Capturing the Moment

  Small boat harbor at Yakutat. Yakutat is a tiny village on the outer coast of Alaska, with only 670 full time residents. However, the borough of Yakutat is huge, about the size of Vermont. It is located at a crossroads between ocean and glaciers. It straddles the line between Wrangle St Elias National Park and Glacier Bay National Park to the south. That is like saying that there is only 1 person per every 14 square miles. Walking through the town feels like you are on the very edge of infinite wilderness. Most cruise ships pass right by this little community on their way to Hubbard Glacier, in the back of Disenchantment Bay. But we are no ordinary cruise ship. We seek out these out-of-the-way spots, that are not set up for tourism.

  I had a chance to fly my drone over the western tip of Kayak Island. We scored with blue skies and calm seas for our explorations of the island. We sent out hikes, beach walks, skiff tours, and a big boat cruise. Yesterday we took out kayaks for a 6 mile down the coast paddle. We had sea otters, sea lions, eagles, a brown bear, and a humpback whale on our visit. This week, for the first time ever, we are taking the Safari Explorer to a very remote corner of the Alaskan coast, a place called Kayak Island. It is very hard to get to, so there isn't a lot of information on it. But it is famous for being the 'discovery point' of Alaska for the western world. On July 20, 1741, a landing group from Vitus Bering's expedition of discovery came ashore on Kayak Island. George Wilhelm Steller, the expedition's naturalist and physician, was among them. Bering never actually came ashore, and Steller only ended up having 10 hours to make observations that became some of the earl...

  Long exposure of a sub-glacial melt river coming out the bottom of this glacier. I flew to Anchorage, took a bus down to the port city of Seward, and boarded the expedition cruise ship, Safari Explorer. This 36 passenger expedition ship is where I will be working, leading expeditions for the next month. I'll be covering nearly 2,000 miles, traveling slowly in order to check out all the fun stops between Seward, Juneau, and Seattle. Our first trip is a 13 day brand new itinerary from Seward, along the outer coast, down to the Inside Passage, ending at Juneau, Alaska. 33 passengers are signed up for this inaugural trip. With this kind of trip, there is a lot of ambiguity about where we will actually be stopping and what we will be doing. It'll be very weather dependent, but we do have a top notch crew, that are very good at their jobs. After a smooth night out from Seward, we stopped in at the southwest corner of Prince William Sound. Two beautiful glaciers sit at the back of I...

   Even though she happened to visit during the hottest week that I've had this summer in Stowe, it was a wonderful time with mom, or as the kids call her, Grandma Nancy. We went on hikes to waterfalls, explored new swimming holes, spent a stormy night out at Stave Island, checked out a movie (Hoppers) on the green up at the mountain, rode the Gondola up Mt Mansfield for a fancy lunch at the Cliff House, went indoor rock climbing with the kids, and had some lovely morning strolls. It was pretty nonstop, but we really got to do a lot, and really experience the beauty of summer in Vermont. I hope we get to all be together soon. Here are a few pictures to remember the visit.... A hidden cabin along the Mill Creek Trail to Bingham Falls Mill Creek Trail Lunch at the Cliff House. This is way up near the top of Mt. Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak. To get here you can take a ride in the gondola. We could see all the way to New Hampshire on this beautiful day! Back down at the botto...

  Beautiful view from above of Wailua Falls. Almost no one gets to see from this angle unless they fly over in a helicopter. There are amazing hikes and waterfalls on all of the Hawaiian Islands. But there is something special about how easy it is on Kauai to experience some of the best that the island has to offer. Many of these waterfalls in this post, you can drive right up and check out from an easy overlook. We did a easy/moderate hike to another waterfall called Ho'opi'i falls, which was well worth it. All of this post was done in one day, and all are relatively close together. We saw three waterfalls and did three hikes. Waterfalls: Wailua Falls, Opaeka'a Falls, and Ho'opi'i Falls Hikes: Hoopii Falls Trail, Sleeping Giant, Tree Swing This island is just filled with adventure. If you have never been, definitely check it out. Rent a car, drive for two days, and you will see so much of the same stuff. Wailua Falls, tumbling down into a swimming hole that is only...