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Monday | July 4th
September 14, 2011 by admin
Filed under InnerSea Discoveries
“The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.” --Ralph W. Sockman
We drop the kayaks early in the morning so that guests can get out before breakfast to paddle. I am reminded of the “meeting of the waters”, a famous spot I’ve seen where the Amazon River meets the Rio Negro in Brazil. It is an area where a very distinct demarcation occurs of clear, beer-colored Rio Negro waters meet the muddy brown waters of the Amazon River.
Here in Thomas Bay, a similar phenomenon exists. The “rock flour” of suspended silt from the Baird Glacier melt-waters is mocha-colored in comparison to the pea-green, plankton-rich waters of nearby Scenic Cove.
Expedition Guide Megan Nelson and I are dropped off a mile below the normal drop-off spot where an earlier group made it just a half-hour earlier. Our small boat drivers blame this on a strong current and very low tide. (At least we aren’t skunked on doing the expedition to the glacier. Our sister ship M/V Wilderness Adventurer could not make it one time this summer due to low tides and katabatic or gravity winds descending off of the glacier.)
The challenges make this a real adventure. At first, the way was difficult, with boot-sucking muds on an extremely low tide with very little elevation profile gain. We finally have it a bit easier as we make it above the mud to a sandy area with a big patch of blooming lupines. We take a group photo and continue another 45 minutes to our normal drop-off spot on the other side of a shallow clear-running stream.
What made this challenging were the 10’s of 1000’s of rounded granitic boulders. Despite the relatively short distance involved, we continued forward because an incoming tide is not a good thing on mud flats in Alaska. Our determined group hiked across the boulder garden stream and continued across moss and lichen gardens to the face of the glacier.
From the snout, we amble onto the ice and continue up a ¼-mile onto the Baird glacier. We snap many photos of the bizarre surface features on the glacier and get a few shots that might potentially be family Christmas photos.
I thoroughly enjoy it when folks are able to endure and enjoy supreme physical challenges. The rewards are great and we hooted and laughed and were bewildered by the mysterious nature of the glacier snout. We see glacier tables, where rocks are suspended on a pedestal of ice. We also see some ice pillars covered with sands and ablation zone crevasses and foliated ice.
Back aboard the ship, we figure Thomas Bay is about a 20-kilometer distance from the Southeast Alaskan town of Petersburg. Our captain and expedition leader decide to make a run to town to see the firework display that takes place at 11 p.m. (when it finally gets dark) at the local high school. We arrive with plenty of time to explore the town.
I meet up with my Alaska Whale Foundation buddy Dr. Fred Sharpe on his boat the R/V Evolution and we play some disc golf on our way up to the high school playing fields. Despite an incessant drizzle, the fireworks show was fabulous and viewers were very happy with the organizers of this 4th of July.
Fred gave one of his prized glow-in-the-dark Frisbee discs to a local on our way back to the ship.
We are all happy for the diversion and get to bed after midnight as the ship makes its way back to Thomas Bay for another full day of adventures on the 5th of July.