We're Back!

Duane and I spent the last few days having some time to ourselves exploring Glacier Bay. I’ve been paddling in here so many times, it seemed only natural that we spent some time up there together so I could show Duane some of my favorite spots in Glacier Bay.

We paddled into the park on Friday night and camped just a few miles north of the Beardslee cut. The next day we had intentions of paddling all the way up to Garforth Island, but about mid morning we were haulted by a severe amount of wind (about 20 knots, seas around 3 feet). We decided to tough it out and stay on the water because we were paddling in a stable double boat, but it still slowed us way down. We ended up staying at Sturgess Island instead, which is one of my favorite campsites in Glacier Bay. We had a wonderful evening hanging out on the beach and watching the colors change over both the east and west arms of the bay.

Sunday we had intentions of making it all the way up to the McBride Glacier to camp that evening, but after being slowed down the day before we decided to stop short at Goose Cove to make sure that we had enough time to get back down the next day to make our pick up. The native people who lived in Glacier Bay (the Tlingit) say that Goose Cove is one of the places that the Krustica lives. The Krustica is a Tlingit shape shifter that lives between life and death. Those who travel in Glacier Bay say that when you sleep in Goose Cove you tend to have bizarre and abstract dreams because of this shape shifter. Neither of us really remember dreaming, but who knows.

Monday morning we got up early to start heading back south on the tide currents that were ebbing south out of the bay. We made it across the bay just in time before the winds started blowing out of the south, right in our faces, again. We did manage to make it down to SeBree Island to camp before our pickup the next day.

The pickup the next day was a breeze, thought getting picked up is always kind of a kick. All the passengers on the boat treat kayakers they are picking up like they are a part of the wildlife. Everyone comes out on the decks to take pictures of you and then the whole day on the boat everyone wants to ask you questions about how people go camping in such a cold and wet place. However, the day tour boat that does the kayaker drop off and pick-ups can be a great end to the trip. It means that the last day of our little “mini vacation” we get to just sit on the boat, drinking lots of cocoa and tea, and watch all the tide water glaciers of the west arm of Glacier Bay as we cruise along.

We got home tonight and the pup seems to have grown up another inch or so and was very excited to see us.