July 23, Iceberg View to Petersburg

Although we originally planned to arrive in Petersburg on the 24th, having left lots of time for short days towards the end of the Ketchikan to Petersburg leg, we made such good time on the 22nd that we decided to try to make it a day early, with the idea that we would be able to spend a little bit more time exploring Petersburg and eating the legendary Petersburg pizza.

After a typical mid-morning start (late morning?) we were able to make it to Petersburg by early afternoon. At one point, close to town, we stopped for a break on a beach which would make an excellent campsite for a first or last night out, with good upland camping and a nice gravel landing beach, at least at high tide.

Once in cell range, we were able to make a phone call to out lodging, located next to the ferry terminal, and were able to add an extra night to our reservation.

The paddle into town was a trip--strong ebb tides out of Wrangell Narrows combined with lots of vessel traffic made for some high-intensity paddling. Throw in the sights and sounds of Petersburg's busy fish processing plants and the result was a little bit of culture shock after the serene wilderness paddling of many of the prior days and our mellow time in Wrangell. Cool place, though, and very true to it's Norwegian fishing town roots.

Getting in and out of town with a kayak is often a pain in the butt, but it was a little better in Petersburg than elsewhere--the ferry terminal has pretty good water access on either side of the terminal building, though we did have to carry our gear over some slippery kelp. From there, it was less than forty yards to the B and B.

The 23rd was a Sunday, and not much was open, but we were able to get some groceries and order a pizza from one of at least two local pizza joints. Studebaker's delivers, and comes with East Coast Pizza Snob Approval. Actually, both pizza places are solid options.