Capturing the Moment

  Columbia Glacier, as Good as it Gets. 3 MIN READ 421 WORDS Reflection in the Water. View of the Columbia Glacier. After several days of rain and cold, we scored the perfect weather for our trip up the Columbia fjord to the famous Columbia Glacier. We had blue sky and sunshine, plus mirror-like conditions on the water. The jagged mountains, the glacier itself, and the thousands of icebergs all casts reflections in the water. It was a photographers delight. After breakfast we loaded up our skiffs and worked our way to the face of the glacier, often just taking in the scenery in silence, soaking it all up. Since we had the entire fjord to ourselves, the only noise we would hear was the glacier talking to us in creaks and groans, and thunderous roars. We saw several calvings, creating loud booms when the ice chunks hit the water. Guests heading out in the skiffs from the mother ship. The Columbia Glacier, located in Prince William Sound, Alaska, is one of the most significant and rap...

  Every week I get to visit a tidewater glacier here in Alaska. It can be very exciting because tidewater glaciers, those that flow all the way down into the ocean, have a tendency to calve. This is where big, sometimes huge chunks of the glacier fracture off and crash down into the ocean. The noise created by both the fracturing and hitting the water echo throughout the fjord in what locals call the 'white thunder.'      A famous quote up here is 'they speak to you in creaks and groans, and thunderous roars.'   We were lucky enough to see some calving at Dawes glacier during our last two visits. It is pretty southern as far as tidewater glaciers go, and very active. The long winding ride up to the glacier through Endicott Arm has been chocked full of ice bergs, hinting at the activity of the face of the glacier. The 200 foot tall face of the glacier never ceases to amaze and confound me that something like it could actually exist. The fact that it is a...

The western lighthouse Lighthouse and tide pool   A grumpy lady in Digby asked us what we are going to Brier Island for, because there is nothing to see there. Well we thought we would put that to the test. After our great whale watching experience off the coast of Brier we went hiking along the coast. It turns out Brier Island has a bit more to offer than what our grump traveler friend thought. Wildflowers galore Songbird and it's catch   We hiked between lighthouses guarding the rocky, windswept coast. We had songbirds singing overhead. Beautiful wildflowers and interesting bog plants filled the meadows behind the rocky shoreline. And gulls by the hundreds roosted along the rocks just inland and didn't stop their antics at all as we walked by. It is a peaceful place where you won't see too many other travelers. The sounds are all natural and the wildflowers and salt air ignite your senses. It felt pretty good to prove that lady wrong. Mom lookin...

First view of a brown bear patiently fishing   We have had a few bear sightings this summer but nothing too outstanding. Usually the bear sighting are through binoculars from the bow of the big ship. Not today. Pavlof stream seemed like the perfect bear spot when I visited earlier this summer. A short trail winds its way up along the bank of a river, past a 15ft cascading waterfall, into the huge Lake Pavlof. This trail in itself is worth the visit to Pavlof. The lake is surrounded by towering snow capped mountains and is the only place in Southeast Alaska that you can commonly see the rare Trumpeter Swan.    This trip to Pavlof would prove my earlier theories correct. The first group ashore radioed back to the ship saying they couldn't make it past the waterfall because six bears were ambling around and fishing in the river! I don't think anyone was upset that we couldn't make it to the lake. It was about as good a bear show as you can get. We added more trips asho...

Forest of the Pacific Northwest   Having a few days off back in Seattle and looking for some down time after a whirlwind month and a half of no days off at my new expedition leader job I decided to go for a solo exploratory mission to the nearby Mt. Rainier. I had seen the snow covered summit from the plane when I first flew into Seattle and it has been calling me ever since. I knew there was all kinds of hiking trails and camping opportunities, plus some pretty cool wildlife to be sighted as well. I also hoped that on a rainy, foggy midweek day in early June the mountain crowds would be virtually nonexistent.   There are a couple of very cute towns on the way to Mt. Rainier National Park with little general stores and churches. I stopped into one general store and saw they still had VHS movies to rent which is about as small town vibe as you can get. I stocked up on some essentials (cookies and beer) and headed off into the park. I figured a plan would present itself...