We were waken by the sound of whales blowing. This time it turned out to be a small pod of orcas. A male, a female and a calf. The first orcas we have seen here. Soon an humpback with a calf also appeared, she appeared a bit agitated flapping with her tail and “singing”. Maybe it was because of the orcas? A few more humpbacks were blowing further away toward Admirality island so at least half a dozen whales was in line of sight for morning coffee.
Just as we had taken down camp Rick appeared. We asked about the dead, fleeced sea otters. Was it legal to hunt them? Yes, for natives was the answer. And because the sea otters population is booming, hunting is actually encouraged by the authorities.
Rick also explained about the whale watching industry. The largest in the world worked out of Juneau, 75 outfits serving the 1.6 million cruise passengers that visits Juneau per year (Juneau population is ca 32 000).
Their homestead had a wide view of the prime whale watching area between Shelter Island and Admirality island. They did not like what they saw. The whales were chased all across the strait. We had seen the frantic scurrying of ships from Admirality island yesterday afternoon, and wondered if some sort of urgent search was going on. So here was the explanation; it was whale chasing.
Next we were invited to a tour of the homestead, and explained about the water collection, greenhouses, ponds (with fish to eat mosquito larvae), escavator to build access to get out timber for firewood, two cabins for the WWOFers, solar power, wind power a back up generator, a wood fired hot tub, a 1930’s fully workable Ford A model truck…etc, and also a “flower power” (?) monument in the form of a VW beetle, and more
The “beetle monument” was Karen, Rick’s wife’s work. And it wasn’t her only artistic exploit. On grandson Tyler’s insistence we got to see the winter coat SHA had made as last winters “winter project”, all from recycled T-shirts. Quite impressive!
We need winter projects round here when we are alone on the island Karen explained.
We also got a quick introduction to cooking on wood fired stoves. The Amish still builds them to 19th century specifications and quality.
Time to bid farewell and paddle the last 15 km of our journey.
As the family and WWOFs helped us carry the kayaks we looked out on the bay where half a dozen whales had been feeding in the morning. Now we saw no whales, but rather a full dozen of whale watching boats scurrying around looking for the whales that had chased away.
Food for thought as we paddled the last km. The cruise/whale watching industry seemed to be close to destroying the whale presence and behaviour they were living off. And every year whales are killed by collisions with ships. Four so far this season we were told.
On the other hand a lot of Juneau live “down stream” from this industry. Weaning off will take some doing.
Maybe too much thinking and too little attention paid to landing spot. We managed to pass the suggested kayak delivery point by several km and ended up in the marina of Auke Bay.
Fortunately, Mike who will take the kayaks on behalf of Joe saw us paddle by and came over to help with a van.
When he saw how much luggage we took out of the boats, he offered to loan us his other truck! Soon a quite proud Karianne came back back with a truck that just dwarfed her!
We found accommodation above a laundromat! Top location for our purpose. What remains now is rest, wash and repair. And travel home on Saturday. No more blogs.
Comments
3,440 responses to “Wednesday 30th of July. Shelter Island to Juneau. End of journey”
Refreshing to read something where the words actually mean something instead of filling space, and a stop at digitalbuyingzone kept that going, the writing here trusts the reader to follow along without endless repetition or constant reminders of what was already said earlier in the post which I appreciate.
Thanks for putting this online without locking it behind email signups or paywalls, and a quick visit to blog66nights kept that open feel going, content that trusts the reader to come back rather than gating access is the kind of approach I will reward with regular return visits over time happily.
Closed the tab feeling I had spent the time well, and a stop at blog66how extended that feeling across more pages, the test of whether time on a site was well spent is one I apply silently after closing tabs and very few sites pass it but this one passed it cleanly today afternoon clearly.
Closed the tab with a small sense of finality rather than the usual rushed exit, and a stop at harborlightmarket produced the same considered closing, when reading ends with deliberate satisfaction rather than impatient skip you know the time was well spent and this site is producing those satisfying endings consistently across what I read.
Reading this in a quiet coffee shop matched the calm energy of the writing, and a stop at blog66happy extended that environmental match, content that has its own ambient quality which can match or clash with surroundings is content with a personality and this site has the kind of personality that suits calm reading.
Picked this up while looking for something else and ended up reading every paragraph because it was actually informative, and after blog33actually I was sure I would come back, that does not happen often when most sites bury the useful parts under endless ads and pop ups today and across most categories online.
This stands out compared to similar posts I have read recently, less noise and more substance, and a look at softmonarch kept that gap going, you can really feel the difference between content made by someone who cares versus content made to fill a publishing schedule for an algorithm trying to keep growing somehow.
Came away with a small but real shift in perspective on the topic, and a stop at blog66fours pushed that shift a bit further, the kind of subtle reframing that good writing does to a reader without making a big deal of it is something I always appreciate when it happens which is sadly not that often.
Ended up here on a wandering afternoon and was glad I stayed for the read, and a stop at blog44withs extended the wandering into a proper exploration of the site, the kind of place that rewards aimless clicking with something genuinely interesting rather than the shallow content that mostly populates the modern open web.
Skipped the social share buttons but might come back to actually use one later, and a stop at softsupreme extended that share urge, content that triggers genuine sharing impulses rather than performative ones is content that has actually moved me and not many posts in a typical week do that for me actually.