To Glacier Bay

I just got back to Juneau after about two and a half days out.  I went over to Glacier Bay National Park and then further out to the coast, and then came back.  

When I was out with Rachel and family, we were counting eagles, and this picture above is the most eagles I've ever seen on an iceberg.  I didn't get all of them, there are a few further over to the right that are out of the frame.

After that, I found a bear walking in the grass and it had a bunch of grass seeds on it, so I am not the only one who gets those stuck all over me.  Its a great way to spread.

And here is a bear eating mussels.  Humans can't eat these, or so everyone says.  They are full of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning.  There was a group of Russians from Sitka (long ago) who didn't know and their Aleut guides didn't know either, so they cooked up a bunch and most of the party was killed.  So I don't eat them.  But the bears do.  Here's proof

Ok, those pictures were from a short trip to Tracy arm.  These pictures are from the way on out to Glacier Bay.  There aren't any otters near Juneau, you have to go west.  At some point in Icy strait, the otters decide that this is the water they like to live in, and here is a cutie clutching on to some kelp.  He was in 200 ft of water and the kelp wasn't attached to anything, but it is like a teddy bear I am sure.  Comfort

In Reid Inlet I found some oystercatcher eggs, and these ones looked like they got washed over, because they had some glacier dust on them.  And they weren't being guarded or anything, so I think they were dead.  Later on, I found a baby oystercatcher that had been out of the egg for a little while, so I think the incubation time is over.  There is this story that the oystercatcher eggs can survive being under water, but this one might be evidence that maybe they can't survive the cold water.  Inconclusive.  

Of course it could have been from another bird.  Here is a candidate!  A Semi-Palmated Plover

I went to Lamplugh Glacier and this picture is taken from where I camped last year with Danny and Abe.  

This is from last year about the same spot and the angle is a little to the left, but you can see the ice is much retreated.  The big island of ice is gone, and the sides of the curving "bay" of ice in the above shot have opened up a huge amount.  

From Lamplugh I went over to Russel cut and found some bears!  This one was fat and happy and didn't care much about me.  It looks pretty mean in this picture....

But in this picture its a lot more friendly looking.  I think the nose in the air gives it the impression of aristocracy.  

I walked up the gentle alluvial fan and it was a nice walk.  I was very impressed by looking at the tracks all over, and there were no human tracks.  I don't think people walk around here very much because it doesn't go anywhere, but lots of animals do.  I like this picture because the ground is very gently sloped, but constantly sloped.  So even at super-telephoto you can see the foregound.

When I came back down to where my canoe was, there was another bear just over the hill.  I got a picture of it before it saw me, and then set up the canoe for a retreat, since it was aimed at me.  Then I climbed up the hill a bit more to show myself to the bear to see what it would do.

The effect was amazing.  The bear looked up, saw me, and immediately started walking towards me.  I took this as a sinister sign.

Then the bear started to flank me, and "hide" behind this grass as it approached.  This is the body language of a hunting animal.  My hindbrain recognized this, as did the pit of my stomach and my heartbeat...  This bear wanted to eat me.  How rude!  I had already suspected this bear since it wasn't so fat and also because I was alone, that it might push me or something, so I ducked down behind the hill and ran for the canoe and slithered down the almost dry stream.

I wasn't very fast going down stream, so it gained on me but I made it to deep water with about 150 feet to spare.  The bear then walked up and down on the beach and looked out at the boat, waiting for me to come back to shore.  It stayed there for the whole night, waiting.

Then I went down towards Gloomy Knob and I found a young oystercatcher, and a few puffins.

And then on the south end of Gloomy, there was a sleeping bear.  This guy was king of the beach, and king of the salmon stream nearby.  I paddled over and got pretty close but he didn't bat an eye at me.  However, when a lady bear and her cub approached the river, he got lumbering to his feet and sauntered over to tell them to go away.  They stood across the river at each other and growled softly and she finally left.  He then went over to pee on her tracks to make sure she understood territory, and while he was on the other side of the river, she popped out on his side!  So he had to chase her and the cub up the hill a ways, on a trail that I was thinking about taking myself (but I didn't go ashore).  While he was enforcing his property rights, another bear popped out of the woods and went over to the stream.  
Papa bear came back and chased this one off too.  What an exhausting life.  No wonder he was tired.

Then at Bartlett Cove there was a Grouse and baby.  I like this shot of the baby in the grass, munching on seeds and beeping at mother.  The mother would beep back.  Like sonar.  I do this sometimes while hiking with people where I hoot and they hoot back to keep track of each other.  

It rained a bunch after this and was windy, so I didn't get many pictures of the trip out to the coast, but it was beautiful, though rough.  Here is one of the arch on the west side of George Island, before the clouds descended.  The Fairweather range is in the background.

After having enough of that, I made my way back to Juneau.  I am planning on staying in Juneau for a little while, and then Abe and Katrina are scheduled to come up.  

More Pictures from the trip with Rachel

These all were taken by Rachel.  This first one is to prove that she was in the back of the canoe and steering.  We were at Wood Spit and looking at icebergs that were stranded on the beach

In Ford's Terror we saw the skull of an animal that I think might have been a Wolverine.  Take a close look and see for yourself!

 I think the teeth look a lot like a mustelid.

Here's a shot of me looking like a captain, (I guess) with the glacier behind me.  Most probably I was thinking "I can't see very well and there is ice everywhere!"  This was at South Sawyer.

Here's Rachel in front of North Sawyer, looking like an awesome sister.  I guess I took this one, but on her phone.

Henry, Nora and I climbed up on a big chunk of ice in front of North Sawyer and we were looking at a bunch of glacier mud there, and waiting for the glacier to calve.

Here is the majestic Layla at peace in port Snettisham, on the last evening, just when the wolves were starting to howl in the distance.

A Trip with Rachel, Henry and Nora

I've always wanted to share what I do up here in Southeast Alaska with my family, and I've had a few trips with my brother before, but it is the young kids who I feel can get the most out of a trip up here.  So when my sister Rachel suggested coming up and bringing her kids, I figured it would be a great trip.  Layla was pretty crowded, with four people aboard, but we made do, and we had a great time together.  First up was Taku Harbor, where many other people go, so it wasn't that much of an adventure, but then we went for a hike in Limestone Inlet, where we found three bears across the meadow.  Two were cubs and they were fighting or playing (I got a lot of that during this trip, not just with bears).

We got to try out our new rubber boots:

Then we drove on down to Wood Spit and into Endicott Arm.  It was rainy then so I didn't take many pictures.  It rained on us most of the time, in fact, and now that they have left, it is supposed to be sunny for a whole week straight.  Still, Alaska is wonderful in the rain.  At the entrance to Ford's Terror, the waterfall was thundering down, so we got a nice close view.

And then we went up the river in the east side of Ford's Terror and panned for gold!

More Panning for gold!

After we left Ford's Terror we came back to the entrance to Endicott Arm, and got a tiny bit of sunshine, and paddled around the stranded icebergs that are in the shallow water there.

Then we went into Tracy Arm and anchored in a nice little cove at the entrance and found some Oystercatcher Eggs.  They lay their eggs below the high tide line, so a really high tide will cover the eggs.  Very strange.

Then we went into Tracy Arm.  This was a long day, and we had nice weather for this.  We saw some seals on the icebergs!

And we made it to the South Sawyer Glacier.  It was very icy there and I was pretty busy trying to keep the boat from bumping big ice pieces too hard, especially since the wind was blowing really strongly and there was currents from all directions all the time.  Difficult to navigate in.  Still, we saw a few big pieces fall off and heard the white thunder.

More Baby seals!

Then we went to North Sawyer.  Its actually just called Sawyer glacier, but everyone feels the need to be sure you aren't mistaking the two (south) and so they call it north.  But I digress.  Usually it is not very active.  When I first came up it was much further out and pretty active, but then it became less and less active until last year it was basically just a wall of ice that didn't do anything.  But now it is different.  It seems to have retreated past a moraine shoal, and is calving again.  It means it is retreating extra fast now.  I anchored near the moraine, because it offered some protection from the ice and we canoed in for a closer look.  

Since we are on the beach, the only thing we need to worry about is the wave from big calvings, and being hit by thrown ice.  These are dangers, but not as scary as a shooter, which is a big berg that floats up from underneath with no warning at all and comes popping out of the water like a submarine in an emergency maneuver.  But none of those here!  Solid gravel beneath our feet.  So we played around and took some photos and saw a few nice calvings.

Henry the Ice Man

Nora with Katabatic winds in her hair

Then we went back to Tracy Cove and found some bears in the meadow there.

They let us get really close (from the canoe) and we had a nice time looking at them.

In the morning we found the bears again and got even closer

This one was pretty cool with us being there.  He was always watching us even if it doesn't seem to be that way.

A few times he posed on a rock.  He was pretty skinny.

And we were able to get about 25 ft away from him.

Because of the other bears in the area, he was lowest in rank, and couldn't get the best spots for food.  I think he was a bit sad.

We went back to the Oystercatcher nest and found the owners.

And the eggs again

And then went out to the Midway Islands and found more oystercatchers.  I also saw a puffin there.  A tufted puffin.  I didn't get a good picture though.

The flowers were doing nicely on the island because nobody eats them there.

A pair of Pigeon Guillemots

Then we went to Port Snettisham and hiked up the river there and found some nice muskeg, and some nesting Yellowlegs!

On our way back to Juneau we got a few nice looks at some Humpback Whales lunge feeding

And one popped up right next to us, a nice treat.

It was a nice trip.  I can't wait to do more trips with family and friends, but its nice to have a few days to rest in Juneau, and some sunshine.