Alaska, As Few See It!

Barbara, a friend of mine, and I had been talking about a trip to Alaska off and on for several years.  I had gone 7 years prior, but she couldn’t make it due to scheduling conflicts.  Finally, seven years later, on August 3^rd 2007, we were off.   We landed in Ketchikan, Alaska just after 9:00 pm, our arrangements after landing were pretty vague, so we felt a bit lucky when we found my brother Chuck, and his wife Sandy at the airport waiting to greet us. My brother lives on Annette Island in a town called Metlakatla, it is about a 40 minute boat ride from Ketchikan airport and not a trip you want to make without the light of the sun.  We quickly grabbed our bags and ran to the small boat dock at the airport, running the boat at break neck speed to beat darkness we docked in Metlakatla about 10:00 pm.  Now you would think 12 hours of being on the road would be enough for one day…it wasn’t.

We had planned to spend our first 5 days in Metlakatla photographing both landscapes and the Tsimpshian (pronounced simp-she-an.) Indian celebrations that were scheduled for that week. The town of Metlakatla is an Indian reservation and the Tsimpshian Indian trip own Annette Island.  This year’s celebration was twofold, first they were celebrating their coming to the island 120 years earlier from Canada and second, they were also celebrating the 20^th anniversary of their native dancers called “Fourth Generation Dancers”.

On the boat ride over, Sandy told us the “Fourth Generation Dancers” would be finishing up their three days of celebration that night.  We grabbed some basic photo gear and rushed out the door to the community center.  As soon as we got there, we knew we didn’t have the proper gear.  What can you do?  We did the best we could with lenses that weren’t big enough and being too far away for a flash to work. (Yes this is my excuse for not doing a better job.)  While the wonderful celebration continued well into the next day, we were told until 4am, we were only able to last until 3am however.  It was really wonderful to see and hear.  I looked all over for a music CD with no luck.  If it ever becomes available I will post the information.  (I Love the rhythm of the drums and the chanting.)

We didn’t photograph sun rise the next day, but drove all over exploring.  The night before we were invited to a photo exhibit that was opening the following day at the new medical clinic.  A young woman had collected old glass negatives and various other photos showing a history of the Island and people.  This was part of her master’s thesis and done very well. 

We found several places we hoped to photograph while in Metlakatla.  I had remembered an Artist complex of about 5 studios/shops from my previous visit, so we set out looking for it.  What we found was a carver named Aaron Horne.  He told us he starting carving at the age of 12 and all his brothers were also carvers.  He made masks and various other items.  On this day he was just completing his first totem pole, a gift, commissioned by the “Fourth Generation Dancers” that would be donated to the long house on founder’s day August 7^th. 

We set out again exploring and photographing.  If you ever go to Alaska in the summer take bug spray.  That evening when we got back to my brothers we found all exposed skin was covered with bites that were bright red polka dots. (That means my face & hands looked like I had a rare disease.) No pictures allowed of this.  

The following morning after a quick trip to the market for donuts and bug spray we were off.  Wild raspberries were everywhere. They were just beginning to ripen so we didn’t try eating any.  I did photograph them however.  I had lived in Southeast Alaska for 6 years and as a kid picked berries to sell around the neighborhood for a little pocket change, but I had never seen raspberries before.  (They are not in Ketchikan, so I assume someone brought them there and they have spread everywhere on the island.)

One afternoon we took a hike of a little over a mile each way out to a beach.  This hike was all done on a boardwalk path over muscag.  This is a spongy wet surface that can be like quick sand.  On the trip back we found fresh wet wolf prints on the boardwalk that had been following us.  We set a quick pace back to the car.  We never saw any wolves but that night my brother informed us the island was full of them.  They are not the timber wolves but smaller and tend to be blackish in color.  I didn’t feel cheated not seeing any. 

Metlakatla is a beautiful place to be, I took 18 rolls of 120 film and a card full of digital snap shots while we were there.  Working with a mix of panoramas, which take almost an entire roll by themselves, and traditional 645, I don’t have hundreds of shots to go through but I still haven’t had a chance to look at all of it yet, I’ve just been too busy with other commitments.  I enjoyed my time in Metlakatla with my brother and family and best of all I think I have some great “Fine Art” shots. I hope to post some in the gallery soon.

Now it is back to Ketchikan.  My brother took us in his boat again.  It was a much more pleasant trip.  The water was calmer and the light allowed us to see where we were going.

 I spent 4 of the best years of my childhood in Ketchikan as well as two years as an adult.  Unfortunately I did not do photography during any of that time.  The place holds a lot of fond memories.  I could not believe what a tourist trap the place has become.  Before the town had a pulp mill, logging and fishing were the top industries.  Now from May to the end of September it is the cruise ships that drive the economy.  The entire downtown is gift shops.  I am not sure what the town does during the off season.

We had what I consider bad luck with sunny days. So spent a lot of time driving and hiking around finding where we wanted to be at dawn, then dusk to sun set. One night we had decided to go to the south of town where we had seen bald eagles hanging out.  While trying to get our perfect eagle shot we met a very nice lady who invited us into her yard to get a better shot.  She told us about a cub bear who was hanging around.  She had named him “Booboo. We met this cute little guy of about 200lbs. and several of his relatives all about 400 to 500lbs.

Yes that is a large salmon in the bear’s mouth.  The bears come down in the evening to fish, while the salmon are heading upstream to spawn.  It was wonderful to see.  (This is because they were black bears and not the bigger and meaner grizzly bears.)  Had it been the grizzly bears we would not have stuck around. We watched the bear with the fish run across the river at some fishermen on the opposite bank.  He stopped 10 feet short.  It was all a ploy to scare them off without really doing any work.   A grizzly would not have stopped.  We went back the following night but the bears didn’t come down until it was too dark to get any good shots.  Barbara got a beautiful sunset at that spot.  I had too long a lens on to do the shot justice and didn’t have time to go back to the car and change.  This is Barbara’s shot. 

The clouds to the left were moving our way and soon the thunder and lightning started.  We were unprepared and didn’t get any shots.  By the time we were ready the storm had moved behind another island, this particular storm moved in and out very fast, which isn’t uncommon for Ketchikan which gets about 195 inches of rain a year.  That being said, this few minutes of rain were all we had on our entire trip.  South Eastern Alaska is a rain forest but you couldn’t prove it on our trip.  If I had never been there before I wouldn’t believe it.