FAMILY FUN – Crystal Johns holds her son Zayne , 2, as she follows her son Ezekiel, 4, up an inflatable slide Saturday at Xoots Elementary School during the annual Spring Carnival. The event included games, prizes, cotton candy, and karaoke. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Sentinel Staff Writer
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Wash. Group Saddles Up, Rides Inside Passage
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Five men from the Seattle area arrived in Sitka Tuesday evening, tired and hungry but happy after a five-day journey up the Inside Passage riding five personal watercraft.
From left Oystein Love, Christian Thode, Greg Thode, Ken Schueller, and Chance Schueller pose for a photo at Crescent Harbor after completing an 800-mile trip from Seattle to Sitka on personal water craft. The group spent five days in dry suits for the run to Sitka. (Sentinel Photo by Shannon Haugland)
They pulled into Crescent Harbor without ceremony around 8 p.m. and parked their Yamaha WaveRunners next to the shelter. Still clad in the drysuits they wore aboard their machines for the 800-mile ride, they talked to a few curious passersby before going on their way for a change of clothes and something to eat.
Their arrival was observed by Sitka City Assembly member Ben Miyasato, who was walking by the harbor after adjournment of a short Assemby meeting at Centennial Hall. He ran back to the meeting room, where other city officials and a Sentinel reporter were chatting after the meeting, and passed on the news. The adventurers were still at the dock when the reporter showed up.
What prompted their trip? Greg Thode spoke up.
“I don’t know – to get our boys out and go do it,” he said.
The group included Greg and his 18-year-old son Christian; Ken Schueller and his 17-year-old son Chance, all of Marysville; and their friend Oystein Lowe of Mill Creek, Washington.
The group ended up in Sitka through Lowe’s connections. Lowe works on a crab tender serving Silver Bay Seafoods. After the season, the five WaveRunners will be loaded up onto the tender for transport back to Seattle.
The group started from Anacortes and went through the San Juan and Queen Charlotte Islands before spending the first night at a shelter at Campbell River, across from Port Hardy, B.C. Their next stops were at the Butedale Cannery and Prince Rupert, before crossing into Alaska, where they stopped at Petersburg before coming on to Sitka.
They said that among the highlights of the journey were a night in an outlaw cabin, seeing a bear with a cub, and a beautiful ride through Wrangell Narrows.
“That was the best run,” Christian Thode said. “Really flat.”
The main casualty was a bag lost overboard from one of the WaveRunners, leaving a few of the men without a change of clothes when they landed in Sitka.
The group said they enjoyed their adventure, but admitted they were looking forward to getting back home – after a meal and a good night’s sleep in Sitka.
They gave high marks to their machines, which they said have quiet-running four-cycle engines, and which ran the Inside Passage marathon without any trouble.
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20 YEARS AGO
April 2004
Photo caption: Sen. Lisa Murkowski talks with students in Karoline Bekeris’ fourth-grade class Thursday at the Westmark Shee Atika. From left are Murkowski, Kelsey Boussom, Laura Quinn and Memito Diaz.
50 YEARS AGO
April 1974
A medley of songs from “Jesus Christ Superstar” will highlight the morning worship service on Palm Sunday at the United Methodist Church. Musicians will be Paige Garwood and Karl Hartman on guitars; Dan Goodness on organ; and Gayle Erickson on drums.