Background

In February 2003, I was relocated to Seattle for work – a really beautiful spot on this jewel of landscape at the Pacific Northwest. The first summer, I had my parents and then a friend visiting, so I stuck around the area, the next summer I decided to explore the greater part of the world I was stationed at. I had heard about an exciting way to get to Alaska, via the Alaska Marine Highway System, a fleet of ferry ships that take the traveller from the continental United States up to Alaska following the so-called Inside Passage, more about this later.

I had already purchased the bike I had mentioned, my Rivendell and also had good German water-proof Ortlieb bags. However, I did not have good camping gear – no light-weight tent, no sleeping bag and all the other goodies needed for a bike trip. The wife of a friend and colleague, Janice, who is unfortunately no longer with us, took me to a camping outlet store and I left a impressive amount of cash, but also purchased equipment that were to accompany me not only on this, but also on many other trips. Thanks, Janice – and may you rest in peace.

Not being the planning type, I bought the ferry ticket just a few days prior to departure. It was really quite expensive – around $400 for just the trip itself – no cabin, no meals – but it was to become just a memorable and wonderful trip, every penny I paid for it was worth it. Now comes the funny part – the ferry started in Washington and did not stop on Canadian waters, but then served a number of Alaskan communities. I decided to buy the ticket to the very first, southmost, stop - that was Ketchikan. I heard or read that travelling further can be easily made by buying the ticket for sailing further north on the ferry itself.

Well, that is for the preparations. If I recall correctly, I had two weeks and two days off from work, giving me roughly 16 days for the trip. And this is how the adventure started.