Zip a Dee Doo Dah - Icy Strait Point

One of the nicer ports on the 2-week itinerary for this cruise is Icy Strait Point.  The town of Hoonah boasts about 800 people, most of whom are Tlingit.  Hoonah and Icy Strait Point are on Chichagof Island and is about 30 miles west of Juneau, on the other side of the Inside Passage.  There is one hotel.  The post office was opened there in 1901, even though Alaska didn't become a state until 1959.  For the first half of the 20th century, Hoonah's main industry was salmon fishing and a cannery was opened and operated.  Hoonah/Icy Strait Point also boasts the world's largest zipline, which opened in 2007.

This was my second visit to Icy Strait, and Adrienne's first time.  My goal this year was to ride that zipline!  Adrienne would have none of it.  Coward.  Coward!!!!  So I went alone.  I've got to say, it was a blast!!  We took about a 40 minute ride in a school bus around the back of the island, through the town of Hoonah, and then climbed up to the top of the mountain behind the port, about 1,300 feet high.  The zipline is an easy ride, compared to most zipline operations.  You get strapped into a seated type of harness, you put your feet up and they open the door (kind of like a trap door) and all of a sudden you're flying 60 miles an hour down this mountain.  The ride lasts about 90 seconds and it's all thrills.  At the bottom, the mechanisms automatically brake you so you don't have to do a thing other than hold on tight, scream out loud with delight, and maybe take some pictures, if you're not spinning around too much from the wind.  I did my best.  I LOVED IT!!!  It was worth the steep price of $149.


The Tlingkit community owns and operates the port facilities at Icy Strait Point, which, from what I understand, is different from other ports in Alaska, where the cruise lines have great financial influence on what is at the port.  The zipline, for example, gets about 15,000 riders a year, and at $149 per rider, that's a tidy sum of income.

There are some great nature trails to walk along the water, and a great paved pathway from the dock all the way to the town of Hoonah, which I believe is about a mile or so.  There are some nice shops at the dock, a few restaurants, and the old cannery has been turned into a museum.  There are also whale watching and fishing tours out of the town of Hoonah.  Last time I was there, in 2016, I took a private whale watching trip. 

Icy Strait Point gets over 100 ships per season calling.  We were there this date from about 7:00 AM until 3 PM.  It used to be a tender port, but the community build the dock up a few years ago and now we no longer have to tender.

It's a great place to visit!

Part of the new dock.

The walkway from the ship to land.

This is the pathway that will lead you to the town of Hoonah.



Looking back on the shops and cannery museum. 



Our drive up the mountain, we passed some pretty places.

Time to zip!!!  I was in the first group of 6 for the day!

You can see the ship off in the distance.  The line was 1,300 feet high, 5,300 feet long.  90 seconds.

 

Almost down!!

From the brochure.

 Me and my pink phone.  Oh, by the way, special thanks to my fellow blogger friend Mary for telling me about the phone strap.  It was such a blessing to have it this trip!!

 This is part of the old cannery area

Tlingklit totem

Fireweed!

On some longer cruises, the Pinnacle Grill offers an evening with a special dinner called Cellar Master's Dinner.  It's a 6 or 7 course meal, paired with special wines for each course.  The soup below, was a yummy cream of wild mushroom.  

This was a filet mignon slice and bone marrow. 

Dessert was a mixture of goodness.

Adrienne and I went to this tongue and pulse analysis seminar one afternoon and learned all about how to determine what your pulse in various parts of your body tell you, and what the shape and color of your tongue means.  I loved the picture so much I asked the acupuncturist if I could take a picture and she obliged.