Alaska 2013, Day 57, Sitka Day 1

Sunday July 28, 2013

Sunny, clear and warm (65).  Can't believe we are in Southeast AK.

Sitka Totem Park

We went to the Sitka Totem Park and hiked around the point.  They have a new totem called the Centennial totem on the water in front of the visitor's center.  It is really different.  It has a commemorative plack at the base for one of the parks first caretakers, a Russian possesian plate (Russians buried 350 iron plates from Alaska to Northern California to record their ownership), A Russian peg calendar, skunk cabbage, devils club, mother nature, the NPS bison and it is topped with the raven and eagle for the 2 Tlingit moeities. It was carved by Tommy Joseph and several volunteers for the Sitka Centenial in 2007?

We were at the park at low tide and the kids wanted to go through the tidepools on the beach.  The beach here is gradual so there is 100 yards of exposed flats with large shallow ponds.  The ponds where full of small hermit crabs, stone crabs and sculpins.  The kids poured over this for at least a half hour.

We walked the trail all around the old Tlingit fort point, to all the totems. 

The pinks were starting up Indian River in the park. We saw kingfishers and Eagles at the mouth and at the bridge.

There were a lot of salmon berries at the point.  Someone out at the point showed us wild huckleberries.  Here they are red, on a tall bush, they are a relative of blueberries.  They were just coming on so you had to look for ripe ones.  They are a little tart, juicy,  not a lot of flavor.  Once I saw what they are I realize Whale Park is all huckleberries.  We later found wild blueberries and they are really tart, not as good as the huckleberries.

We wanted to go to the Raptor Center but it closes at 4:00 and it was 3:00 so we'll do it tomorrow.

Pink Fishing

Being that we didn't go to the Raptor Center I drove down to Eagle Way, next right from the Raptor Center.  People were fishing pinks from a point off the boat ramp and beach. The pinks were in this cove really heavy and close to shore.  They hit every cast but were really hard to hook.  Anna and Emmy each got 1 a shore but that was all.

Before we went fishing I stopped downtown at Murray Pacific on  Katlian.  It's a marine hardware supply (like West Marine).  I stopped in for pixies but they had everything; raingear, dry bags coolers, xtra tufs (all kinds), anything Grunden. They had xtra tufs for $79.  They had really nice raincoats, lots of different kinds.  There is also a Murrays Pacific in Ketchikan.

We had a city flyer (Sitka Soup) that had an add for Little Tokyo Sushi with some sushi rolls that looked really good. We ordered a Suomo Roll/crab and avacado and Mexican Roll/shrimp tempura and  spicy tuna for takeout as an appetizer for dinner.  Fantastic! We have been lucky enough to find good sushi (Fu Kung in Valdez, Safeway in Oregon).