Sunday, June 17, 2007

Alaska Caper -- Day 5

June 8, 2007
Posted by: Dick Wilson

Start: Bellingham, WA, on board Columbia
Destination: North

Steve and I awoke early today when it became light in the room at sunrise. We scrambled to organize our gear and pack the bikes for the short trip down to the Alaska Marine Highway (AMH) terminal. On the way, we stopped at the UPS store to pick up the radio headsets which had been shipped to us from Whitehorse Gear in New Hampshire. Shortly thereafter, Donna, the salesperson at Whitehorse Gear, called to ask whether we had received our headsets. I thanked her for her prompt attention and follow-up. At this point, we were good to go except for buying munchies for the trip, anticipating that food on board the ship would be quite expensive.

While waiting in line to board the Columbia, we became acquainted with other cyclists who were traveling to Alaska. There were two couples from Michigan and one couple from Alaska. In addition, there was one young man who is a smoke jumper and lives part-time in Boise. It was a small-world situation. We also talked with the motorcycle police who were providing security for the AMH. It turns out that one officer grew up in Lewisburg, PA, home of Bucknel University where Steve went to college. We talked motorcycles for an hour or so. He gave us his e-mail address, asking to be put on the blog list. He was envious of our adventure, and he indicated he hoped to take a similar excursion some time in the near future.

Motorcycles were the first vehicles to be boarded. They stuffed them into a small corner in the bow where we tied our bikes down. Seven of them fit into a space that would not accommodate one automobile. At $450.00 per bike, we reckoned that the AMH system would be in "fat city" if they could fill the whole ship with motorcycles. The vehicles loaded on the Columbia were diverse, to say the least. Next to us was a large stock trailer with three bulls. Apparently, a rancher near Anchorage was looking to get genetic diversity into his herd, or so the story goes. Apparently, he had not heard of artificial insemination. There were lots of small cars, pickup campers, and a few large motor homes, as well as several U-Haul trucks pulling trailers. When loading was complete, there was hardly a space to turn around on the deck which ran virtually the entire length of the ship. The Columbia is the flagship of the AMH system. It is powered by two 6170 horsepower diesel motors which chug along at 409 rpm. This moves the 418-foot "ferry boat," weighing 13,000 tons gross, at a service speed of 17 knots. As the ship pulled out of the dock, Steve and I said, "Hey, we’re headed for Alaska." There was no turning back at this point. We were on our way.

We carried gear up to our tiny stateroom with bunk beds, a small vanity, and an adjacent modular toilet and shower combo. It is small but comfortable and beats the heck out of sleeping in an inside recliner or pitching a tent outside on the rear deck. We grabbed a light supper at the snack bar and crashed for the night. I don’t think I wiggled until 7 a.m.; I probably would have slept through a typhoon.

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