Day 83 -Whittier to Valdez

They Get 200 Inches Of Rain A Year in Whittier

So...it rained most of the night and was still raining this morning. We made an early start after a later than desired night. Other RVs came in at nearly 11pm and parked on both sides of Speedy and ran their generators...rentals, of course.

We got up and drove away at about 5:30 this morning and parked back at the ferry terminal. We wanted to be first on standby. It was a bit of overkill as the terminal and booking desk didn't open until 9:30, but it got us away from the crowd. We had coffee and cinnamon rolls from a the Lazy Otter Cafe which opened early. There were already fishermen launching boats at the city ramp next to the ferry dock when we arrived...and they need coffee, too.

Did I mention it was raining?

I walked over to the terminal building at about 9:15 and was soon jooned by others. We did manage to be first on the standby list. Now came the waiting. We pulled onto the dock and got in the standby lane around 11:30 and had lunch there...and waited.

The ferry arrived around noon antey started boarding about 1pm. We watched the cars and the half-dozen big rental RVs go on and finally there was only us and another standby RV...there was just enough room for both of us. We were on our way to Valdez and  trip across Prince William Sound.

When we considered taking the ferry as a shortcut from the Kenai to Wrangell-St. Elias, the hope was that we would be able to see up the fiords along the way, maybe seeing glaciers and also be able to do a bit of pelagic birding along the way. This was not going to happen today. It wss 48 degrees, raining and foggy.

At least the seas were relatively calm, but not calm enough to tease out the small alcids in the about all we saw were the ever present kittiwakes and some Steller sea lions on rocks and buoys. It was a long an pretty much uneventful passage. We barely saw the Alaska pipeline oil terminal in the fog.

When we left the ferry our destination was the Valdez Glacier Campground which is actually a military campground run by Ft. Greely, but, unlike most military campgrounds, it is open to civilians. It was about 8:30pm (2030 by the campground clock) when we arrived in the rain. It is a little rougher than we expected, but there are plenty of open sites and they have showers and a dump station.

We are off to see Valdez tomorrow and Ellen is still hoping for a haircut.

Did I mention it is still raining?