Capturing the Moment

  Peaking through an iceberg at my kayak group near Meares Glacier in Prince William Sound. Kayaking around glaciers is one of my favorite things. This morning I led a small kayaking group from the mothership, anchored about a mile and a half away from the face of Meares glacier. This is a rare glacier in that it is slowly advancing, bulldozing its way through the Alaskan rainforest. Almost all other glaciers here are retreating. It can be a very active glacier, dropping huge chunks of ice off the face into the fjord waters below. This is what I wanted to explore today. I set off with a group of four other adventurous kayakers to see what beauty we would find. None of us expected it to be quite as beautiful as it was. Pristine conditions for kayaking this morning at Meares Glacier in Unakwik Fjord. The waters were flat calm. It was almost like paddling on a mirror. I led our group into thick brash ice as we crossed the fjord to check out some waterfalls on the far side. The kayaks ...

  In awe of the glacial blue   It is the middle of summer which means Alaska is heating up, both in temperature and in wildlife sightings. And with all the kids being on summer vacation it is a great time to expand their world view with a trip to the Alaska wilderness. The Safari Quest is our smallest vessel in the fleet, with 22 passengers and 10 crew, making it perfect for an extended family vacation. The last three weeks have all been private family charters on the Quest. Not only has it been amazing to see families spending such amazing quality time together, but getting the kids unplugged from wifi and internet means the wilderness experience can really take hold.    Exploration Time   This week we had 9 kids on ranging from 17 to 5 years old. The activities ranged from bushwhacking past piles of bear scat, skiffing up rivers into glacial lakes, to kayaking around ice while watching a tidewater glacier calve into the water. Each activity p...

Brown Bear on Admiralty Island   I'm back in Alaska after almost a year to be expedition leader for UnCruise's newest itinerary: Bears, Bergs, and Bushwhacking . This itinerary is only run by our smallest boat, the 22 passenger Safari Quest. With wilderness management protections in place here in the Tongass National Forest, the Safari Quest is able to take passengers into highly protected areas where only two groups of 12 hikers can step foot onto ground each day. The amazing Admiralty Island, or what the local Tlingit people call the island "Kootznoowoo" or Fortress of the Bear, because it has the highest concentration of brown bears in the world.   The trip ends up doing a round trip back to Petersburg, which means that most of the time out on the water we are in prime humpback whale feeding grounds. Frederick Sound has been a hot spot for humpback whales spending the summer months here in Southeast Alaska. Calm waters of the Inside Passage mixed with snow ...

Stranded Berg   My last week in Alaska was a big one, including hunting bears, northern lights, and a trip into Glacier Bay National Park. The schedule that I came up with for the week was a little rigorous, taking us to six glaciers over the course of two days to maximize our chance of seeing calving and for different glacier activities. We first woke up at the beautiful Margerie Glacier and the almost all black face of the Grand Pacific Glacier. Little chunks were falling off but the real calving show came from the huge Johns Hopkins Glacier were we went next. Walking Amongst the Ice Fun with the Polar Plunge Dan exploring Lamplugh Glacier   After the amazing calving experience at Johns Hopkins we headed off to Lamplugh Glacier for some good ol' fashioned polar plunge fun into the icy waters. Feeling alive and refreshed from the sub 40 degree water we filled up on lunch and then headed out for hikes, shorewalks, kayaks, and skiff tours around the glacier. ...

  After a few weeks of beautiful weather and exciting wildlife encounters its hard to pick out one highlight to write about in my quick time at port. But looking through my recent pictures a clear choice became obvious, glaciers. On each of our trips we spend a day at a tidewater glacier. These are glaciers that flow down the mountain and enter the sea at their face.    Sometimes just getting to the glacier can be the real adventure. Long, narrow, steep fjords showing the glaciers advancement in the past can be clogged with floating ice. Some of these icebergs can be larger than our ship, while others are in their last few days before melting to oblivion. Others show off the intensely pressurized ice inside the glacier in an almost otherworldly blue color.   But if we can make it to the glacier face, the true vastness of the glacier can be known. These glaciers snake their way high up into the snow fields where they are born as a single tiny snowflake. And...