Active Pursuits

There's a lot to do outdoors around Ketchikan, but most of it will require a boat or plane; drive-by attractions are limited. In any event, your first stop should be the trip-planning room at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, for details on trails, fishing, and dozens of U.S. Forest Service cabins.

Bear Viewing

Salmon returning to a fish hatchery on a creek south of town have long attracted black bears. A local business, Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary, (tel. 907/225-5503), takes advantage of the viewing opportunity by hosting visitors on well-made trails with guides. It's an excellent program, however, the firm is solely focused on cruise-ship passengers and hasn't even disclosed a price for individuals to join the tours. As a passenger, you can book onboard. Otherwise, call, but I cannot speak to schedule, availability, or price. On the other hand, you can watch the same bears from public property for free, without a guide. Drive about 10 miles south of town, beyond Saxman on the South Tongass Highway, to the Herring Cove Bridge. From here you have a viewpoint of the same estuary owned by the sanctuary and just as good a chance of seeing black bears. Bears may be present June through September and sightings are most likely in July and August.

For more of a wilderness experience, Ketchikan is a good place to get on a floatplane, soar over water and wooded islands, and land where bears are gathering at streams where the salmon are running. Depending on where the bears are, it costs $250 to $400 per person. Promech Air (tel. 800/860-3845 or 907/225-3845; www.promechair.com) and Island Wings Air Service (tel. 888/854-2444 or 907/225-2444; www.islandwings.com) offer this service.

Cabin Trips

The U.S. Forest Service maintains more than 50 cabins around Ketchikan; all are remote and primitive, but at $25 to $45 a night, you can't beat the price or the settings. This is a chance to be utterly alone in the wilderness; many of the lake cabins come with a boat for fishing and exploring. For details and descriptions of all the cabins, contact the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center (tel. 907/228-6220; www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass).

If you stay in a cabin, you'll need all your camping gear except a tent, including sleeping bags, a camp stove, your own cooking outfit and food, a lantern, and so on. The easy way to handle this is to contact Alaska Wilderness Outfitting and Camping Rentals, 3857 Fairview St. (tel. 907/225-7335; www.latitude56.com/camping/index.html), which has been supplying cabin trips for more than 15 years. They rent almost everything you need, including small outboards and life jackets for the skiffs, and deliver directly to the air taxi or water taxi.

The cabins are remote. You can hike or take a boat to some of them, but most are accessible only by floatplane (and unless you have loads of stuff, flying is probably the cheapest way to go). Expect to pay around $1,000 round-trip for three passengers. Obviously, it makes sense only if you will stay for a while -- we never go for less than 3 nights.

Fishing

The Alaska Department of Fish & Game produces a 24-page fishing guide to Ketchikan with details on where to find fish in both fresh- and saltwater, including a list of 17 fishing spots accessible from the roads. Get it from the local office of the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, at 2030 Sea Level Dr., Suite 205, Ketchikan, AK 99901(tel. 907/225-2859; www.alaska.gov/adfg, click "Sport Fisheries" then on the Southeast region on the map). As is generally true in Southeast Alaska, most fishing takes place from boats in saltwater, for which you need a guided charter. Ketchikan Charter Boats (tel. 800/272-7291 or 907/225-7291; www.ketchikancharterboats.com) has a lot of experience in these waters. You can also get a referral from the visitor center. The going rate for a daylong charter for salmon or halibut is around $300 per person, for a half-day about $160.

Hiking

Eight miles out the North Tongass Highway, the Ward Lake Recreation Area covers a lovely patch of rainforest, lake, and stream habitat and has a picnic area, several trails, and campgrounds. Ward Creek has steelhead and cutthroat trout, Dolly Varden char, and silver salmon; check current regulations before fishing. The wide, gravel Ward Lake Nature Trail circles the placid lake for 1.3 miles among old-growth Sitka spruce large enough to put you in your place. For a more challenging hike, Perseverance Lake Trail climbs through forest with steps and boardwalks from the Three Cs Campground, across the road from Ward Lake, to a lake 2.3 miles away that can be reached no other way. There's a good bit of climbing to get there, but the trail is extraordinarily well maintained, without mud even in wet weather. To reach the recreation area, turn right off the highway on Revilla Road and follow the signs.

Deer Mountain Trail, right behind downtown, is a steep but rewarding climb through big, mossy trees up to great views. You can walk from City Park to the trail head, half a mile and 500 feet higher on steep Fair Street and Ketchikan Lakes Road, but if you take a cab you will save energy for the trail. The first mile rises 1,000 feet to a great ocean view south of Tongass Narrows, and the next mile and 1,000 feet to another great view, this time of Ketchikan. The alpine summit, at 3,000 feet, comes near the 3-mile mark. A public shelter (first-come, first-served) is a bit farther, and the trail continues to another trail head 10 miles away. Pick up a trail guide sheet from the Forest Service at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center.

Sea Kayaking

The islands, coves, and channels around Ketchikan create protected waters rich with life and welcoming for exploration by kayak. Southeast Sea Kayaks (tel. 800/287-1607 or 907/225-1258; www.kayakketchikan.com), rents kayaks and guides day trips and overnights. They specialize in taking small groups of independent travelers, not big mobs from the cruise ships, and have half-day trips that start with a boat ride to real wilderness with only six paddlers along. Those are $149 for adults, $119 for children, including food and drink. A 2 1/2-hour paddle is $89 for adults, $59 for children as young as 6. The shop is a mile from the cruise-ship dock at 1621 Tongass Ave. They have multi-day Misty Fjords expeditions, too.