NT - what ya know about Ketchikan?

[jimnyc]

A buddy of mine is being sent there for a 6 month gig in setting up a cell phone shop. Will he enjoy the area and find things to do outside of work? Will he be bored? What about wildlife in that area, will he hopefully get eaten by a rather large brown bear? :)

[jimnyc]

Here's a pic from the hills looking down at Ketchikan. Sure looks nice!

http://i.imgur.com/I6b0ByH.jpg

[NightTrain]

Been there many times!

No Grizz in that neck of the woods, but a black bear wandered into the grocery store while my coworker was in it. He looked over and the bear was sniffing the tomatoes. He decided to vacate the store right about then, telling the manager on his way out that he had a bear over on aisle 3. The manager didn't believe him, but went over and checked anyway... they got the bear out but it made the paper.

It rains. Hard. I've never seen rain like that, other than movies of a tropical monsoon. I spent a month out in that rain building a cell site with a few others, and it was miserable.

There's some old logging roads that he can explore that are cool, and they go many miles up into the hills where he can find some cool fishing spots.

If he takes the ferry over to Metlakatla, there's even a few slot machines there that the indians have set up... as far as I know, the only legal ones in AK.

Remember the "Bridge to Nowhere" that was a major political controversy? It wasn't really a Bridge to Nowhere, it was to connect the Airport (which is on an island) to Ketchikan. So because it got scrapped, you have to take the ferry across 300 yards of water. It's a major pain in the ass.

I have a bunch of pics of Ketchikan that I can post.

Tell your buddy that he'll want to stay at the Best Western - the other hotels there are real dives, but the BW is good to go and has a restaurant and bar in it.

What cell company? I'd think it would be Verizon, that's the only new player to the market down there and we just finished building out their towers in the area last summer.

[NightTrain]

I took this one in January of this year. It's right beside the road about 10 miles South of Ketchikan, almost to the Hydro Project they have at the end of the road. It's a pretty cool waterfall.


http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5957&stc=1

[NightTrain]

Metlakatla is a few miles across the water on a little island across from Ketchikan. Pretty cool little town to visit, it would probably suck to live there. Interestingly, this is the only town in Alaska that's not on Alaskan Standard Time (one hour behind Pacific), and that's because there was a large cannery operation there years ago and they decided it was a pain in the ass to have their offices on a 1-hour difference from their Portland office. So they changed the time zone for this little island to conform to PST.

I didn't know communities could do something like that. But the locals all disregard the time difference, including the Ferry - which caused some problems for us rushing to catch the ferry and ending up standing around for an extra hour... you'd think the AK Marine Highway would address the time difference in it's schedules, but no.

http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5958&stc=1

[NightTrain]

Here you can see Ketchikan across the water on the far shoreline to the right as we are driving to Metlakatla.
http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5959&stc=1

[NightTrain]

Metlakatla.

http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5960&stc=1

[NightTrain]

The Lituya, one of the ferries that make up the AK Marine Highway.

http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5961&stc=1

[NightTrain]

So as we were standing around for an extra hour, waiting to go back over to Ketchikan, I was puzzled to see literally millions of these baby mussel shells piled up. They were way above high tide and I couldn't think of any reason to explain how and why they got here.

Finally a local explained it. At low tide, Mink come down to the beaches and collect the baby mussels and bring them up to a good spot to be able to keep an eye out for any predators that might happen along. They crack open the mussels and eat them here.

http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5962&stc=1

http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5963&stc=1

[NightTrain]

The saltwater is crystal clear down in this area, away from the dirty glacier water. A couple of ducks bitched at me for interrupting their morning.

http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5964&stc=1

[jimnyc]

Yep, it's Verizon. While he works for a 3rd party, it's almost all Verizon crap. I'll have to have him come take a peek at this, some good pictures! I don't think he'll have wheels, so I guess he'll be looking to rent. Looks to be out in the middle of nowhere. This guy is about 30 years old. I'd be bored out there for 6 months, unless of course I had some good company and a lot of toys to play with! Maybe a 4 wheeler, access to fishing poles and supplies, perhaps a boat, a guide to the best fishing holes, all expenses paid to the best restaurants. And oh yeah, hookers, gotta have hookers! (said in my best Homer Simpson (oh yeah drugs, gotta have drugs!).

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/HT0kpJ84rKs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[hjmick]

HEY! I've been to Ketchikan!


Okay, so it was on a cruise ship that I stopped... But what the hell? My mom paid, it was a family reunion thing. It was the only way she could get me to go. If you knew my family...


The area is considered a rain forest if I'm not mistaken. It's a cute little town. Busy as hell in the summer with the cruise ships and tourists. I'd go back. To stay.


http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee346/Parrotheadmick/Alaska/Alaxka072008008.jpg

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee346/Parrotheadmick/Alaska/Alaxka072008009.jpg

[NightTrain]

Yep, it is a rain forest.

It's impressive when 3 cruise ships dock at once and there's suddenly 15,000 extra people all wandering around downtown Ketchikan. You almost can't drive through town when that happens.

You always know who the tourists are because the cruise ships hand out these little cheap plastic ponchos for rain gear.

I'm trying to find a way to link my facebook pics to here, if I can't then I'll just re-download them and upload here.

[NightTrain]

Oh, and the best place to eat in Ketchikan is the Ocean View. It's an Italian/Mexican restaurant and it's by far the best food in town.

But for a kickass burger, he'll want to go to this little hamburger shack right on the main drag downtown named 'Burger Queen'. It doesn't look like much but it's a top-notch burger.

Other than those two, everything else there is mediocre for food... and we tried them all.

[NightTrain]

Saw a guest perusing this thread - I forgot all about it!

Jim, is your friend still working in Ketchikan or is he long gone? How was his initial trip?

[darin]

Have you ever seen Palin around town, NT?

[jimnyc]

Saw a guest perusing this thread - I forgot all about it!

Jim, is your friend still working in Ketchikan or is he long gone? How was his initial trip?

Nope, he's long been back. But funny you ask, as he kinda found a girlfriend while he was there, and she's currently in town with him. He said he loved it there, the area and the hiking and the people. And hated it when the cruise ships arrived and the local population went up by 10x.

[NightTrain]

Nope, he's long been back. But funny you ask, as he kinda found a girlfriend while he was there, and she's currently in town with him. He said he loved it there, the area and the hiking and the people. And hated it when the cruise ships arrived and the local population went up by 10x.

Lol, everyone hates the swarms of tourists but loves their money! That town pretty much is there only because of the tourists... it's a love/hate thing.

Weird that he found a girlfriend and imported her to NY... usually that happens the opposite way.

[NightTrain]

Have you ever seen Palin around town, NT?

Yeah, lots of times. We were testing out the boat last week in front of her house, and I'll see her every now and then at the store.

The image that the media has portrayed along with the left is far different than the real person. She's cool, funny and a normal person like anyone - although to be fair, the person you see standing up in front of millions is not the same person that she is. That's a lot of stress and impossible to be your real self... she gets mocked for it but if you stuck me in front of millions of people and started asking me questions on camera, I'd probably come off like Borat.

[Gunny]

The Lituya, one of the ferries that make up the AK Marine Highway.

http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5961&stc=1

Hey! is this Cruz's "yacht"? :laugh:

[darin]

Yeah, lots of times. We were testing out the boat last week in front of her house, and I'll see her every now and then at the store.

The image that the media has portrayed along with the left is far different than the real person. She's cool, funny and a normal person like anyone - although to be fair, the person you see standing up in front of millions is not the same person that she is. That's a lot of stress and impossible to be your real self... she gets mocked for it but if you stuck me in front of millions of people and started asking me questions on camera, I'd probably come off like Borat.


My kids and I loved Palin's Alaska show. What struck me was seeing her be more real (as real as you can with a camera in your face, I guess). I'm hoping she finally wises up and joins the board :)

[NightTrain]

My kids and I loved Palin's Alaska show. What struck me was seeing her be more real (as real as you can with a camera in your face, I guess).

You know, I never watched that show even once. Just never happened across it when I was channel surfing.


I'm hoping she finally wises up and joins the board :)

Yikes! It would be cool, but Jim would have to hire about 20 mods to keep up with the bans of thousands of rabid moonbats that would invade. That would be chaos.

[Gunny]

You know, I never watched that show even once. Just never happened across it when I was channel surfing.



Yikes! It would be cool, but Jim would have to hire about 20 mods to keep up with the bans of thousands of rabid moonbats that would invade. That would be chaos.

You get to channel surf? Now I REALLY hate you. Comcast synchronizes its damned commercials so you can't. Unless you want to choose which commercial you want to watch. They even time that crap with games.

I don't care about the latest pharmaceutical, nor the class action lawsuit for anyone using it. I don't care about your insurance nor your diet plan. And I'm nocturnal. They will repeat the same freakin commercial in the same commercial break. They need to give ME a break. I'm paying a fortune to watch commercials.

[DLT]

Been there many times!

No Grizz in that neck of the woods, but a black bear wandered into the grocery store while my coworker was in it. He looked over and the bear was sniffing the tomatoes. He decided to vacate the store right about then, telling the manager on his way out that he had a bear over on aisle 3. The manager didn't believe him, but went over and checked anyway... they got the bear out but it made the paper.

It rains. Hard. I've never seen rain like that, other than movies of a tropical monsoon. I spent a month out in that rain building a cell site with a few others, and it was miserable.

There's some old logging roads that he can explore that are cool, and they go many miles up into the hills where he can find some cool fishing spots.

If he takes the ferry over to Metlakatla, there's even a few slot machines there that the indians have set up... as far as I know, the only legal ones in AK.

Remember the "Bridge to Nowhere" that was a major political controversy? It wasn't really a Bridge to Nowhere, it was to connect the Airport (which is on an island) to Ketchikan. So because it got scrapped, you have to take the ferry across 300 yards of water. It's a major pain in the ass.

I have a bunch of pics of Ketchikan that I can post.

Tell your buddy that he'll want to stay at the Best Western - the other hotels there are real dives, but the BW is good to go and has a restaurant and bar in it.

What cell company? I'd think it would be Verizon, that's the only new player to the market down there and we just finished building out their towers in the area last summer.

Intercom: Bear on Aisle 3.....preceeded by Cleanup on Aisle 3....lol

[NightTrain]

Intercom: Bear on Aisle 3.....preceeded by Cleanup on Aisle 3....lol

When my coworker saw it, he didn't know if Mama was over in aisle 4 inspecting the peanut butter selection. He did the right thing by getting out of there.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8oPHu8s5xNU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Kathianne]

Saw a guest perusing this thread - I forgot all about it!

Jim, is your friend still working in Ketchikan or is he long gone? How was his initial trip?


Thanks to the 'guest' another thread I missed back when.