June 28, 2007
To Valdez: a tunnel and a ferry
We picked up the schedule for the tunnel at the visitor center yesterday. The tunnel to Whittier is a one-way railroad tunnel that is opened for car traffic every hour for fifteen minutes each way. Bicycles are not allowed and both the shuttle or train would cost about 40 dollars per person to go through the 2.5 mile tunnel!
We will just try to ride up to the staging area and get a ride on a pickup truck. That proves to be a good idea, as soon as we get to the toll booth a kid in a full size pickup pulls up and lets us load all our gear in the empty bed. Ten minutes later at 8:30 we drive through the tunnel and into Whittier.
The town is beautifully located along a fiord, snowcapped mountains all around a harbor and ferry terminal. Most residents live in a large ten story apartment building. Further on is an abandoned concrete monolith that once housed the town and dates from before WWII. Whittier was developed during the war because of its ice free harbor and almost perpetual grey skies to hide activities from the Japanese.
We choose to take the slow boat to Valdez that is scheduled to leave at 2:45pm and will take about 5 hours to do the trip. There is also a fast boat at 12:45 but they don't stop to look at the scenery or wild life. Since today is a gorgeous day with blue skies and lots of sun, we decide to take advantage of a "cruise". It's not cheap at $86pp plus $12 for the bikes.
We see two other cyclists at the ferry terminal, Doug and Jenn from Tacoma WA. A little later, on our way to a cafe for breakfast, we run into another guy also biking, taking the fast boat along with the other cyclists. We have pancakes at the cafe, then ride up the hill behind the abandoned concrete building to do a short hike. We walk up through a forest following a wooden boardwalk up to an alpine meadow filled with berry bushes and wild flowers for a view of the horsetail falls and the sound with the Billings Glacier on the other side.
Back near the ferry terminal we have a hot dog for lunch, then check in and wait for the boat. It's right on time, when we leave there are only 22 passengers and a few cars on the ship. We sail out the sound and into Prince Williams Sound. All along the way we have awesome views of distant mountains and glaciers. We see a couple of sea otters, two humpback whales, sea lions, jumping salmon and birds.
In Whittier we already saw two bald eagles. It's nice in the afternoon out of the wind and in the sun. A forest service ranger does a presentation on earthquakes and tells us about the wild life.
At about eight we dock in Valdez, the town is right there. We meet up with Doug and Jenn at a campground. It's an outrageous $25 to pitch a tent here, a plat of grass amidst hundreds of RV's on a gravel parking lot. But the shower is warm! Rachel does the laundry next door, and we get in the tent past 11pm.
It's still light!
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Today's ride: 13 km (8 miles)
Total: 9,728 km (6,041 miles)
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