According to our reservation with the Alaska Marine Highway System, our departure from Prince Rupert this afternoon was to be at 5:15 p.m. and we were supposed to check in by 2:15.
Giving ourselves plenty of time for a lunch stop and including a cushion, we headed out of the Ferry Island Campground in Terrace, BC at 9:30 a.m. for our last 90 miles in Canada. Once again, the scenery was amazing. Today was even better than yesterday. And we were certainly enjoying the blue skies and warm temperatures.
Here are some photos.
There was a brief moment of terror when this passenger train appeared from around the corner and looked like it was coming right at us.
More photos from the drive.
With the help of the Milepost, we made a stop at a "double end" rest area. At the western end of the parking lot was a bench and a little memorial looking out over the lake.
We weren't there long, and we didn't have far to go to Prince Rupert. As we got closer to the coast, there were a couple of provincial parks and some nice lake scenery.
Originally, I thought we might stay in this area at Prudhomme Lake Provincial Park, but the campground doesn't open until later this month.
As we went over a little pass, we were met with a marine layer of fog.
Soon, we were in Prince Rupert, ....
and the temperature dropped about 15 degrees along the coast.
We headed to the Walmart with a plan of parking our rigs, unhitching our Jeeps, and getting a little lunch down by the harbor. Well, unfortunately, the Walmart was in with a bunch of other stores, more like a mall, and the parking lot didn't have nearly enough room for us to park.
Luckily, there was just enough room to pull over to the side to unhitch. I took our Jeep and went scouting for another large parking lot. Ultimately, I went to the Alaska Marine Highway terminal.
They told me we could park in the staging lanes outside the terminal on the hill I had just come down.
When we arrived with the motorhomes, they would measure us, we could check in, and then we could just leave them there in line outside the terminal until we returned from lunch. Nice.
I reported back to the others and we caravanned the couple miles and parked in the "Alaska" lanes. In order to make sure our rigs were the length we reported and not subject to additional charges, we both removed our tow bars from the receiver hitches and waited to be measured.
Two really nice young fellows, measured our rigs. I had booked us at 30 feet, and they measured us at 29 feet. Good deal.
They also made sure we turned the propane off at the valve, and gave us a piece of blue painter's tape to put on the compartment door indicating that we had turned off the propane and they had witnessed it.
So, we took the paper they gave us with our measurement and checked in. We got all our tickets and boarding passes and taped our port destination to our windows as instructed. We had some 1 lb propane cylinders for the Blackstone, and they told us we would have to put them in a bag and have them stored in a paint closet once we boarded the ferry.
It was a little after noon, and they told us we needed to be back and in line by 3:15 rather than 2:15, so that gave us a bit more time.
We drove downtown, parked near the waterfront and walked down.
We had lunch at Smile's Seafood Cafe where they had fresh, local halibut. Each couple split a meal with pan-seared halibut. It was good, but it wasn't great - a tad overcooked. I'm sure we'll have lots more opportunities to compare halibut dishes over the next few months.
After lunch we walked to Sea Sport, where Steve and I were hoping to find better rain gear that would fit over bulky layers. We have thin, breathable rain suits, but we wanted something larger and warmer for a colder, heavier rain just in case. They had just we wanted, and they were on sale, so Linda & I both got new, heavy duty rain coats. Perfect.
We drove back to the ferry terminal where the ladies got in the motorhomes and drove them down the hill and over the railroad tracks. There is quite a dip on the right side of the tracks so we had them swing way left for a flatter, easier right hand turn into the ferry terminal lanes.
They were already sending folks through security and lining everyone up. We got the usual border crossing questions, and after a few minutes all four vehicles were in our assigned lanes. Then, we just waited to board our ship, the Malaspina.
While in line, we met a couple that has a house on Prince of Wales Island, so we got to know them and picked their brains a bit. They are RVers and winter in Yuma. They have a fifth wheel in Montana, but drive their large Class B up here in the summer. If we were staying a little longer, they said they would have taken us out on their boat.
Eventually, the terminal crew started loading the ferry. It was quite the process as they had to consider length and weight to balance the ship plus they had to place everyone so that those getting off at the first stop in Ketchikan were not blocked in by those going on to other ports.
Finally, we were all on board, and the four of us met in the large observation lounge at the front of the boat.
Linda and Esther grabbed a table in the back, and we had some snacks. There is also a cafeteria/restaurant/grill, and we had planned to get dinner there later when it opened.
We were still on Pacific Time in Prince Rupert, but the ship ran on Alaska Time, so the clock showed an hour earlier.
I explored the boat and visited the various lounges - Aft Lounge, Recliner Lounge, Bar Lounge (although they stopped serving alcohol about five years ago according to a couple of crew members), movie theater, and more. There were all sorts of little rules about where you could sleep and where you could have bags with you.
I then went up on the upper deck to check out the solarium. It's at the back of the ship and it has overhead heaters in the covered part. People selected chaise lounges or spread out on the floor to sleep.
You can also pitch a tent on that deck and secure it with duct tape, but no tents are allowed under the solarium - you have to be out in the open. Nobody on this segment had chosen that option.
It's a large ship, and everyone was pretty well spread out. It wasn't crowded at all.
Oh, by the way, this summer may be the last time anyone can do what we did by driving to Prince Rupert and getting on the Alaska ferry. With proposed budget cuts, the Alaska Marine Highway System is pretty seriously considering eliminating Prince Rupert as a stop. Check out this article from March 2019: "Uncertain Future For Alaska Ferry Terminal In Prince Rupert." Glad we decided to do it now.
Right on time, we departed.
Our cruise was supposed to take a little over six hours, and we were scheduled to arrive in Ketchikan at 10:30 Alaska Time (which is four hours behind Eastern Time).
The romantic notion of staying outside and watching for whales and whatever else we could see faded quickly. It was way too cold, and we were on pretty big water for much of the trip. We could see the Coastal Mountain Range in the distance, but everything just seemed to be varying shades of gray.
We did see a couple of distant whale spouts, and then a small whale - we're guessing a Minke - surfaced a couple of times fairly close to the boat. We also had a couple of false sightings as some folks spotted logs floating in the ocean. Good thing we brought our binoculars.
After having a decent meal from the restaurant, we settled in to do some reading. At some point, we crossed into U.S. waters, the times on our phones changed, and we left the Canadian cell service providers behind.
We had a decent sunset considering the low clouds and fog.
From that point on, we all were just ready to get there. We were tired but happy when we finally saw the lights of Ketchikan. We were still 30 - 40 minutes away, but the end was in sight and we'd soon be on Alaska soil.
It was closer to 11:00 by the time we disembarked. There wasn't really a good place for us to meet up in our four vehicles, so we all set our Google Maps for Walmart two miles away and decided to meet there.
All the other RVs on the ship, mostly Class Bs and truck campers, also headed to Walmart to spend the night. There are only four campgrounds in Ketchikan - one private RV park with sites priced at $45 - $50, two national forest campgrounds (that don't officially open for another two weeks), and a state park several miles from the ferry terminal with limited RV options.
Walmart was closed by the time we all arrived, so we couldn't ask permission. However, it seemed to be common knowledge that was the place to go when getting off the ferry late.
We parked end-to-end on the side out of the way as much as possible. We were under bright lights, but our rig is set up to black out everything which is perfect for Alaska.
By then, we were all exhausted, so we just closed up shop and went to bed. Whew. That was a long day. Tomorrow, we'll figure out where to spend one more night and where we can store our RVs while we buzz over to Prince of Wales Island for a few days.
Stay tuned.
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