Day 6

Icy Strait Point

The ship anchored in Icy Strait and we were on one of the first tenders to shore.  We're in among the islands now so it's smooth sailing, but Ron was very happy to be on solid ground anyway.

In the 1910s, the Hoonah Packing Company produced 49,000 cases, or more than two million one-pound cans of salmon per year.  There was an impressive display and even some old machinery showing the process.

Ron and I took a peaceful walk through the woods, commenting on the rain-forest look of the area.

I always like the ferns.

We noticed the larger trees seem to all be growing out of older stumps.

The original stump on this one totally decomposed leaving a strange-looking root system.

Following the path down to the beach we could soon see why the trees grew this way.  It appears that the land is just solid rock with just a tiny layer of soil on top.

Looking out towards the water, we had a good view of the ship.  Isn't she a beauty?

(And there's the tender pulling alongside.)

We were thrilled to realized all the birds flying around were eagles.

This guy was nice enough to pose for all the tourists.

Thinking the nature aspect wasn't enough for the modern tourists, they have installed a zip line.  It's a mile long and takes 90 seconds to descend.  At the bottom, the rider hits these springs to stop with quite a jolt. There are actually six parallel lines and we waited for the first group to make their run.

Nope, not for us.  We're happy with the short run we did with the WINs in Michigan several years ago. Here's the picture of me from then.

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