I awoke to a cloudy day in Sitka and took off for a 4 mile
run. The town is so small, that this distance covered everything. I ran the
totem walk and through the woods and ended up on the beach at low tide. At
least a dozen eagles were hanging out on the driftwood looking for breakfast. I
tried to get close enough to take pictures, but no luck. I didn’t want to
harass the birds and I could tell they were not comfortable with my presence.
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| Totem walk - my morning jog. |
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| The driftwood on the beach was loaded with eagles. The is only one piece. |
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| A little closer. |
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| Coffee bike cart down on beach... I got to enjoy my walk back with a hot cup. |
We visited the Rapter Center
- a rescue center for birds injured in the state. Unlike the bears, if
these guys can fly, they are released back into the wild as soon as possible.
Some birds are long term tenants – their wings too damaged to fly. Most of
these birds have been shot – a lot of eagles and owls. I didn’t particularly
care too much for this center. It seemed slick and robotic, set up to make
money. The employees seem to be mostly young males bent on moving people
through as quickly as possible (pack them and rack them). If you can only visit
one of the animal places in Sitka, go to Fortress of the Bear. We had coffee with
Becky from Sitka NHP and talked shop for a short bit.
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| Eagle with most of wing gone from shotgun blast. Bird center. |
We drove to Old Sitka (NHL) at the other end of the road;
this means Sitka, Juneau and Haines are all thoroughly explored. We ended our
day with a walk on the beach and dinner at Ludvig’s. Oh my goodness – what a
wonderful jewel in Sitka. If you can only eat one place in Sitka, this should
be the one!
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| Halibut and wine at Ludvig's |
We passed gift shops that were actually selling sea salt to
the tourists. Now this is better than moose poop... don’t you think? They had
many flavors of sea salt.
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| Flavored salt for sale to tourists. |
The residents of Sitka definitely have a thing for cross
walks. They want to make sure you cross at the walk, not 15 feet on either side
of it, or at some random location. They will stop and roll down their windows
and tell you that you are not in a crosswalk. This phenomenon occurred numerous
times; perhaps because many folks drive worse here than in Anchorage and there
is genuine concern for your safety?
There was one particular exchange I’m not proud of since I let an
individual draw out “Angry Judy”. We
were crossing a bank parking lot and this crazy maniac raced around us to park,
cutting it uncomfortably close. I got
him to go from “buzz off lady” to “fuck you” in 10 seconds. I smiled sweetly.
This trip has been a little challenging for the digital
photographs. Jazz inadvertently deleted all the photos she took of the Russian
cemetery (first on her computer, second on the memory card). Although she
didn’t swear like a truck driver – she is getting mellower as the years go
one. I washed and dried my memory card
that contained all the totem pole images and my images from my recent Nome
trip. I had forgotten it was in my pocket. Luckily, after an overnight dryout,
my photos recovered fine.
We boarded the ferry and headed back to Juneau. It was a
nice easy trip with lots of walking and photo shooting.
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| fishing nets |
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| boats |
