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Friday | June 24

A misty day in Misty Fiords National Monument

As we circumnavigate Revillagigedo Island, it is evident that we are in a temperate rainforest. The clouds create wreaths around each and every mountain. Some clouds rise up like the fumaroles of the geothermal vent area in Yellowstone National Park. Eagles are omnipresent on tree tops and snags, awaiting an opportunity to capture an unsuspecting fish just below the surface of the fiords.

Tuesday | June 21

Happy Summer Solstice, Everybody!

I am happy to be leading an all-day kayak trip with only 5 takers (hiking options are almost too good to pass up). We decide to circumnavigate Ruth Island in Thomas Bay. Thomas Bay is less than 15 miles northeast of Petersburg, Alaska.

The paddling affords one with the most serene moments. For me, kayaking is a primal urge. It’s very representative of the ineffable nature of time. The present moment is occupied with movement. Your eyes and paddle strokes look toward a nearby or distant future. You get into a pace and try and maintain speed and direction toward a waypoint. Behind you a wake is left, ripples on an endless sea. Your path has been etched upon the canvass of your ever-evolving soul.

 

Indeed, a paddling trip in the Alaskan Wilderness is a most enriching experience that will fill you with a youthful vigor that will last a long time. Memories are made with each paddle stroke because all of our senses are engaged. Our blood is transporting carbohydrates and oxygen to our thirsty tissues. We are keen on finding the perfect stroke and pace. Is there any outdoor sport more ideal than kayaking?

I give thanks for the Greenlander Inuit and the Aleuts for inventing the perfect craft 1000s’s of years ago.

We paddle in a counter-clockwise direction and have many highlights today.

We see Sitka black-tailed deer...

A Mink...

Not to mention a baby seal hauled out on rocks, moose scat, a bald eagles nest, family of merganser ducks, and fields of colorful flowers dancing in a breeze beneath a cerulean sky.

About half-way through our trip, I notice on my map a very narrow opening to what looks like a lake. It happens to be a marine lake that is accessible only at a high tide! However, we are not sure that we can make it through the very narrow passageway.

We paddle up and discover walls thick with mussels and a channel bottom covered with sea anemones.

We park the kayaks on a mud beach nearby and are able to walk at the high-tide line to the 500 meter long lake. The rainforest around it is very lush.

We name the lake “Silver” for our silver anniversary couple!

Back on the ship everyone is pumped-up from so many adventures to share with fellow shipmates. We lift anchor and motor past the town of Petersburg (population 3600) and enjoy the Summer Solstice sunset while transiting the Wrangell Narrows on our way to our anchorage near Wrangell.

 

Monday | June 20

Thomas Bay and the Baird Glacier

Everyone is very excited for the opportunity to walk up to and on a glacier. First, however, guests have to endure a cold ride on small boats for 30 minutes up the glacial melt-water river to a steep bank drop-off. We disembark on basketball-sized boulders and make our way up to a sandy area where plants are recolonizing the deglaciated landscape.

I draw a large circle in the sand with a stick and receive some quizzical looks from my group of 18 hikers. I explain: “This large circle I’ve drawn is planet earth. I draw some lines north and south of the equator and semi-circles just below the North and South poles.”

I jam my stick into one of the dashed lines on my make-shift earth. “Tomorrow at 12 noon at this location 23-degrees north of the equator there will be no shadow cast. What is the name of this geographical position? Right you are, the Tropic of Cancer! What will happen at this circle just below the North Pole? Yes, exactly 24-hours of daylight…no sunset will be seen at the Arctic Circle at 66-degrees north latitude.”

“The long daylight is the reason the humpback whales swim from Hawaii and the gray whales from Mexico. With such long days in the northern hemisphere, plankton blooms are fed upon by krill and schooling fish which provides sustenance not only for whales but other marine mammals and seabirds as well.”

“The Arctic Tern flies up from Antarctica along with millions of migratory birds from central and south America. The long days provide just the right conditions for insects to multiply by the billions. They in turn allow our avian friends to raise not just one brood but two or three with the ability to feed young around-the-clock. If there is a term to describe Alaska and the Far North at this time of year it is “fecund”.”

Just a little bit higher from my scratchings-in-the-sand we are pleased to see so many gorgeous flowers blooming on the moss and lichen-covered rocks.

It’s about a mile walk past the recently colonized outwash plain. Small alders are the next seral stage of plant succession after the mosses and lichens. A few out-of-place sapling conifers such as the spruce and hemlock were seen. They are doomed because there is far too little nitrogen in the soil.

I mention that it will take more than a century from now before the alders give way to the conifers: “We’ll have to make reservations now and come back with our artificial hearts, brains and limbs to see the changes a century or two from now….”

Indeed, glacial rubble to temperate rainforest is a 200-year process from a recently deglaciated landscape. In the wake of the receding glaciers, forests advance and following the greening landscape are mammals, first the herbivores and then the carnivores.

 

I spot inter-stadial stumps in the terminal moraine. Otherwise known as “fossil wood” which John Muir described in his book “Travels in Alaska”. He actually burned it during his campfires with his Tlingit Indian guides and Presbitarian Missionary friend Samuel Hall Young. Carbon dating techniques in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve put some of these non-decomposed stumps at 1000’s of years old…at least up until the point where they are exposed to air from erosion, after millennia buried in rubble.

Our trek across the glacier is a favorite activity for our guests. There is the boot-sucking mud that grabs at our boots during our walk. Also, many features of the glacial surface and moraine just in front of the snout keeps you contemplating, for example: What forces are at work to produce such bizarre sand-covered pyramids? They stand several feet high and are covered with fine sand. Most seem to be along a transverse and sutured closed crevasse.

We head back elated from our days adventure for our small boat trip back to the mother ship.

Saturday | June 18

Juneau

I update the map and wildlife list for our week-long voyage.  I draw a profile of the intertidal zone (ITZ) on the grease board and have a couple of guests help me look-up a few of the creatures seen during our snorkeling session yesterday.

 

Wednesday | June 15

Patterson Bay &  Baranof Island

Everybody onboard is excited and express how their vacation has far exceeded their expectations.

Today is a fabulous day for a kayak, and I have the privilege of leading a small group.  There is so much to see and so much to explore in this pristine wilderness area on South Baranof Island.

 

Following are a few notes jotted-down in my “rite-in-the-rain” waterproof journal:  “During the last mile or so of my kayak I was pondering how it is possible that each and every day seems to top the last day in terms of excitement.  I have often heard folks say that they don’t understand how we can possibly have a better day than the day we just had, and yet, invariably, it happens…day, after day, after day.”

“Undoubtedly, each day brings newness and surprises.  Due to the small size of the ship and our collective enthusiasm for being where we are, we have ample opportunities to get to know our fellow travelers.  Stories are swapped in the lounge, at the dinner table, in the hot tubs or out on the viewing decks.  Everybody seems to be relaxed, in a mood for a great time and certainly not caught up with appearances.  Preconceived ideas are dropped from our minds and we allow ourselves to get lost in each and every moment”

“After a certain amount of time hanging-out and getting to know each other, it seems as if we all become exposed to some kind of magic potion that gives us the capacity to be more receptive to the beauty and the power of the place that surrounds us.”

“Certainly we forget unimportant things like what day of the week it is, have little interest in current events in the world and have little time to think about what the boss back home might be thinking.  We let go of all worrisome, nagging doubts and become connected to something greater.  Is it possible that we are absolutely “in the present”?  Have we all arrived at the state-of-being where all that matters is the here and now? I am certain that a significant transformation takes place.”

Monday | June 13

Good birding day in town as we explore totem park and carving shed.  Some of the bird friends we saw and heard in the small town town today:  barn swallow, violet-green swallow, orange-crowned warbler, song sparrow, pine siskin, red crossbill, mourning dove, and lots of eagles and ravens.

Sidney, the young teenager niece of Les our guide leads an informative tour along with James the wood-carver.  We hear a lot of “learning by doing” from lead guide Les.  Les is very animated and says that a Tlingit speaker that has his hands tied behind his back does not have the ability to speak since they like to do so using their hands.

Saturday | June 11th

The Voyage North from Ketchikan to Juneau begins at 4 p.m. with a new group of very energetic guests.  After settling into cabins, attending “welcome aboard” orientation meetings in the lounge and eating dinner, we are all astonished by a sunset that lasts for almost an hour.  What a way to begin a vacation!  The water is absolutely mesmerizing and hundreds, if not thousands of pictures are digitally etched on memory cards.

 

 

   

Sunday | June 12

We awoke in El Capitan Passage surrounded by breathtaking Tongass National Forest and then treked up to El Capitan Cave, where 400,000-year-old bones have been found. We had a great tour with National Forest Service Rangers Chad Bevenger and Cherie Barth.  Cherie does a terrific job of interpreting the highlights of the cave.  Guests enjoy donning their helmets and flashlights for the tour inside of the karst caves. El Capitan Cave is the longest mapped cave in Alaska.

Check out the video of our tour!

Where is gMack now? InnerSea Discoveries Expedition Week 6

It has been an exciting week on the InnerSea Discoveries Expedition Click Links Below to read daily updates from Week 6 of the Trip:

June 4-10th, 2011

 

Saturday | June 4th

Turnover Day

Sunday | June 5th

Tracy Arm

Monday | June 6th

Baird Glacier

Tuesday | June 7th

Cascade Creek

Wednesday |June 8th

Gedney Island Day 1

 

Thursday | June 9th

Gedney Island Day 2

 

Friday | June 10th

Back to Ship

 

 

Monday | May 30th

We visit the town of Klawock, south of El Capitan Passage on the windward side of POW Island. Our host, Les, takes all of our guests on a tour and has his niece Sidney and a young totem carver named James accompany us and interpret the Totem Park, totem-carving shed, ceremonial house and totem “graveyard” along the way.

After dinner, Lee our pastry chef made me a special dessert that I ate without any hands. Crew got a good laugh…it’s not the first time I’ve made a fool of myself.

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