Kayaking in Glacier Bay
It’s the Closest Way to See the National Park
-With Maggie Louden
This is the third of three installments. The first installment can be found here: https://medium.com/@rdieter/kayaking-in-glacier-bay-alaska-more-doable-than-you-might-think-f290055b68fd
Day 5: Adams Inlet
On day five, we kayaked into Adams Inlet, having just skirted its edges on the way up inlet. A gentle rain occasionally fell, but the water was calm. For the first time, we encountered some other kayakers close enough to talk to. They were part of a training group, who would perhaps lead others into this beautiful area.
With the tide rising behind us, we wanted to push further into Adams. We had read that there are areas of low mud flats, and you don’t want to get hung up there during low tide. Sea birds love Adams Inlet, as do many other creatures. (On our second trip in 2015, we say many humpbacks in the inlet, but we were a little earlier in the season on this trip.) A harbor seal greeted us at each cove.
It was very peaceful and protected. We ate our snack lunch while floating and watching the whole scene. As the tide turned, we started kayaking out and selected a lovely campsite still well within the inlet. We had a splendid view all around. We were also able to take a short hike to explore the area.
The breeze kicked up and cleared the air. One gust blew our tent on its side. Note: you probably should stake your tent, or there are always plenty of rocks to secure the sides. A young bald eagle sat in the tree over our tent.
After dinner, we planned our next steps. The following day we intended to go to Garforth Island, which is across from the Mt. Wright dropoff/pickup where we started our journey. We were a little tentative about this because, while one island might appear on your map, in reality there are many smaller islands not shown, and from a distance, it’s impossible to be sure you’re at the right place. Also, Garforth is out in the inlet, not near the shore, which means kayaking in open water and then searching for a landing spot.
Given how close we were, we were confident that we’d be able to make the pickup spot with plenty of time on the morning after our next camp. So, we enjoyed the beauty of Adams Inlet, and dreamed about exploring it further in the future (which we eventually did!).
Day 6
The trip has been great. We overcame early challenges, figured out a lot of things on our own, experienced the beauty and wildlife of Glacier Bay, and survived a week in the wilderness. Today was the day to get close to our final pickup by the tour boat so that we could really call our adventure a success.
We closed camp, making sure we left no trace. The wind from yesterday continued to blow, making for a cool morning. The skies were also gray. Once we left Adams Inlet, the water became choppy and the wind picked up. We thought of making the open-water crossing to Garforth Island and began to get queasy. This was no time for a mistake. Even though we hadn’t gone very far, we decided to pull in and wait out the weather. We were only about an hour from the Mt. Wright pickup, assuming our map work was right.
Note: On our 2015 trip, we had a basic GPS device that we had practiced with. It gave us the assurance that we could find ourselves on our map, where we had written some of the key coordinates. That would have helped on this earlier trip. There is no cell service, and cell phones tend to lose power and get wet, so we didn’t bring them. If we went again, we’d probably bring an emergency beacon that can send your coordinates if you’re in need of help.
The advantage of going to Garforth would’ve been being able to see along a straight line to the pickup spot, whereas from a cove you can only see to the tip, not knowing exactly what lies beyond. Still, we figured we’d be fine. There were some signs of bears at the spot we had chosen, and we had seen a black bear as we left Adams. We avoided the most highly trafficked areas. After supper, we retired early so that we’d be up early the next morning.
Day 7: Back to Civilization
We rose early, and a little nervously. Fortunately, the wind had died down and the water was calm. The pickup at Mt. Wright would be around 8:30 AM, and we wanted to be there by 7:30, with our gear organized on the beach for quick transfer to the boat.
We kayaked steadily for about 45 minutes. We came into a cove that looked vaguely familiar: broad, rocky shore, towering cliffs with some snow still on the hillside, and Garforth Island as a marker further out in the inlet. But it didn’t seem completely right. We tried to remember the exact scene when we departed a week ago, and this looked a little different. Since we had time, we continued around the tip of the cove and, of course, found another cove, that also looked familiar. However, we soon decided it was not right, either.
Now we had a choice to make. If we went back to the first cove and it still wasn’t right, we would be wasting precious time, with no sense of where to go next. If we pushed on to the next cove, and it wasn’t right, then we had further to go to get back to the first cove. We decided to go back, but it still didn’t seem precisely like the place we had been dropped at. We now had to move quickly if we still wanted to make the pickup.
We paddled hard out of the first cove, past the second cove, and onward to the next cove. This time the pieces started falling into place. The shore looked more familiar, the snow on the hillside now seemed a match, and we found a place along the shore where the tour boat’s bow had made a line of rocks, probably the day before. This was the right place! What a relief. We even spotted a cairn of rocks that we had noted before we left. We didn’t want to rely too heavily on finding the cairn because there’s an understandable effort among campers not to disturb the environment or leave human marks. Nevertheless, we were grateful for this sign of human presence. There were no other kayakers to be picked up that day, but we were sure we had the right spot.
We actually made it there by about 7:30 AM, though what should’ve taken no more than an hour took about 2 instead. We unpacked the kayak, pulled it onto high ground, arranged our gear in compact piles, took a selfie, and peered across the inlet for sight of the tour boat. If we had missed the spot, the boat would have seen that no one was there for a pickup and would have paused only momentarily. The rangers had told us that if you didn’t show up at the time you had given them in the pre-trip briefing, they would wait 24 hours and then start to search for you.
It arrived on schedule. The captain was anxious to get us on board quickly, and we were glad to oblige. The tourists for the day looked at us very curiously. When we got dropped off, we were clean, dry, and fresh off a night at the lodge. Now, we looked a little wilder, coming out of who knows where, hauling a long kayak and a jumble of gear. Plus, we seemed a bit old to be emerging from the wilderness (67 & 72). Fortunately, we did have big smiles on our faces.
As soon as we were on board, our bodies sensed the change. We hadn’t felt the warmth like that in the ship’s cabin for a week. When you’re outside, you keep moving to stay warm, or else you are tucked inside a sleeping bag, inside a tent. We also realized we were very hungry. We had eaten fine, but you burn a lot of calories outside and meals are mostly what comes in a freezed-dried packet. The boat had cups of hot clam chowder with crackers. Nothing ever tasted so good. We answered a lot of questions and slowly began to unwind as the boat headed to the beauty of the West Arm of Glacier Bay.
Almost all people who see Glacier Bay do so from the high decks of a cruise ship. Two a day are allowed into the Bay. The ships are too large for the tiny dock in Gustavus (Park headquarters), so tourists never set foot in the park. The beauty is still breathtaking.
A much smaller number either fly or ferry into Gustavus and stay a night at the lodge (or the campgrounds). Every day, the tour boat takes a group on a seven-hour journey through paradise. Whales, sea otters, sea lions, perhaps mountain goats, bears, eagles and many other birds can be seen (most of the pictures in this post are from the deck of the tour boat.) You also see the glaciers up close and probably get to witness their calving all while surrounded by the mountains of the Fairweather range and land which had been covered by glaciers not too long ago. (Fewer still explore Glacier Bay by kayak, which is why we prepared this blog.)
Once the boat pulled into park’s dock around 3 pm, we still had a little work to do. We unloaded the kayak and returned our gear to the folks from G.B. Sea Kayaks, who met us on the dock. We quickly retrieved our backpacks from the lodge, which had kept them in safe keeping for the week. Along with other tourists intent on making the afternoon flight out of Gustavus, we piled into the lodge’s van and headed for the airport about 20 minutes away. Although Alaska Airlines has a daily flight from Gustavus, we waited for the four-seater from Wings of Alaska to come adeptly through the mountain passes and pull up to the runway gate. Soon we were floating over the waters we had just left, headed for Juneau where we would enjoy a celebratory meal, still waking from our dream.
Please add your comments and tell us where you have kayaked or adventured. Questions about our trip will gladly be answered: <rdieter004@gmail.com>. The first installment about this trip can be found at https://medium.com/@rdieter/kayaking-in-glacier-bay-alaska-more-doable-than-you-might-think-f290055b68fd
To follow our blog on our trip to the Beardslee Islands in the lower part of Glacier Bay, click https://adventuresinalaskablog.wordpress.com/2015/12/26/day-one/
