Flutterby™! : Still more Alaska

Woke up early this morning with a bad case of the itches, must be lots of poison oak up there amongst the French broom. Yesterday my hands were still too torn up to do much, but I broke a rope four times trying to pull one of the more recalcitrant ones out with the car. I think that one's going to need a spade or whatever the modern incarnation of 2,4,5-T is.

Anyway, did some searches, but clicked randomly way down in the tens, twenties and thirties of search results. Discovered Virtual Tourist, which looks like it could be a version of that collaborative travel site we've talked about, if only they could do a little graphic design work and make the content a little more promising (and maybe find a way to integrate off-site data better). I found a bunch of local color stuff in the Petersburg, Alaska entry, but while the Juneau entry had some interesting tips I had to wade through a number of all caps entries from people who'd obviously not made it further than The Red Dog as they stumbled off the cruise ships. Supplements the Juneau Convention & Visitor's Bureau site nicely, though. Depending on how we're feeling, the Glacier Gardens might make a stop in a touristy sort of way.

Been wanting to throw this picture up somewhere I can remember it, not because it's a stellar beautiful shot, but because it captures Devil's Thumb from the vantage of Petersburg. Devil's Thumb is a fun addition to a search if you're looking for climbing stories, Jon Krakauer's got one, and there are a number of "spent some time dragging sleds up the glacier, decided that even that was too dangerous, turned around and camped out 'til our boat rendezvous arrived" tales.

(random pictures of Petersburg from someone who used to work at a fish processing company there)

I'm reading John Muir's Travels in Alaska, having finished One Man's Wilderness by Sam Keith from the materials of Richard Proenneke and T.C. Boyle's Drop City, the latter two having been recommended (and ordered on their initiative) by Michael et al. at Booksmith at San Anselmo when they saw what else I was reading (Beats Amazon cold). Notes on those coming soon, but one that might be more appropriate to the modern cruise ship traveler: Back in 1890, in Oregon, Washington and Alaska; Sights and Scenes for the Tourist, by E. L. Lom (Found while I was looking for images of the aforementioned Devil's Thumb) had this observation:

The tourist goes necessarily when and where the steamer goes, will have an opportunity to see all there is of note or worth seeing in Southeastern Alaska.

Here's to getting off the damned ship once in a while.