There were only two spots where I had service on the 13 day cruise from Juneau to Seattle, and not enough time for a blog update. I considered doing a summary, but decided to just transcribe my journal, which I’m also keeping independent of the blog. We are motoring nonstop for two days as we go through Canada, (because it’s a foreign country and we can’t go through customs to take a walk in the forest…) Since there isn’t much to do, I might as well transcribe. So this is quite long, but if you’re up for it, shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes to read.
I had some wonderful days with friends Sue and Dave in Seattle, and Joy (the van) is happily resting in their driveway. I had a day to myself in Juneau, and Ken joined me that evening. We poked around town until it was time to get on the boat. I’ll skip the details of those days and start when we arrived at Glacier Bay National Park. It will obviously sound a little more “journal-ly” where “I did this” and then “we did that”, but I hope you’ll understand. I generally write in the morning before breakfast, FYI.
9/5
The boat drove all night so we could play at the glaciers. We all picked two activities for the day. My choices were a hike to a great vantage point for the first glacier and a guided kayak. The hike was described as “difficult” which was a correct assessment. There was a bunch of loose rock and some scrambling, but I used hiking poles and made good choices and remained uninjured. Christian, our guide (only five of us on the hike) was knowledgeable about everything, from the behaviors of glaciers to the botany of the biome. He is a lean, lithe, mountain goat of a man. Actually more like Pan; he had little ferns sticking out of his cap. He put his hand in the glacial silt and made marks on our faces. We hiked up the rocks on the side of the glacier until we got to the viewpoint. He saw a boulder that looked ready to tumble and clamored down to it and sent it down the mountain. He was cheekily saying not to tell Jeremy, his boss. It roared and crunched, creating a small avalanche. Later we learned in fact Jeremy had heard it down at the “ice garden” and had had a few words with Christian about it. But we were all in agreement it was totally worth it. We had some quiet moments in this majestic spot, then picked our way down.
There are very strict regulations in the park. Groups can’t be more than eleven people, and must remain 400 yards from each other. While we were back at the ice garden a giant cruise ship was broadside of us and a park ranger was speaking on the broadcast. Christian kept us from the other group until the ship moved off, because the ranger would be able to see us and we could get a hefty fine. Christian was grumbling about this watchdog in “our wilderness”…
We will be eating too well on this trip. Lunch was pulled pork over a bed of polenta and saffron aioli. I had a quick nap and it was time for the second activity. We slid into our kayaks at the back of the boat, and headed back to the glacier. The tide had come in but the current was rushing out from the glacier, so we had to paddle hard to get close, but we did! So majestic. Jeremy, our guide, was as protective as a mother duck. They deal with all kinds of passengers, and it shows.
After dinner we motored up to the Marjorie and the Grand Pacific, which is the “trunk” glacier that the others are all tributaries of. The names are being reconsidered because they are all named by white explorers who didn’t bother to ask the native people what they were called. Marjorie is a tidal glacier with a vertical wall where it meets the water, and sure enough gave us a satisfying calve, setting off tsunami swells. I can now technically say I’ve been in a tsunami, but really the boat just rocked a bit.
I met Yvonne and Jerry, who have already invited me to visit when I get to Oregon. Jerry lost his wife two years ago. They seem very much in love and love to travel. Nice.
Off to bed early, and now I’m in the dining room looking out over mist rising in the mountains.
9/6
The mist rolled in in earnest in the morning. I joined the group doing a guided kayak. It was mysterious and magical gliding through the fog. We saw eagles and gulls, sea anemones, salmon churning the water as they tried to swim upstream. We were out for over an hour.
Later we stopped at Bartlett and did a four mile hike through 200 year-old forest. It was interesting to have come from the glaciers which had “recently” receded, where there was only low shrubbery growing. The forest had been like that, too, but 200 years prior. There was a carpet of moss growing over everything. I remembered Sharon’s story of Drip and Drop for the kids. This would have been a megacity for them! Christian regaled us with his bear experience. We stopped and had a mindful five minutes listening to the forest.
Back at the dock, we had wifi! Still no documents to sign, but I paid Allen his fee for the Ecobags sale. I also paid my secondary insurance for the year. Then it was back to SOS mode.
Later we went by Marble Island, a bird sanctuary since there are no terrestrial predators. The sea lions, oh my god! Huge and belchy. And, according to Jeremy, the wannabes and has-beens. The truly giant ones claim a female that is giving birth on some rock and drive away any other males, because two weeks after giving birth she goes into heat. So the monsters we saw on the island were actually the smaller ones. We saw adorable otters chillin’ in the water. Later we saw whales! I feel like this cruise is like seeing the “big five” on an African safari.
I have to add Amanda’s baking. This is quite the dream team. She served up a cinnamon bun at lunch that sent me into a diabetic coma. I slept for two hours. Christian says this is his favorite boat. It goes to Baja; maybe I’ll take another trip!
9/7
Jeremy and Christian are both incredibly knowledgeable about everything; from glaciers to botany to whales to bears to salmon to birds and anything we haven’t encountered yet. Christian fancies himself a bear whisperer and has a lot to say about managing bear interactions. We got to see it put to use yesterday. Normally we have a few choices for a morning activity and an afternoon activity, but yesterday only one in the morning, since we are needing to put some miles behind us. We saw whales first thing, which slowed us down as well. They have a slogan, “Make a plan from which to deviate”. The whales were working together to make a bubble net which corrals the fish, and one whale at a time gets to swoop them up from underneath. We saw lots of tails and blows, but no breaches.
For the afternoon hike the choices were “Smell the roses” or “Hike with intent”. The hike with intent was towards a lake, but we deviated from the plan when we saw grizzly bears! Also more commonly referred to up here simply as brown bears. We saw one at first, fishing from the stream. The salmon were spawning and the stream was packed with them. We went around and came back to the stream higher up and saw the second bear. Christian thinks they are two siblings he saw two years ago as cubs. The first bear charged off to the other side of the stream when we got too close for its liking, but the other was curious and came toward us. Christian had coached us to close ranks behind him, which we did unquestioningly. Christian kept a friendly tone with the bear at first, chatting him up with “Hey bear, move along now” and the like, but when it ambled toward us he stood up on a stump and raised his tone. Then the other bear came back across the stream toward us. Christian did not like that. There were some tense moments as we waited to see what that bear would do, but it went off into the woods. The curious bear backed off, and so did we. We went back to the main trail and started our walk again, but the bears were waiting for us up ahead. I say that, and they absolutely knew we were going to be there, but they showed no interest in us and instead were playing with each other, muzzling and rolling around. Eventually they moved off into the woods and Christian brought us closer. The cautious bear was way off, but wouldn’t you know the curious bear climbed into the nook of a tree and played peek-a-boo with us! His head popped up on either side of the tree and was in no hurry to go anywhere. Even though there was enough room to go past on the trail, Christian thankfully didn’t want to go further and have them between us and the ship on the way back. I don’t think many guides would have given us that experience.
The rest of the day was quite chill, and we finished it with cocktails and another delightful meal.
9/8-9
I am indeed eating and drinking too well. I've gone to bed feeling full and walking up in the night with an acid stomach. But to the activities! We could choose a skiff tour, kayak or bushwhack through 400 year old growth forest. Bushwhack for me. I’ve chosen the strenuous, difficult choice each time. Jeremy got turned around on a new “trail” and was also taking us in the opposite direction he usually goes, so we ended up on a ridge, sliding and clamoring a lot more than he intended. He was concentrated but not concerned, and we all kept positive attitudes because we knew we weren’t truly lost. We ended up only 30 minutes late for lunch. Jeremy set me a task; describe the taste of the first drink back in a Haiku. I chose a beer and here is the Haiku:
Enchanted forest
Lost enough for adventure
Memories with a beer
But I must describe the forest. We were dropped off at a rock beach at low tide, and the rocks were teeming with life. Sea stars, a Christmas anemone, many kinds of mollusks. Jeremy described them and identified the edible ones. Stepping into the forest, we were immediately engulfed in a million shades of green. There was moss all over the forest floor, and fallen, decomposing trees were host to thousands of new trees competing to be the few that make it to maturity. Jeremy showed us some of these colonnade trees, all in a row, that had been the ones to succeed, but several hundred years ago.
It’s a rain forest, and despite the sunny day moisture was just under the surface. The tree roots were often elevated so that the trunk only started several feet above the ground. Half the time they seemed to be growing and decaying at the same time. This also made walking slightly perilous, as a foot could drop through a hole at any moment, which mine did. For much of the hike we were on a discernible deer/bear trail, so we weren’t truly bushwhacking, but once we were “lost” we had to dig through dense understory, avoid getting boots stuck in mud, and slide down or clamor up a ravine.
The moss was unbelievable. It wasn’t one kind, but seemingly hundreds, sometimes mixed together, sometimes a dominant patch for several feet.
I think it’s the mythical forest of our DNA, something we feel only exists in our imagination but is actually part of our collective history, and when you see it in real life it’s like being in a half-remembered dream.
As I was walking and picking my way, I said, “I’m going to dream about this tonight”. I didn’t, but it still felt enchanted.
The rest of the day was spent “cruising for critters”, and they didn’t disappoint. We are in Frederick Sound, a confluence of ocean, inlet and fjord. Plenty of fish means plenty of whales. We saw Humpbacks, and later, a pack of Orcas. I’ve gone on three whale watches in my life and they were all bust, but this trip makes up for all of them. I tried taking pictures but my phone doesn’t cut it.
When we weren’t watching “critters” I was napping or reading Travels With Charley. I do love Steinbeck’s writing. It’s colorful but not pretentious.
9/10
The morning activity was a skiff tour through another floating ice garden to a glacier. The floes can be anything from little chunks to twenty feet long. What was supposed to be a two hour tour became four. Our pilot Will was cautious with the boat and ran into trouble navigating. He would try to pick up a “plow” of a big enough floe to wedge at the front of the boat and use it to push off other chunks, but they would slide under and make a horrible crunch, or get stuck midway and he’d have to back up and work to extricate it before he could go forward again. We finally got to a lead where we could move a little more freely, so we pushed on towards the glacier. We never got anywhere as near as Christian on the other boat. We eked our way back and were greeted with hot chocolate on the ship.
Yesterday I did a nice long kayak in Misty Fjords National Forest. The cliffs were 1000 feet high and reminded me of Yosemite. When I mentioned that, Jeremy said John Muir had come to this place and called it an “Unfinished Yosemite”. I felt validated. My partner was Jenson, a staff person. We all have to be in double kayaks. Jenson had a heavy hand and was in the back so I couldn’t steer. The path we took was 4.5 miles, but I think we did 6. He would attack the water and the kayak would turn perpendicular to our direction, then he would furiously back-paddle to turn us back. Sometimes I had to tighten my abs as the propulsion rocked us right and left. Helpless in the front, I quietly kept a steady rhythm. Jeremy more than once offered paddling advice to everyone, but I’m sure it was directed at Jenson, and it was the kind of thing I would say anyway if I were trying to help, so I kept my mouth shut and used it as a lesson in letting go. I did say, “A good metaphor for life!” When Jeremy said, “Try to be gentle with your strokes; see if you can match the rhythm of your partner.”
We took a riverboat tour in the afternoon. I made it a point to ride with Christian. The tide was high and a full moon to boot, so Christian was able to go further upstream than he ever had before. We saw huge schools of salmon, eagles and seals. At one point he turned off the engine and we floated back downstream, as the tide had turned. On most of our activities our guides have made a point of having a few minutes of mindful silence as we take in our magnificent surroundings.
This has been a naturalist cruise as well as a luxurious one. I can’t begin to retain all the knowledge that has been shared. Perhaps in some future conversation I will be able to claw something back from my memory, but I won’t count on it. I’ve learned about bears, whales, eagles, trees, glaciers, geology, botany, history, salmon, First Peoples and probably more I’ve already forgotten.
Today we we had four hours in Ketchikan. Uncruise has hired Joe Williams, a Tlingit man and former mayor of Ketchikan, to give a walking tour and a talk about his culture and ancestry. He was great. His native name is very different than Joe Williams; he had us try to pronounce it it and then said, “Now you can see why I go by Joe Williams! “Ketchikan” is a rough pronunciation of a Tlingit word which means, “The sound of eagles’ wings rushing by.” His ancestors have been here for 10,000 years. Part of me wants to write down as much as I learned, but the other part doesn’t see the point. I’m listening and absorbing, which IS the point.
9/11
It’s raining. I literally walked out of the cabin and saw water dripping from the A deck and thought something had spilled. A second later I figured it out. It has been a running joke all week that we don’t know how rainy it is up here. Ketchikan is the rainiest place in North America with over 12 feet of rain a year. Misty Fjords was a bright sunny day. Well, our time has come.
After we left port we were supposedly Cruising for Critters but we didn’t see any, so we made an unplanned skiff tour into an inlet. We saw a whale (outside the inlet), two Sandhill Cranes and an eagle’s nest. The cranes looked like big Kiwis, or, according to one of our Australians, A small Emu.
After dinner Jeremy gave a talk on Salmon. So informative. You really get a sense of the web of Life up here. Everything depends on everything. Even the dead salmon go on to fertilize the banks, making the bushes more productive and providing shade and protection for next years’ spawn.
We have one more outdoor activity before we will drive straight through Canada for two days. Turns out we can’t get off the boat because of passport and Visa stuff. Big cruise ships go through an international port that gives passengers access to foreign soil, but we didn’t do that. I had a funny thought about going through Customs to talk a walk in the forest…
9/12
We finally had an “open kayak” instead of a guided one. Ken and I tooled around in the rain for an hour. I was surprised how many of the passengers opted in as well. Jeremy said the crew was taking bets how many would opt out. It was actually quite beautiful. We saw lots of Harbor Seals. One kept checking us out. It would swim while looking at us, go under, pop up and repeat. It mostly did a 360 around us while we sat still, watching. Really cool.
For the evening activity, Jeremy read some Robert Service poems. I had never heard of him. He lived in Alaska and had a colorful life after quitting his job as a bank teller to search for gold in order to impress his girlfriend. She had said she wanted to do better than marry a bank teller. He decided to have some of his poems printed to share with his friends and sent them to a publisher with that request, but the publisher sent him a big fat check instead and he became famous. Jeremy didn’t say if he got the girl. His poems were often bawdy ballads meant to be read in bars. Hearing them made me want to write some. Maybe I’ll do a Ballad of the Safari Explorer before we disembark.
9/15
There wasn’t much to write about on 9/13 as we were still motoring through Canada. But I did do a 45 minute concert. I picked songs I knew well enough to not have lyrics, since without internet I couldn’t get to Google Docs. But yesterday we had one more day of morning and afternoon activities. I went on a four mile walk with Christian in Sucia Island, a state park. It felt a little funny to be passing picnic tables and toilets. It was an easy hike, and I was introduced to the Madrona tree. It’s peeling bark is a beautiful red hue and the wood behind it is incredibly smooth and almost green. It’s sometimes called the Christmas tree. Christian pointed out other botanical facts which went in one ear and out the other. But he did talk about the U tree, whose latin name is Taxil-something. It was used for medicine by native people and now is the source of Taxol, a cancer drug. It’s a very unassuming thing, and looks spindly and overpowered by its neighbors.
I got a call from Bianca and Paul during the walk. My phone ringing was a new experience! I didn’t take it as I was with the group walking through Nature, but I called them back when we had time before being picked up. It was great to hear their voices and catch up.
The afternoon activity was a guided kayak with Jeremy. There was only one other couple and I was with Jeremy. We talked about my losing Sharon and I learned he lost his dad five years ago. He’s such a gentle, kind and quite funny guy. He said he’d share a lot of beautiful places to see, especially if I make it up to Alaska next summer.
We saw a dock teeming with life, because it’s a floating dock which keeps the water at just the right spot for the creatures. Besides the usual mollusks, I saw feather duster worms, anemones and urchins. We stayed near shore and marveled at the sandstone sculptures carved by the combination of salt and fresh water. Pebbles were swirled into the rocks like galaxies. We came around a corner and surprised two river otters that played peek-a-boo just like the bear. They’d hide, then look around the rock, then go into the water as if to swim away, only to pop back up behind the rock to watch us again. We moved along and Jeremy said thank you to the otters for letting us hang out with them. We went around the point and on the way back we we surprised a veritable convention of harbor seals. At least ten of them bolted into the water, then popped their heads and watched us. We slowly went past and back to the boat.
We are in the lock to Fisherman’s Terminal at Seattle Harbor. The trip is over. I’m so glad I did the Inside Passage this way. We made a little community.
