view for a while but eventually came back to the room to get ready for dinner….which is where we’re going now.
Next stop is Juneau tomorrow around 2pm Alaska time…more tomorrow.
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