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Sunday | July 17

Tracy Arm & Sawyer Glaciers

“Domes swell against the sky in fine lines as lofty and as perfect in form as those of the California valley, and rock-fronts stand forward, as sheer and as nobly sculpted. No ice-work that I have ever seen surpasses this, either in the magnitude of the features or effectiveness of composition.” --John Muir

John Muir, writing in his book Travels in Alaska, described Tracy Arm as a “wild unfinished Yosemite”.

 

We awake to a fine day. The anchor is lifted at 6 a.m. and the Wilderness Discoverer cruises up the magnificent fiord that is Tracy Arm. Yosemite-like domes, waterfalls that seem to come right out of the sky, and rainforests that exhibit many shades of green are passed as we motor at the speed of 9-knots up the 23-miles to the face of the Sawyer Glacier.

This is the Tongass National Forest, the largest National Forest in the United States at almost 17 million acres in size. It ranges from the Southeast Alaska panhandle between Ketchikan and Yakutat. It incorporates the Alexander Archipelago, located in the Inside Passage between the Coast Mountain Range and the Gulf of Alaska in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. The Tongass happens to have the largest contiguous, intact temperate rainforest in the world.

The temperate rainforest biome ranges from the narrow strip of land between northern California and Kodiak Island, Alaska. Some of the hallmarks of this rainforest is the presence of Sitka Spruce, a profusion of epiphytes such as mosses and lichens, a climate regime that includes around 100-inches of precipitation a year and the presence of nurse logs.

Small boat tours are offered to bring guests up close to the Sawyer Glacier. Photographic opportunities abound for camera-toting guests.

Brash ice is quite thick. Birds are flying back and forth in front of the tidewater glacier and seals are hauled out on small ice-bergs or “growlers”.

We are lucky to have two wilderness kayak rangers join us with two of their “artists-in-residence” volunteers. Our Tongass National Forest Rangers Solan Jensen and Sean Reilly give an insightful talk on the history of wilderness in the dining lounge.

After disembarking the kayak rangers, we ask guests to participate in three rounds of talks surrounding our adventure program of kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding or SUP, and how to behave in bear country. I lead the talk on SUP in the lounge with an assistant to “model” appropriate techniques.

It’s amazing how SUP has become the latest trend in ocean sports. As a fitness sport, it uses all of the major muscle groups. It works the core and legs while you try to balance and the upper body while paddling.

It’s easy to carry a SUP and that is one of the major advantages over having a sea kayak. On calm, flat days the only real hazard for SUP’ers is navigating wakes from passing boats. These boards are wider and more stable than a regular surfboard. However, I would not recommended trying to walk the nose and “hanging ten”.

For novice paddleboarders, it’s worth trying it more than once to build a comfort level and to see if the sport is enjoyable. Every time you get out on the water while here on vacation will make it that much easier to try it again back home.

The minimal effort of SUP-ing (not a great acronym, I just realized) for just a few minutes while circumnavigating the Wilderness Discoverer will allow a partner or crew to photo-document your efforts. That way you can prove to kith and kin how adventurous you really were in Alaska.

My overall message is to encourage folks to “get up, stand up…stand-up for bragging rights!”

The afternoon is spent whale watching in the waters adjacent to Admiralty Island National Monument. Kootznahoo or “Fortress of the Bears”, has the greatest concentration of brown bears in the world, about 1 bear per square mile on the 1,700 square mile island. We motor too far away to spot brown bears (visitors that want to see bears can go to Pack Creek on the northeast side of the island).

Humpback whales are spotted exhibiting a range of behavior such as spouting, lob-tailing and breaching. These fascinating baleen whales have travelled all the way from Hawai’i to feed all summer long.

Friends stay up late enjoying a lingering twilight and the ever-changing seascapes that almost hypnotize to a state of nirvana.

where is gmack now? innersea discoveries expedition week 10

It has been an exciting week on the InnerSea Discoveries Expedition Click Links Below to read daily updates from Week 10 of the Trip:

July 2 - July 9, 2011

 

Saturday | July 2

TURNOVER DAY = SWABBING THE DECKS

Sunday | July 3

GLACIER CALVING, SEALS & WHALES

Monday | July 4

HAPPY 4^TH OF JULY, EVERYBODY!

Tuesday | July 5

MOOSE PELLETS

Wednesday | July 6

CHIEF SHAKES LODGE

Thursday |July 7

SNORKELING AND BANJO PLAYING

Friday | July 8

CLAM-EATING BEAR

Saturday | July 9

“WE NEED THE GREGgle APP!”

 

 

Wednesday | July 6

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” --Aldo Leopold

Onboard the vessel right after breakfast, we have a couple of Tlingit guests give an informal lecture with songs and a “show and tell” session in the lounge.

We learn many fascinating things about the dynamic Tlingit culture that has thrived here for a very long time.

This is followed by excursions to see petroglyphs, a performance at Chief Shakes lodge and jet boat tours up the diverse Stikine River.

Many folks make the trip to the Nolan Center and purchase natural and cultural history books in the bookstore, among other gift items.

Friday | July 1st

The Green Flush and an Ice Swim

Speaking of plankton, I awake and visit the head (bathroom) without turning on the light and shout “Wow” several times, loud enough to awaken my cabin-mate. I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm.

You’ve heard of the green flash? Been there, seen that. You have to see the green flush! I will have to take a picture of it next time I see it. You see, our septic system works on sea water. In just a few liters, you can have tens of thousands of microscopic organisms. On rare occasions, the entire bowl in the head is awash with a blue-green light. When the head is flushed, hundreds of miniature lights sparkle and swirl. It’s as if you are in the beginning of a Star Trek or Star Wars movie with distant stars moving quickly past the camera.

I run out of my room and start inviting my fellow shipmates over to see it, but it sure does take a lot of coaxing to get anyone interested. Perhaps it’s because the area inside our bathrooms are so small…standing in the center with your arms akimbo is all the room you have to maneuver.

What I learned years ago is that the light is caused by a luciferin-luciferace enzymatic reaction, a luminescence of a biological kind, otherwise known as bio-luminescence. If I remember correctly, the organisms that cause this are often Noctiluca, Gymnodinium, Ceratium and Gonyaulax. What’s amazing is that 80% of the organisms that live in the bathy-pelagic or deep water realm of the ocean exhibit some type of bioluminescence in order to attract mates, lure food or just communicate amongst each other.

The M/V Wilderness Discoverer motors into Endicott Arm to the Dawes Glacier. A commotion suddenly erupts at the stern of the vessel. A large group convenes near the swim step for the newest rendition of the Polar Bear Club. I grab a pair of swim trunks, and squeeze my way forward to the platform. I dive in and swim out to the nearest “growler” ice-berg. I climb up, imitate a harbor seal by laying down on the ice and look back at the ship. The water clears out of my ears and I hear all the cheering and invitations to join folks in one of the ships hot tubs. I dive back in and enjoy the sensation of the thirty-something degree Fahrenheit water.

In case you haven’t guessed, I am a pagophilic or ice-loving mammal just like the walruses, seals and whales that inhabit waters in Alaska. I may not have as much blubber, but the feeling of cold water is fabulous, like drinking 20 cups of coffee without having any jitters. A clean, invigorating sensation, for sure!

The other highlight of the day is motoring up Fords Terror, a spectacular fiord that John Muir named “Many Yosemite”.

In his book “Travels in Alaska” Muir wrote: “…we found ourselves on a smooth mirror reach between granite walls of the very wildest and most exciting description, surpassing in some ways those of the far-famed Yosemite Valley. We drifted silent and awe-stricken beneath the shadows of the mighty cliffs…a grander array of rocks and waterfalls I have never yet beheld in Alaska…one of my brightest and best of all my Alaska days.”

Small boats are the best way to see so much grandeur in so short a time. Waterfalls were everywhere along with sheer cliffs and outstanding scenery. Fords Terror would be well worth a longer visit, preferably several days via sea kayak.

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.