Posts

Kayaking Excitement at Northwestern Glacier, Alaska

Image
    This is the Alaska that I see in my mind when I close my eyes and daydream about being back there. Water, so calm that it reflects the mountains and sky. Ice filled glaciers that can be the purest form of blue I know. And rugged landscapes, totally devoid of the touch of humans. No boardwalks, no cars, no ticket booths, just wilderness. It was a picture perfect day at Northwestern Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park. Like most of Alaska, there was not another person around for miles. It was just our little expedition cruise ship and our thirty passengers. The water was calm, almost like a mirror, reflecting the jaw-dropping scenery of the fjord. There was much less ice floating in the water than last time, but I still had high hopes that the guests would be able to see a calving, where chunks of ice as big as buildings fall off the glacier face and crash into the water. My plan was to get everyone on either kayaks or small boats, to give them a more intimate look at the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Finally exploring the unnamed bay in NE Wide Bay, Alaska by kayak.

Image
  I thought the clouds, the meadow, and the mountains all camme together for a great view in this photo. In true expedition fashion, we anchored the Safari Explorer off a bay that we had only explored in satellite photos and dreams. It was located in the Northeast corner of Wide Bay. It had a very shallow entrance, which meant we couldn't get the big boat into the bay. But this afternoon was high tide, and we planned to send out a kayaking group and a skiff tour, so I made the decision to move activities to this unnamed bay, and do a little exploring with the guests. I led the kayaking group, which was quite large. I had about 20 guests, in ten double kayaks with me. The bay is about 2 miles long, so I knew we were in for a workout, but we had all afternoon and were not in a big rush. We did have some waves outside the bay, where we anchored. Luckily the waves and breeze pushed all the kayakers towards the bay and towards a beautiful waterfall that would serve as our first gatherin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Intimate Bear Encounter while Kayaking in Geographic Harbor, Katmai

Image
  We shared an intimate encounter with this brown bear from our kayaks this morning. Another Alaska memory to store away forever. We saw four brown bears this morning while we kayaked around Geographic Harbor in Katmai National Park. I felt like I really put our guests in the perfect positions for all the bear viewing. It is always a great feeling as a guide, when you make good calls on what the wildlife is going to do before it happens. It takes a certain amount of luck, and a lot of experience sure helps too. This morning was a little of both. We started off at the estuary in the back, since we could see a big brown bear there from our boat. I got my kayakers together, gave them a quick talk about kayaking around bears, and listening to my advice out there. Then we paddled in close to watch a bear move around a little deeper in the meadow. As we were watching, people from an anchored private charter boat pulled up in their dinghy, and proceeded to get off on shore and walk right ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Moderate Hike at Wide Bay on a Picture Perfect Day

Image
One little misstep could mean disaster, when hiking in Alaska. I may have been playing it up a little for the camera here.   Walking on the plateau, with beautiful lakes and ponds between the ridges. There is some interesting geology going on here. What scenery! The landscape here at Wide Bay is out of this world. I couldn't believe our luck as the weather held out for another wonderful day of hiking on our 10 day Alaska expedition cruise. Today we are at an outer bay in the Ugashik district of the Alaskan Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge. What a mouthful. I had a group of hikers who wanted something in between a hard charger level and a beach walk easy level. The moderate hike was born. I took them to a very nice beach landing, where we slid out of the small boat into the shallow water. Not a problem since we all had the 'Alaskan tennis shoe' on, aka. big rubber boots. We saw a couple of red foxes playing farther down the beach. I had been here before, but I wanted to tr...
Post a Comment
Read more