America!

I left Aquila in Mexico about a month ago, and headed up to Bellingham for a few weeks before going onward up to Alaska. 

The first thing I did was go for a walk along the skagit river mouth, at a place called Craft Island. Abe had shown me this place a few years ago and I really liked it. Its a wetlands area. 

Then I did a short trip out to Cypresss Island on Gran Milonga. It was a really nice time in Bellingham, but a bit shorter than in years' past. 

Then I left to go up to Alaska, to Glacier Bay, for my first canoe trip this year. On the flight in I spotted a few whales in Chatham Strait.

The first evening was an amazing sunset and especially in late june the sun is up forever. In the lower bay the mountains are a long ways away, so that makes for an even longer sunset.

The lupine up here is my favorite.

And I love the grasses that grow along the beaches. The background is the Chilcat range

The next day we went out on the Day Boat, which takes people once a day up into Glacier Bay and also drops off kayakers (and canoe-ers too) On the Day Boat we saw some mountain goats

and a nice Brown bear with two cubs

And the Margerie Glacier. More on Margerie later. I also was on the lookout for places to camp as we went along the shoreline.   

Upon getting dropped off on the canoe, we started on our paddling, and went to a spot just on the east side of Scidmore cut.  On the north of Gillmore Peninsula.  It was a point, and there were some whales that went by, and also some orcas!

The orcas were hunting, and one swam right by me, about 20 ft away, and right next to the steep rock shoreline.  It was chasing a seal, and I got to see both the seal and the orca from above.  It was really cool, but sadly no photos.

They hung around for a little while but then moved on in the sunset.

The next day we crossed the bay and went over to Gloomy Knob, and camped just north of it.  There was an oystercatcher nest near and they made their presence known and I went over to have a look.  When you get near, they become very animated, and crawl around with their wings low and mean looking.  They screech and come right up to you.  

Watch out for the mini-murderasaurous

Then we did a paddle in the evening and found some more goats.

The next day we had a nice bear nearby the camp spot.

And of course eagles everywhere.  

There are a lot of flowers out, so I was happy to go north the next day to Queen Inlet, and to Triangle Island, where there is a mound of bedrock covered in flowers, and surrounded by a low moraine.  Its not actually an island, but just in the middle of the moraine.  

There was a flower I cannot identify there.  

An orchid of some sort?

Also a lot of paintbrush everywhere

I did a hike up to Carroll Glacier, and discovered a few things.  The view from the moriane is like this:

But when you look to the northeast it has a big lake in the middle, and the glacier is way further back up

The lake is very big and deep, and has ice calving into it from the old left behind ice hidden under the moraine

It has icebergs that were very big, about 200 ft wide or more, and therefore it is a deep lake.  Just 6 years ago it was all just ice covered with dirt, but the ice melted and the dirt fell in the hole left behind.

More icebergs along the shore

There was great moraine sandy stuff all over, with little rivers running through it.

I found an ice cave on one of the side, with a river running through it.  

There was another plant I didn't know.  It is like dryas but i wasn't quite sure.  Maybe a young one.  A younger dryas?

Then we went to Rendu Inlet and camped on the west side, and there were lots of whales around everywhere.

We did a day trip up rendu and back but didn't move camp.

There were some baby Mew gulls along the shore we saw.

And two bears thinking about mating the next morning as we left for Russell island

They looked cute together.

Along the way we found a baby sea otter that was having a difficult time swimming under water.

As we got to russell cut we found a bear

That was eating grass.

And at russell island we found some mew gull nests, and an egg.

The view north that night, at Grand Pacific Glacier, and the mighty Hamling (canoe)

The next day we started up Tarr inlet, to Margerie Glacier, and found an eagle!

and margerie!

More Marge

We camped in a new spot, where we could see the glacier from camp

And I climbed up the rock in the picture above, the one next to the glacier.  I name it Christian Rock

Its still covered in ice, but there's a way up.

I also did a hike up the right side of Marge and looked around.

and out onto the glacier

On the way down to Lamplugh glacier we found a bear eating horsetails.  I wonder if they scratch their teeth.

Lamplugh is looking pretty good, surprisingly like last year, but also different.  I think it changed a lot over the winter and somehow came out looking similar.  I'm not sure how.  

There were a lot of little shrimps dead on the shoreline.  Only in places with a glacier and rivers coming out and silt.

More Mew gulls were there and screeched at us.

The glacier has advanced a bit in this spot, and made a push moraine.

A view from above

And further above, more of the moraine this time. 

From the ridge, the glacier is amazing.

And there are lots of golden crowned sparrows everywhere.

And a bullrush?

From there we paddled on to Reid glacier for lunch and then to Scidmore again for the end of the trip.  At reid we found more oystercatcher eggs

And at scidmore we had a good black bear, good brown bear, and great whales for the rest of the trip.

The view from scidmore is pretty nice, but the animals just come up alongside that spot.

Here's the brown bear.  It was a male and very happy getting stuff under rocks,

And then cow parsnip

Back in Bartlett we went searching and finally found a porcupine, to complete the trip.

It was great, and today I fly up to Anchorage and then begin work tomorrow in Prince William Sound on the Safari Explorer.  I'm very excited, but also hopeful to do another canoe trip in September.