Gary's Alaska Trip Journal
1. Introduction
2. Daily Travel Journal
3. Appendix
National Park Service
My recommendations if you are taking this trip
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1. Introduction
Where. Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve ("the park") is located in the southeastern panhandle of Alaska, between the Pacific Ocean and British Colombia. The nearest city is Juneau, the Alaskan capital, about 100 miles east. The park and Juneau are accessible only by boat or plane. Cruise ships have been entering the park since the 1960's. In 2003, about 350,000 people visited the park.
See Glacier Bay on an Adventure Cruise. I wanted to see it. My problem is that I'm not big into camping, I don't own a boat or know how to pilot one, I don't know anyone who goes there, but I wanted to see it all up-close anyway. I was thrilled to learn that I could charter a week-long expedition-style trip on a very small cruise ship that explores most of the park's major inlets and glaciers. I went places the big cruise ships don't go, saw a whole bunch of glaciers and wildlife, kayaked right off the ship's stern every full day of the trip, ate fine cuisine, and was treated to top-notch service by a friendly and professional set of crewman, naturalists, and stewards. Like they say in the promotional literature, the ship serves as a floating base camp where I eat, sleep, socialize and regroup. No tents to pitch. It is sort of like having a buddy that owns a boat, or like chartering a boat for your own group.
Not to be confused with the big cruise lines. I understand that people like the big-cruise ship experience, with the endless buffets, onboard casinos, gambling halls, theaters, fitness rooms, swimming pools and so on. But for me, none of that luxury cruise ship stuff gets me excited, I can get that right here at home in San Diego. I like outdoor activities. Kayaking and mountaineer experience is not required, nor is $1000 worth of Gore-Tex jackets/boots and REI PowerStretch synthetic liners (although if the forecast is very cold and wet, it wouldn't hurt). It just so happens we got lucky, the weather was absolutely beautiful, warm and dry and oftentimes sunny. You just have to love adventure, pack some basic cold-weather clothes and rain gear (waterproof jacket/hat/gloves), get to Juneau and buy a ticket. They provide the rubber boots, life preserver and kayak skirt.
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2. Daily Travel Journal
I feel better when things are written down somewhere. The crew wrote notes on the wall map of where we had been and what we saw. I kept daily notes, made a marked-up map of our journey, and my camera was set to the right date and time, so this is a pretty accurate description of the trip.
DAY 1. Sunday, June 13, 2004
Itinerary: Embark from port in Juneau, head for North Sandy Cove.
I flew from San Diego to Seattle to Juneau, setting my watch back one hour. I took the bus to downtown Juneau, explored downtown a little, checked in, then went aboard Glacier Bay Cruiselines' MV Wilderness Explorer (“the WEX") for Cruise 610. We ate dinner and were underway. The Naturalist tourguides we have onboard were Jeremy and Andrew, Juneau natives. We headed clockwise around Douglas Island, southbound through the Gastineau Channel, then north through Stephens Passage to Auke Bay, where we picked up another Naturalist, Sam. The weather had been nice most of the day, but in the evening, during departure, it rained hard. Luckily, this would turn out to be the only time in the entire trip that I was in the rain. I donned my rain jacket, rain hat, and braved the weatherdeck as we made our way through the Gastineau Channel while Andrew narrated through the PA system. The PA system audio quality was excellent, it sounded like a clear but subdued whisper-speaking-voice, not a blaring loudspeaker like you usually find on a big ship. I suspect the speaker system must have been carefully selected specifically for this environment, so as not to distract the passengers or disturb the wildlife. While I slept, we went counter-clockwise around Admiralty Island towards Gustavus.
DAY 2. Monday, June 14, 2004
Itinerary: Morning kayak trip in North Sandy Cove, conduct an abandon-ship drill, cruise north to Muir Inlet to see Casement (glacier #1), McBride (glacier #2), and Riggs (glacier #3), return south to South Marble Island to watch sea lions, cruise northwest towards Russell Island.
Breakfast this morning (and every morning) was a hearty feast of scrambled eggs, potatoes, waffles or pancakes, orange juice, coffee, fruits, and cereals. The coffee pot ran 24/7. This morning we arrived at North Sandy Cove, near North Marble Island. Weather was in the mid 50’s, cool, overcast, no rain, good visibility. We weren't at the glaciers yet. I took a walk up on deck with a hot cup of coffee and it’s not bad at all outside. A few gulls were flying around the tiny little islands, tide was low, some shoaling to see, water's a bit choppy. I slept fairly well last night, considering I clearly heard waves splashing and engines running all night long. Once you get used to the drone, you sleep like a rock. I woke up every couple of hours, but I felt well-rested overall. The bunk bed was of decent size and was comfortable. Looking forward to our first day of kayaking! Jeremy wore something similar to the REI PowerStretch I almost bought. I'm going to wear 3 layers (shirt, sweater, fleece jacket) today.
I went on kayak trip #1, with Andrew leading, just a two-hour “dry run”. Saw a humpback whale, five or six sea lions, various gulls. Back on the ship, had lunch of seafood chowder (very very good). We headed north up the Muir Inlet and saw Casement Glacier, which was far away but huge, McBride Glacier, which was small but close, and Riggs Glacier, which was big and partially behind a mountain. Muir Glacier was also back there, but we couldn't see because it had receded to a point where our ship isn't permitted to travel where it can be seen. We held an abandon-ship drill. Dinner was roasted lamb, also very good. That evening we headed back south to South Marble Island where we saw bald eagles and enormous sea lions. When I say "evening" I mean it's late (around 8pm), not that it's dark. We have daylight from around 3am to 11:00pm, so "evening" lasts from 5pm to 11pm. Relaxing.
Around 10pm, it started getting dark, and we were off to see more glaciers. As I went to sleep, we headed northwest towards Reid Glacier. This was a very busy day!
I think there are three ways to observe a glacier: terminus, aerial, and interior. On this voyage we see all the glaciers' terminus from the water, where we can see and hear calving. People also take helicopter trips to get an aerial view. On Sunday I will hike up the West Cliff trail to Mendenhall glacier, to a rocky point above it, which kind-of gives an aerial view, then hike down to the glacier itself, where I can crawl down into small caves in the interior of the ice.
DAY 3. Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Itinerary: Kayak at Reid (glacier #4), cruise west to Lamplugh (glacier #5), Johns Hopkins (glacier #6), Marjorie (glacier #7) and Grand Pacific (glacier #8).
Arrived at Reid Glacier. Weather was in the high 50’s, cool, overcast, no rain. With Jeremy, we kayaked & then walked into the Mermaid caves, then walked up close to Reid Glacier, had a sandwich lunch next to Reid, kayaked up to an old mining cave entrance, then returned to the ship. I jumped into the 40-something degree water for the heck of it with a few others.
A slight change in plans: our backup engine-starting air compressor broke, so the Wilderness Adventurer ("the WAVE") tied on besides us and threw over an UNREP (underway replenishment) compressed air hose. This was just to reduce the amount of time it takes to fill the air tank. The Chief Engineer will replace the compressor, a bad rebuilt, tomorrow. I wore a t-shirt & jeans topside tonight, because my dive into that chilly water really mellowed me out. The UNREP put us a little bit behind schedule, but it won't be a problem.
After my Alaskan salmon dinner, the crew stewards kindly served our desert & coffee up topside so we could enjoy Lamplugh Glacier, Johns Hopkins Glacier, calving off Marjorie Glacier, and the huge and incredibly filthy terminus of Grand Pacific Glacier. It's got so much ground cover on it that I did not even recognize it right away as a glacier, which was ironic because it's the Grand-Daddy of them all here in the park.
I remember Tuesday as the most awesome day of the voyage. Brilliant scenery, five glaciers, top-notch crew service, a wonderful group of passengers to socialize with, an exciting surprise visit with another cruise ship, the memory of a full day of kayaking right up to a glacier, and ridiculously nice weather. It all came together in one blissful moment of serenity.
This exploration stuff really tires me out! Slept pretty deep last night. The Glacier-viewing portion of this voyage was complete. The next phase: explore old-growth forests and whale-watching.
DAY 4. Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Itinerary: Kayak at Beartrack Cove, hike in an island forest, visit Glacier Bay Lodge.
Woke up in Beartrack Cove. Weather was mid-60’s, comfy, no rain. With Andrew, we saw 3 whales, a black bear, two moose, and a dozen or so bald eagles. Lunch was sandwiches, then we hiked through some forest & saw lots of moose tracks and moose poo and devil's club.
Note: Be careful around Devil's Club, for info see http://www.nwgardening.com/native.devilsclub.html.
After dinner we moved on to Gustavus to the Glacier Bay lodge in Bartlett Cove and did a quick hike through the Forest Loop Trail. There was a replacement backup air compressor waiting for us at the pier. There were harbor seals and whales hanging out nearby too. As I fell into la-la land, we made way for Dundas Bay.
DAY 5. Thursday, June 17, 2004
Itinerary: Kayak in Dundes Bay, hike up an old-growth mountain forest, conduct a kayak rescue drill.
Woke up in Dundes Bay. Weather was high 60’s low 70’s, warm, sunny, no rain, basically like home. ‘Yak’d around with Sam. Hiked up a mountain side with “old-forest growth”. The mosquitoes are out in full force, put on the insect repellent. Fortunately there was no Poison Ivy or Poison Oak here. Saw bald eagles & a bear from far away. Sam radioed in a man-kayak-overboard drill. Dinner was vegetarian lasagna. We had some excitement tonight, as several killer whales (orca) visited us, coming close enough to practically bump into the ship.
DAY 6. Friday, June 18, 2004
Itinerary: Kayak in Idaho Inlet
Woke up in Idaho Inlet. Weather was sunny, warm, 70’s, no rain, I’m wearing a cotton t-shirt & shorts today. This weather was really ridiculously gorgeous, it's actually nicer here than home right now. Today with Jeremy & Andrew we kayaked in Idaho Inlet, Tongass National Forest, between Icy Straight and Cross Sound. Hey those whales got pretty darned close! We rafted up our kayaks together like four times, whenever the whales got too close. It never really occurred to me there was a likelihood that a whale coming up underneath me could roll my kayak over. Now that I've seen a few swim by from ten feet away, my attitude has changed. I mean holy smokes, what would happen if one decided to breach from underneath us? We taped loudly on our kayaks to let the whales know we were there. Something else I never realized - when our friendly cetacean forehead-breathers exhale through their blowholes, being nearby doesn't smell very good!
There have been whales around us for about three days solid. As I write this at about 10pm, I’m sitting on the forward weatherdeck, watching whales feed, downloading pictures to the laptop, talking with people. The downward-sloped mountain range and the eastward movement of our ship was enabling us to see not one but two sunsets. What a fabulous way to end a vacation. We just had our final Friday-night dinner on board, the Captain’s dinner, prawns, roast beef, asparagus, couple of beers, glass of chardonnay, champagne. I think the total travel was about 400 miles.
DAY 7. Saturday, June 19, 2004
Itinerary: Disembark, hike the West Glacier Trail of Mendenhall Glacier.
As our final meal, the crew fed us breakfast this morning, we exchanged contact information, I dropped my bags off at the hotel, then took the bus to Mendenhall Glacier.
This is my hiking adventure story. Yes, I got hopelessly lost for a very short time. I walked 1.6 miles from the bus stop to the main visitors center Mendenhall Glacier, whereupon I discovered that the hard fun trail was a few miles around on the west side. Sheesh! I'm sure Andrew mentioned that to me and I was not paying attention. Just so happens I like walking, so I walked the 4.6 miles to the head of the West Glacier trail, and off I went.
About 30 minutes into the hike from the West Glacier Trail head, there is a little gazebo with a bench seat. I didn't know this at the time, and I still haven't seen or read anything anywhere that spells this out, but the trail splits at the gazebo into a steep mountain trail (as shown on the map) and a low coastal trail. The more-obvious-looking, wider, harder, steeper trail up the mountain continues straight ahead, and gets pretty challenging. I would call it strenuous; you're on your hands-and-feet, your looking intently for the colored tape markers on the trees, and it ends up wayyyyy up high on a rocky peak overlooking the glacier. From there, you can easily walk down the enormous rock face to reach, touch, stand on, and peer underneath the glacier. So that's what I did.
When I was done playing with the glacier, I turned around, looked up at the rocky mountain, and suddenly realized that I had absolutely no idea which way I came from. That was my "oh crap" moment. I stopped to think and came up with a simple 3-part plan. One, try to find my way back. Two, don't lose sight of this large-wide-open rocky area besides the glacier, because it will be the easiest place for a rescue team to locate me if I have to spend a night or two here. Three, look for people, and reach them quickly if I see them. I amused myself with the thought that it was nearly warm enough to say the heck with it and dive off the rocks into the lake and swim to the visitor's center.
So, after wasting a half hour going up and down the bare rock mountain trying in vain to remember which way I came from, I still had no clue, and it was a bit unnerving. So I found a good vantage point, stopped right there and looked for people. I figured this was a reasonably well-traveled area. After about 20 minutes, I saw people down at the end of the rock where the glacier's terminus meets the lake. This was my "thank god" moment. But it also confused me even more, because I had not been anywhere near that area all day, I had come from the high-up mountain point, not the coastal side. After heading down to the coast and getting help from 3 or 4 different groups, I figured out what happened. It turns out the coastal trail, which is much easier and is the one most people take, started at the gazebo too. Learn something new every day.
I know I was never in any real danger, but y'know, things happen. Here's a story about an experienced mountaineer, Thomas Hargreaves, who died on a short solo day-hike on Mendenhall in 1998. http://www.alaska.net/~jlanders/Fatal/Hargreaves.htm. Juneau Mountain Rescue has been busy too, see http://www.juneaumountainrescue.org/news/rescuenotes.cfm.
The park service brochure says the total hike time is 4-5 hours. Including getting lost, my total hike time was 4 hours. So it wasn't so bad after all. Now that I know the terrain I could do it in less than 3 hours. It's a beautiful hike. I met some guys there headed for ice caves. I would have gone with them, but I was a little bit worn out by then. Besides, exploring ice caves in a glacier isn't exactly the smartest thing in the world to do.
I had beers at the Triangle Club & then went somewhere for a steak sandwich. The tourists shopping around from the cruise ship were mostly wearing tank tops, shorts, and T’s. It was in the mid 80s’. Not one bar, restaurant, or shop I walked into had air conditioning. Most of the Juneau resident I spoke to admitted they hated these "heat waves" and were glad they only happened for one or two weeks per year.
DAY 8. Sunday, June 20, 2004. OK, I’m fairly sore this morning, this is about as sore as I’m supposed to be after walking/hiking 12 miles & getting lost on glacier. Time to go home!
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3. APPENDIX
GLACIER BAY CRUISELINES
I collected this information from the Internet, and it may not be 100% complete or accurate.
Glacier Bay Cruiseline was founded by Robert Giersdorf (2/24/35-2/5/03) in 1979.
It was owned from 1996 to 2004 by Goldbelt Inc., a Juneau-based Alaska native corporation.
Very recently, in January 2004, Glacier Bay Cruiselines announced that its new owners, Doug Toms, Don Simplot and Bob Brennan, had acquired the assets of the small ship cruise company Goldbelt. The assets included three adventure-class overnight small cruise ships: the 87-passenger Wilderness Discoverer, 69-passenger Wilderness Adventurer and 31-passenger Wilderness Explorer, each equipped with their own fleet of sea kayaks.
I got the impression from the crew that they liked the improvements and support that was being provided under the new ownership. It certainly seemed to me to be a well organized, flexible, resourceful ship's staff. Captain Marc, Chief Engineer Crist (a former underwater welder), the knowledgeable naturalists, chefs, stewards and rest of the crew got along together extremely well and took very good care of us.
Glacier Bay Cruiselines is no longer an Alaska-native-owned company, but the honor of being named an Official Concessionaire for Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve by The National Park Service apparently conveyed along with the purchase of the company, and theirs are the only charter vessels allowed to stay overnight in the park. The company is listed as a Tour Vessel Service called Glacier Bay Park Concessions, Inc. on the National Park Service website, http://www.nps.gov/glba/InDepth/admin/commercial/calist.htm.
http://www.cruisereviews.com/misc/GlacierBay.htm
http://www.nps.gov/glba/index.htm
http://www.avidcruiser.com/news/newsdetail1.php?NID=1358
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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
The National Park Service website has an enormous amount of "in depth" detailed historical, climactic, and timeline information about Glacier Bay National Park. Reading it reminds me of everything that the Naturalist tourguides talked about during the trip.
http://www.nps.gov/glba/InDepth/home.htm
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MY RECOMMENDATIONS IF YOU ARE TAKING THIS TRIP
As far as deciding how to prepare for this kind of trip, it might seem tricky but it is really very simple:
Coat - Hat - Gloves. It might rain a lot, or a little, or hardly at all. You must bring a raincoat. Any ordinary $20 Wal-Mart rain jacket will do. It should have a hood, or you can buy a rain-hat. You can go to REI and spend hundreds if you want, but as long as you've got something to keep you dry you will be fine. Gloves are also a good idea. They help prevent some discomfort from rubbing against the oars, against the chilly splashing water, and against a cold driving rain in case the weather turns nasty.
Layers. The main rule is this: it’s all about the layers. One layer against the skin (preferably non-cotton, but since June/July is the warm season it’s not a big deal). One layer of raincoat on the outside. Between those two, one sweatshirt or one sweater or one fleece jacket or some combination of those, depending on conditions.
Boots. They provide basic rubber knee-high fisherman’s boots, which I wore whenever we left the WEX. You can buy your own at a camping/fishing store or at Home Depot if you want.
Other stuff. A water bottle is a good idea. I did not find the activities to be that strenuous, so I did not bring one. Energy bars to snack on are also good. Bring sunglasses. A small can of insect repellent and sunscreen are ok, and the Naturalists will have some to share too.
Digital Camera. Bring the digital camera and extra memory cards - or better yet, a laptop. I brought along a bare-bones laptop to download the pictures from my digital camera every day. I used it to download pictures from the other passenger's cameras as well. Not all cameras use the same USB digital cable type, but most people either had their USB cables with them, or their camera used the Compact Flash memory card that happens to be compatible with my camera. I was able to download almost everyone's pictures. The camera software isn't needed just to download the pictures. When the USB cable is plugged in, the camera appears as a conventional disc drive in the Windows Explorer folder list, and the pictures can be drag-and-dropped from the camera to the C: drive. It amounted to about 1000 pictures. I'm going to send everyone a CDROM of them.
Activities. Participation is voluntary. Each passenger selects which activities they want to do. There are always a few passengers who are just coming along for the ride, and they sign up for few, if any, of the excursions. They pass the time enjoying life on the ship relaxing, reading (there is a small library), sightseeing, chatting, playing board and card games, and so on. There are easy excursions as well, such as skiff rides and small port calls. If anyone on the ship is bored and doesn't want to be there, I've never met them.
Physical Requirements. None of the activities are undoable for an average healthy person. In rare cases where a passenger finds himself in distress, you could have predicted it the moment you met them by noticing their excessive weight or difficulty walking. If you can sit down and get up unassisted, and walk a flight of stairs, you can participate in most of the activities. If your hobbies include anything physical like walking, running, tennis, basketball, yoga, or biking, then the activities will barely make you break a sweat.
Activity Rankings. The mystery of the terms "low-medium-high" is that they refer to frequency and duration, not strenuousness. On my "high-level" Alaska trip, we kayaked every day except one, for 4-6 hours a day, took nature-trail-hike breaks and lunch-breaks by beaching our kayaks ashore, and I never broke a sweat, because we paddled gently (except on the very last kayak trip, when we raced each other back to the ship for fun). The trip had frequent excursions with long durations but none of them were strenuous. On my "medium-level" Columbia trip, we kayaked only four days, for 2-3 hours a day, returned to the ship for lunch, and we did two moderately steep (600 feet elevation gain, 40 minutes) hikes and one white-water rafting trip (included some class 2, 3, and one 4). The trip has less-frequent and shorter-lasting excursions and I broke a sweat 3 times. The week's itineraries are set up to give everyone a mid-week break. In Alaska and on the Columbia River, I think I spent almost all-day Wednesday sleeping.
Kaying Conditions. The conditions for kayaking range from pristine/glassy/windless to a bit choppy/moderately windy. I took my Alaska trip the first week of June and my Columbia trip the middle of September intentionally so that the weather would be georgeous. I used sunscreen every day. I've been told that conditions were sometimes horizantal rain and strong wind.
End.