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Wednesday, August 6, 2008

«Gravina Island (Photo Heavy)»

On Monday I left Revillagigedo Island (the island Ketchikan, Alaska is on) for a few hours. I went over to Gravina Island with my bicycle, where our airport is. Yes, this is the island the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" was suppose to be built to. I'll talk about that in a later post, this post is photos I took while over there. Click an image to view full.

On the ferry, heading over to the airport. By boat is the only way to get over there, costs $5.00 per passenger (round trip), $6.00 per vehicle (one way). Lucky for me, my bike went for free.
Ferry ride to Gravina Island, Ketchikan Airport.
Here's where the tunnel is/will be that passes under the airport runway. It's all part of the construction of the "Road to Nowhere" (again, I'll talk about it later). For now, they have a pilot car that escorts traffic across the runway. I had to put my bicycle in the back of the pilot car and ride in the passenger seat to get across (both ways).
Unfinished tunnel under the Ketchikan airport runway.
This is right on the other side of the runway, the road makes a "T". They wouldn't let me go very far when I turned left here.
Road 'T' intersection on the other side of the airport.
That little bridge is all the further I was allowed to go. There's heavy construction ahead. They told me the dump truck drivers drive like maniacs, and it was unsafe for me to ride any further.
Road construction ahead, bicycles not allowed.
So I turned around and went on the road to the right of the "T" intersection. You can see they have a lot of supplies lined up along the road.
Construction supplies lined up along the road.
I stopped to take a picture of this pond with Ketchikan in the background.
Random pond on Gravina Island.
I went up a random side road. I didn't go very far. They dig across old logging roads they no longer use to allow water to drain from one side to the other so it doesn't wash out the road, in case they want to use it again. It also makes it tough for vehicles of any kind to continue on the road. This is the road that I found the bear crap on, by-the-way.
Logging road closed and dug across.
Here's what the road looks like that I've been riding on. Notice all the relatively flat land over here?
Flat land on Gravina Island.
My bicycle, with quite the backdrop.
Bicycle with Ketchikan in the background.
I went up another random logging road, this one took me up a mountain a little ways. It eventually got too rough to comfortably continue. Besides, it was cutting away from the water and going towards the interior of Gravina Island. This is looking back across to Ketchikan. It was a little dusty that day, as you can tell from the picture.
View of Ketchikan from Gravina Island.
Approaching the tunnel again, opposite side the other picture was. You can see how Ketchikan is built on the side of the mountains.
West end of Ketchikan visible, and airport tunnel.
Here, I'm on the ferry heading back to Revillagigedo Island (Ketchikan). I tried to catch the beautiful green left in the wake of the other ferry, but the camera didn't pick up on the color too well. That cruise ship is the Diamond Princess.
Ferry ride back over to Ketchikan.
EDIT: Here's that later post where I talk about the bridge.

2 comments:

  1. That was a fun little tour.

    What a clear day, perfect for an outing.

    The 5th pic has some seriously interesting lines in it.... That's cool.

    6 is just gorgeous.

    Are your parents originally from Ketchikan?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nope, my parents are not originally from Ketchikan.

    ReplyDelete

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