Story and photos by Chloe Anderson
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Chloe Anderson is a photojournalist, a naturalist and an avid rock climber.
My college boyfriend once said each room in his fraternity house was its own little universe. I can’t think of a more fitting description for the inside of a ferry.
Perhaps nowhere else is as unassuming as the Kennicott. Hair goes unbrushed, clothes are unchanged, card games are played and sweaters are knit. Hours slip by, punctuated only by car deck calls and occasional wildlife sightings announced over the PA system.
During my three-day-long journey from Juneau to Bellingham, I settled into a comfortable routine. Each day, I’d read, edit photos, write, play card games with strangers who quickly became friends, and observe as other people slowly settled into their routines as well. People gradually staked their claims in the solariums and used chargers to mark their territory in booths with outlets. Groups held conversations in hushed voices; tired-looking mothers played checkers with their energetic sons and daughters. Some people worked. Most people didn’t.
The one thing we all had in common was a general sense of peace. Time spent on ferries doesn’t feel real—it’s a coda in time, a thoughtful pause, a time for rest before whatever comes next. As I observed others from my little universe, I wondered what was going on in theirs. Where had they come from? What were they doing there? Where were they going next?
And, because I had nothing better to do, I decided to ask.
Before James Hawkins moved to Skagway for the summer, he was “the sole manufacturer of the fastest commercial quilting machine in the world.” He worked in a warehouse building Handy Quilter Infinities for six years before a friend convinced him to apply for a driver guide position with Holland America Princess.
“I’ve wanted to live in Alaska for a while,” Hawkins said. “I visited northern California once with my family…I loved the conifers and the ocean and the mist.” The cost of living steered him away, but he set his sights on Southeast Alaska when he realized it’s part of the Tongass National Forest he fell in love with in the Pacific Northwest.
Hawkins will be driving transit for Park City when he returns home to Utah. He plans to return to Alaska next summer to work as a guide in Denali.
Randy Stroh found his calling while he was between jobs and working as an Uber driver in Chicago.
“This guy gets on my Uber, and minutes later, he was driving the Red Hot Chili Peppers around for three months,” Stroh said. “And I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to drive a tour bus.’”
Stroh is on his way back to the lower 48 to visit family and work in Jackson Hole with the friend who told him about Southeast Alaska to begin with. He plans to return to Juneau and spend another season with Alaska Coach Tours. Driving tour buses is still his long-term goal, “but that’s like…a real job.”
“Right now I’m just getting the experience, checking the boxes and having a good time,” Stroh said with a smile.
Jade Tuckett was engaged before she moved to Skagway for the summer and ended her eight-year-long relationship.
“When I got to Skagway, I realized I wanted to form connections with people,” she said. “I wanted to find myself. I didn’t know who I was, and it was hard to do those things while I was in a relationship. So we broke up.”
While she worked at Klondike Clothing, she met people who had never been in relationships. As they gradually fell in and out of summer flings, saying they wanted to go back to being single to find themselves—even though some of them had always been single—Tuckett started to realize she had gotten it wrong.
“I think you see so many people in Alaska who are bigger versions of themselves when they were together,” she said. “I always thought that if I was in a relationship, I’d be half of a person and they’d be half of a person. But I realize now that I don’t need to be alone to find myself.”
Tuckett is going home to Texas, where she’ll marry her fiance Julius and start her own massage business. She plans to return to Skagway next summer.
When Covid-19 hit, Adara Salaam had just begun her career as a nurse in Atlanta. After two years, she was burned out and needed a break.
“I’ve always wanted to go to Alaska,” Salaam said. “I didn’t do any research, really—I just applied for a job and went to Juneau.”
Salaam was a bicycle guide at Cycle Alaska, where she took groups of people to the Mendenhall valley to pedal around and visit the glacier. She said Juneau was “beautiful, but cold, dreary and sad.” She doubts she’ll be able to return next year.
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