LAST GASP FROM SITKA: Here’s a bonus posting of a few favorite photos from my ongoing 10-week “North to Alaska” tour aboard Osprey, a 37-foot Nordic Tug. Happy Fourth of July!
Sign at head of the dock at Tenakee Springs. Kind of says it all. Our crew did encounter a grizzly along the walk to town. Luckily, no organ donations transpired.Beastly breasts, on the Sitka Totem Trail.Brian and a berg, on Tracy Arm fjord. Dana Halferty photo.The Russian Bishop’s House chapel in Sitka. The home and chapel were built for Bishop Innocent, the first Russian Orthodox bishop of Russian America, in the early 19th century. His acceptance of native Alaskan rituals and lifestyles, unlike American missionaries’ condemnations, is believed largely responsible for Alaskan natives’ continuing participation in the Russian church to this day. Bishop Innocent built the original St. Michael’s Cathedral in 1848. It burned in 1966 but this replica was built on the same site, in the center of downtown Sitka. It continues to offer Russian Orthodox services.A Chilkat robe is displayed at Sitka National Historical Park. The distinctive style originated with the Tsimshian people and was adapted by the Tlingit tribe. Such robes are worn on ceremonial occasions.Juneau, a beautiful husky, lives on a sailboat and regularly greets us as we walk up the dock in our Sitka marina.An eagle hat worn as ceremonial regalia, in the collection of the Alaska State Museum in Juneau.An eagle tops a marine marker near Sergius Narrows, on our route to Sitka. An octopus sits at the bottom of a totem at Totem Bight State Park, near Ketchikan.Demonstrating the scale of things in Alaska: Osprey in Tracy Arm fjord.
Departing Sitka in the morning. Might be several days or a week before I have internet again. Will keep you posted as we work our way south. Wish us luck!
A former travel and outdoors editor at The Seattle Times, I'm now exploring Washington's San Juan Islands on my classic runabout and trying not to smash my fingers with the hammer while I fix up my island cabin.
View all posts by Brian J. Cantwell
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3 thoughts on “Bonus photos: My Alaska notebook”
Wishing you luck on your return voyage—what a trip!
Cantwell's Reef 
Wishing you luck on your return voyage—what a trip!
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Thank you, Jane!
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Dana’s photo of you just radiates happiness!
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