Icy Straight Point is located on the Chichagof Island in the town of Hoohan. It’s 40 miles west of Juneau and approximately 900 people live in town. It is known as the Real Alaskan experience. Hoonah means ''village by the cliff.'' It was the principal village for the Huna, a Tlingit tribe that has occupied the Glacier Bay/Icy Strait area since prehistory. Hoohan is the largest Tlingit village in Alaska and is only accessible by boat or plane. Hoohan is also the home to a historic cannery, which now houses a museum.
The island has only 8 miles of road. So, if you want to go on a nice long cruise on your motorcycle on a cool spring evening, you’ll most likely be passing back and forth in front of your home approximately 14 times. Man, that’s a bummer. Talk about not going anywhere!
Icy Strait Point was established in 1912 as a new port of call for cruise lines and hosts only one ship at a time. It’s great to have just one ship in port; it’s not as crowded when there’s something you want to do. The port's connection to the sea is strong. Locals share the sea with humpback whales, orcas, Dall porpoises, seals, sea otters, halibut and Pacific salmon. It is not uncommon to spot a humpback or an orca while walking along the shore.
We arrived around 7:00am. After breakfast, we jumped on a tender and headed to shore.
Once we arrived, we walked around the dock. We scheduled an excursion to do the zip rider at 9:45am, so we had time to kill. We walked around near the port and checked out everything.
The museum right at the port is actually a historic cannery and quite interesting. It’s all a self guided history tour, which is very informative. And around the outside of the museum there is a variety of fishing equipment. Yep, I found a jackpot. Not old fishing boats, but old fishing equipment! I was a happy gurl!
After we were done playing around in the old fishing equipment, it was time to check in for our zip rider excursion. This ZipRider cable ride is the longest Zip Line in the world at 5,330 feet, and includes a 1,300 vertical drop. Your adventure begins with a narrated bus ride through the village of Hoonah, which is so small I didn’t get a chance to pick up my camera and get any pictures of it! On our way, I grabbed a shot of our boat sitting out in some pretty calm water.
We drove past a small, very small, harbor with one old fishing boat docked. But hey, I got a shot of it!
On our way up the Mountain, which was a very long dirt road behind a gate warning trespassers of the private property that lies ahead, the driver was telling us all about the bears on the island. Seems like around every corner there was some bear scat in the road. All fresh! But never saw a bear. He said Hoonah is approximately 50 x 70 miles and has an estimated 4,000 bears! And I never saw a bear. I guess when we get off they’ll all be waiting for us there.
We arrive to our destination and have a 5 minute walk down to the landing pad for the take off of our ziprider. And I never saw a bear.
Oh, I looked and looked. Determined to get a wild one.
And I never saw a bear. Then, peeking between the trees was this sight.
This, my friends, was what we were going to take off from. This is the beginning of the longest zip rider in the world. It’s six cables wide, and after all the riders are in position, you'll take off in what seems like an exhilarating race to the bottom! Accelerating to a maximum speed of 60 mph, you'll pass through a thick wooded area; soon afterward, the bottom drops out and you'll be soaring 300 feet above the open ground. If your eyes are still open, you'll see sweeping views of Port Frederick, Icy Strait and your cruise ship! And I couldn’t see anything for the fog. I’m not too sure I want to go into sheer white not knowing what’s ahead of me! As we get closer, this thing was huge.
We had 14 people in our group. The zip rider releases 6 riders at a time. I was in no hurry to go with the first group. So, we stepped back and let them go first. We walked over to the fire they had going to keep us warm between groups and waited our turn.
The first group took off and it was pretty quiet, except for the noise the zip rider makes. Sounds like a high winding wheel spinning. A few seconds later, the guys running the show walks over to the group and starts counting. There's 8 of us left, he needs 6 to go next. I’m not ready to go just yet. So, the next 6 get strapped. I walk back over to the fire with Ray as we get warmed up.
Yep, this fire was keeping us warm. This where I want to stay.A few seconds later the man running the show comes up and says “You’re up”. We head to the zip rider. The fog has cleared up enough to see where we’re supposed to land. We sit in these little seats, similar to a hammock chair, get strapped in. I feel like I need to scoot back in this seat, but there’s no more scootin room. We’re told to place our feet up on the door that’s going to open and let us go. I’m not comfortable with this. It’s just Ray and I. I look over at Ray and he has the biggest smile I’ve seen yet. He’s really enjoying this. I am too. No, really, I am. I peek between the door and the railing and I don’t see a bottom! I looked up and wondered if that wire is gonna hold us up. What if it snaps? What in the heck am I doing here? This is nuts! O..M..G.
Between my feet on the door is an ad for a “Zip Rider Lemon Drop” at the Landing Zone Restaurant below. I tell the guy I’m gonna need this when I get off. He chuckled and said “You may need 2”. Oh crap! I’m not liking this!
They radio down to the guys below who are supposed to assist us in stopping, and then he says “Ok, ready.” It’s not a question, it’s just “Ok, ready.” My head is screaming “NO” but my mouth won’t move. “1 . . .2 . . .3” then the door opens up and right then and there I figured out why no one screams.
It’s called shock. You don’t have time to scream. Your brain ain’t even thinking about screaming. All it’s saying is “OH S#*@!” while your eyes are bugging out further than they’ve ever bugged out before.
About 10 seconds into this ride, you come to a drop and all you see are the tops of trees waaaaaay down there. For a split second I close my eyes. Then I tell myself “You better keep these eyes open. For the price you paid for this thing, you’re gonna watch the entire trip”! And I did. Half way down Ray goes flying by me at warp speed. What the heck? Don’t leave me here Ray! Then I caught some wind and I go sideways. I did NOT like that! I couldn’t see where I was going. I straightened out right before I came to a hard, abrupt stop.
The entire time I was on this thing I was praying for my dear life. Wondering what I was doing on that thing. Hoping the wire won’t snap and I end up at the bottom with all those bears I haven’t seen yet. But as soon as I stepped off, I thought what a thrill!
Here are some pictures of the next group coming down.
This girl here got stuck. She’s about 300 feet above the ground. See, if you open your arms, like many do, it slows you down and you get stuck a ways out. You have to reach up, pull a black cord to get you to go again. And it brings you down to the landing pad.
I searched youtube.com for something close to what it was like on that thing, and this is the best one I could find. Have fun! Ok, you still with me! Yeah, I know. O...M...G is right! See, I told you!
Yeah, I’d do it again!
Ray and I head over to the restaurant and grab a quick lunch. We both had the fish and chips with Halibut. Very good. Oh, and another Alaskan Ale instead of the Lemon Drop. It was starting to sprinkle a little. Interesting view out the window of the restaurant.
We decided to take a walk along the beach since we had 2 hours left before the ship departs.
On the beach, I found this interesting rock. It almost looks like a face has been carved in the rock. This was my souvenir from Icy Straight Point.
More beach rocks.
Walking further, we came upon part of the forest across from the beach with lots of Spanish Moss. Just beautiful.
Before we decided to turn around and head back to the ship. We saw this!
Finally! I got a shot of a wild Eagle. No, I wasn’t cursing myself up and down this time. I had my zoom! My hope really was to have it sitting like 10 feet away, but I’m happy with this! We see some kayakers heading out on the last whale watching excursion. We’re doing that next time.
And on our way back to the ship on the Tender, I was sort of complaining to myself on why everyone had to take this one back to the ship – cuz it was pretty full. They kept coming and coming and coming. We take off and all I was worried about was it tipping over! Then I looked out the window and see this!
My ultimate hope on this trip was to capture a whale’s tail. I thought it was going to be hard this close without going on one of those excursions.
Ok, I got my eagle, and my whale tail, now all I need is a bear. And coming to a small island which has 4,000 wild bears, I just couldn’t understand why one didn’t come a say hello!
We’re on our way.
We’ll be arriving at the Hubbard Glacier in the morning.
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