Half Way or Finished

The view from my kayak on day 2 in Glacier Bay. The arrow points to little Unwine’d at anchorage.

Okay, drumroll and hit the high hat! We made it to Glacier Bay! Call it achieving our goal or finishing our objective, if you like. But what a great feeling it was to cross the park boundary, surrounded by towering, snow-capped peaks, calm waters, watchful cute gazes of sea otters, and a pod of orcas, skimming the water. 

Now we are halfway, geographically, and have about two months to make it back to Decourcy Island. We made it here in a month, with conditions that couldn’t have been better. 

Boating miles: 1072 (1)

Boating hours: 143 

Since my last travelogue, we stopped in urban-like Juneau, spent 3 nights in 2 different quiet coves, and then spent one night in small town Hoonah. 

In case you haven’t seen Mike’s social media posts, here are some highlights:

Mike cleaned the two salmon we (finally) caught outside of Funter Bay. 

“You have to make do on a boat,” they say. Mike made me a chocolate cake for my birthday with our BBQ. Who knew you could do that?!

The top of the marina ramp to colorful, laid-back Hoonah.

Here’s our first view of Glacier Bay National Park: 

It was a clear and comfortable day when we arrived in Glacier Bay, so we took turns sitting on the front. Those are the snow-capped mountains in the background. (2) 

After checking in with the park ranger, we opted to hike the raised boardwalk trail through the 10-shades-of-green temperate rainforest that arrives at this pond. It’s been weeks since have taken a hike. (3) 

We’ve noticed so many more sea otters up here. We actually are seeing “rafts” of adorable otters in these waters—dozens of otters hanging out together. They have light colored furry faces, dark eyes, dark nose and little dark mouth like a stuffed animal. They float on their back like a boat with their too-large-looking pawed flippers sticking straight up. Many of them are carrying pups, it seems to us:

After a month of scanning the shores with hours upon hours on the water, we spotted a bear! 

Good night to you all from our anchorage tonight. We haven’t figured out yet if it actually gets dark at some point. We’ve seen it light enough to see by 3:00 a.m.

FOOTNOTES FOR FUN FACT FANS

(1) This is close to the same driving distance as driving down California on Highway 5, from the Oregon border to the Mexico border. Or, driving from New York City to Orlando, Florida. But, our average speed was 7.5 MPH. 

(2) Glacier Bay National Park is slightly smaller than the size of Connecticut. In addition to the waterways and glaciers you can see from the water, it includes the surrounding forests. The Glacier Bay waterway is about the same distance (65 miles), South to North, as San Francisco Bay (60 miles). 

(3) There are many regulations in Glacier Bay National Park. They only have 25 private boats in a day—total. And there are only two cruise ships that come in a day. There was no one sharing our cove the first night. There are areas that are always restricted due to active whale habitat and others that are only available to non-motorized vessels, e.g. kayaks. We had to attend an orientation at the park headquarters before motoring upward.