Mosquitoes, Rivers, and Icebergs...Oh My!!

All cleaned up for a night on the town, or at least the porch, with Brian and Phil

Taking advantage of staying in one of the back country cabins managed by the Forest Service to bake Calzones for dinner

Phil contemplates the icebergs

Bear tracks in the mud at the mouth of the Stikine

One of the cabin's we stayed in on the Stikine River

Launching on the first day of the second leg with the Devil's Thumb in view

After a long stretch and a good push on the first leg, we opt for a shorter route with more opportunity for exploration. Departing from Petersburg, we had a rare warm, clear day with full views of the Devil's Thumb (of recent fame from two of John Krakauer's books, an ominous peak). This of course turned back into cloudy skies and rain for the next 5 days. After racing through Dry Straight, where you need 8 ft of tide in order not to get stuck in the mud (this is higher than the highest tides in S.F. Bay), we hitched a ride from a jet boat up the Stikine River.

The Stikine

The Stikine is a massive river (with spring flows greater than 100,000 cfs) which extends well up into Canada for its headwaters and is fed by a number of glaciers. Some of the Alaskans we had met had told us that the Stikine was beautiful and worth checking out, when we asked about bugs, they would ponder the question then generally reply, "yeah...it might be a little buggy up there?" I have never experienced mosquitoes like we had on the Stikine. Literally, hundreds of them swarming all over us as soon as we got off the boat. The jet boat driver opened the front window to say goodbye, when he stuck his head out his eyes got silver dollar size before he quickly said, "yeah, o.k., have a great time, bye." He was gone in about 2 seconds. Inside the cabin they persisted, entering through cracks in the door, swarming at the window. Phil set his tent up inside the cabin in order to escape to his "fort." We wonder whether we have made a huge mistake?

Eventually cabin fever gets the better of us and we brave the water. We head upstream towards the glacier and with the cooling air the mosquitoes subside. Beaver, phenomenal views, and our first floating ice. The following day, we paddle up stream for a few miles to visit the hot springs (enclosed and free of bugs), the nicest public hot springs I have ever been experienced. We run into some locals (8 of them) who have one goal for the weekend, to finish at least one of the the 2 kegs they have brought (plus the tequila and the other cases of beer). With all that they forgot to bring any water or any means to purify/filter. We start to wonder how many of the other boats on the river are filled with folks boasting similar goals...suddenly I am less worried about the bears.

It is nice to paddle with 5 mph of current. We sleep in, read, cook, bake and eat (home made mac and cheese, calzones, Cinnamon rolls, strudel, foccacia bread, halibut chowder...those of you who know me know that all the above mentioned items are 100% Phil...there is a reason I brought the guy on the first two legs of the trip...beyond all of the other reasons like being a solid paddler, fun to travel with, and an all around great guy). The Stikine is a glimpse into the interior with its mountains, rivers, and bugs.

Into Le Conte Bay

As we round the bend, our first real icebergs come into view, on the horizon they look clustered and massive. My leisurely mode shifts to heightened awareness. So many different colors, shapes, sizes, textures...everyone is different. Phil paddles up to a house sized, triangular berg with a deeper blue than the sky above. I try to comprehend the story of this one berg, snow falling in the winter gets compacted by years and years of subsequent snowfall increasing in density to something like 10 times the ice in our freezers. Over hundreds or even thousands of years it continues to compact as it slowly slides and scrapes its way down the valley, transforming the rock below from a "V" shaped river valley into a "U" shaped valley characteristic of those modified by glaciers. Eventually reaching the terminus and calving off into the bay where it dove deep before surfacing 10 minutes later (long after the huge wave it kicked up has dissipated). Over many days, it slowly floats down the bay, moving out with the ebb and back in with the flood, traveling many miles while ultimately moving only a short distance each day? How many days had this berg had of its dance back and forth along the corridor of the bay? Where would it float from here? How many days would it take for the melting process to undo the many, many years it took to form?

So you can probably picture us now, floating around a little glassy eyed pontificating in truncated thoughts without much coherency. It is one of the most unique experiences either of us has had paddling, and that is just the entrance to the bay! When we reach camp that night we meet an odd character who has been there for 10 days and plans to spend 3 weeks there...he is deep in a different zone.

Our efforts to paddle to the face of the glacier are thwarted by winds pushing a river of ice down the bay. I bump into a few small bergs and feel the jolt throughout my fiberglass boat, the sound of these "taps" is as if the boat is about to be crushed. We sit in an eddy and watch the ice move past, mesmerized again. Time to move back to so as not to get trapped in by the ice flow.

We have run into our jet boat captain a few more times on the trip. The day before he brought us some Halibut which we made into chowder...MMMMMM. He is a young guy in college and each time we see him is is talking about "these college girls who are kayaking some where up here." Later in the day a group shows up in our cove, it is only the second group of expedition kayakers we have seen in our 3 weeks on the water and the first with whom we interact. Phil is on the shore chatting when I arrive... the head guide and I look at each other, he sais, "do I know you?" For those of you in the Yosemite, Missoula worlds, it is Dave Morris. The first kayakers we see and it is some one I know. He confirms that yes there was much chatting between some of his students and our jet boat captain. Some things feel so foreign to me up here and some things are universal.

We head out in the morning, picking our way through the ice flow. The water is still, as still as we have seen. We are paddling through a garden of sculpted ice, thousands of bergs in the water, on shore, of different sizes, shapes, colors...we are againg mesmorized. 5 miles of iceberg garden paddling, eddy hoping behind rock and ice eddys, a windy/wave filled 5 mile crossing and we arrive back on Mitkof Island, only a few miles from Petersburg. We decide to come in early for burgers and beer. Once again we are greeted by our friend Bob, who drives out to pick us up, store our boats, and drop us off at the hotel-what a guy!

Brian arrives this afternoon and Phil flies out tomorrow. On Sunday, Brian and I will paddle down the Wrangell Narrows (20 miles long and a few hundred yards wide at some spots) It floods from both the north and south, so we will ride the flood to the midpoint then continue south on the ebb...a feat of timing. We head past Wrangell and continue south through more narrows and down to the Anan Creek bear preserve and viewing spot. After laying over there, we will head out to Clarence Straight and down to Ketchikan by August 14th in time for me to catch the ferry south on the 15th.

Don't forget that you all can post your comments on here, I would love to hear back from folks.

Intro to South East Alaska Sea Kayaking

At 4 AM on a Saturday morning, Phil dreams of sleeping in and going out for brunch

Bald Eagles Everywhere!

Humpback Fluke, diving to begin another round of bubble netting

The view as we begin our five mile crossing to the Finger Islands

A fishing boat pulling in crab pots heads towards the pot at the end of the rainbow

On a layover day, I grab a little time with my iPod in my tent (home for the next few months)





Transporting the "Bubble of Dry"
Almost the entirety of South East Alaska lies within the Tongas National Forrest, which is a temperate rain forest. Much of the region receives annual rainfall totals averaging well above 100 inches per year. Though summer is a relatively dry period, we are still inundated with water (especially for a couple of California boys, though Phil is now claiming Wyoming as his home state...he keeps saying something about solidarity with Dick?).
During my first week up here the sun was out for a grand total of about 2 hours, seven days straight of rain each day. We say that we are sea kayaking, but really we are transporting our little bubbles of dry through a liquid environment. We have on water clothes complete with rubber/neoprene boots, paddling pants and tops, rain hats, umbrella's, separate rain gear for on shore, everything double bagged before being put into dry hatches, you get the point. Despite all of our efforts, much of the time damp is dry.

Admiralty Island...land of the Brown Bear
On our second day kayaking, we cross from Douglass Island to Admiralty Island. A spectacular place known for many attributes...a fantastic coastline, one of the highest concentrations of Bald Eagles in Alaska, Humpback's galore...But the one that held my attention was twice as many Brown Bears live on the island as humans, about one per square mile!
We arrive to camp late, tired, and wet. We unpack our boats, set our gear above the high tide line and walk a 1/4 mile down the beach to set up our kitchen. When we turn to head back to set up tents, Phil sais, "are those two bears coming down the beach?" The first Brown Bears(Grizzly, they are basically the same bear, but "Grizzlies" refers to those in the interior and "Brown" refers to those on the coast, there is a third group called "Kodiak" those are twice the size of the coastal variety growing to 1400 lbs. and are recently famous from the movie "Grizzly Man") that Phil or I have ever seen. They make their way up the beach, explore our kayaks and gear, then disappear into the shoulder high grass behind our boats. Because the tide is going to be at about 18 feet, we have to set our tents and kitchen at the very edge of the grass. While it was amazing to be in the presence of such fantastic creatures, it scared the piss out of me. I did not sleep well that night.
We went on to have 2 other sightings of Brown Bears on Admiralty. As time went on I became less fearful, though still acutely aware, as the Bears did not seem to take a great interest in us.

Whales, Whales, and more Whales
It had taken us 2 hours to find the 3 walled shelter that we had both a written description of and directions from a local homesteader (there are still people that are homesteading in Alaska). It was our third of five days getting up at 2:00 am in order to catch the ebb tide, and it was raining again...I did not want to leave the dry of the shelter. By the time we reached camp I was soaked and exhausted. Within an hour the sun made its second appearance, enough to dry gear, lounge about on the beach, and lift our spirits (amazing how quickly a little sun can change things).
In the distance we could see the first whale spouts of the trip. Within 20 minutes they began breaching, massive creatures thrusting themselves entirely out of the water. Throughout the rest of the afternoon they spouted, bubble netted and lunge fed, and called out.
In the morning, as we rose to another 2:00 AM start, we could hear them just off shore. The fog was so thick that it obscured our view, but the sound of 8 or 9 breaches, their wake hitting shore, their calls back and forth, and the force of their landing reverberating into our tents was like nothing else I have experienced.
As we headed south and rounded the next point, we stopped in a kelp bed to have lunch in our boats. 30 yards in front of us a circle of bubbles began to rise, followed by 3 whales surfacing, mouths open and swallowing everything in their path. For more than an hour we watched them feed just off shore from us, swimming below schools of fish and herding them to the surface by blowing large bubbles, then rising to feast at the surface. Humpback's eat somewhere in the range of 800 lbs of food per day! For the next few days we will see whales every day, all day.

Crossings
Our boats so heavily loaded we average only about 3.5 miles per hour, less than the 4-5 I was anticipating. The days are long and the only time that matters is what time we need to be where in order to catch or avoid the ebb or the flood. Unfortunately, some times even when we thought we had it just right we didn't.
At the southern end of Admiralty Island is the juncture of Stephan's Passage, Frederick Sound, and Chatham Straight. Outside of the bears, this part of the trip had been weighing on me more than others as we had a 3 mile crossing followed by two 5 mile crossings. We timed the first on perfectly, arriving at the Brothers Islands with ease on a sunny afternoon. We were greeted by the crew from a small boat called the Catalyst. Ensen, Steve, Morgan, and Brian invited us to join them for a cook out on the beach with their guests (not the last of the Alaskan generosity we would experience). We ate, drank, and told stories until late...maybe a little too late as we missed out window for the big crossing the next day.
When we arrived at the East Brother, the ebb was in full force, it would carry us past the finger islands before we could make the five mile crossing. We retreated to the Middle Brother and napped until the next slack. We awoke to fog so thick that we couldn't see the East Brother a 1/4 mile away. Just as we were about to settle in for another 6 hours of waiting, there was a clearing. We inched our way out, using a compass bearing to find the islands in the fog. Nervously, we went through a couple of rounds of "lets paddle 10 more minutes and see how we feel," after the third round we could make out the faint outline of the first island in the distance. With a sigh of relief, we veer south past the fingers and make our second five mile crossing to the mainland and the entrance to Frederick Sound.

Ahh Petersburg
I have never been anywhere where folks are as kind and generous as in Petersburg. Once we landed, and before we had unloaded our boats, a voice from the dock above asked "where'd you come from?" Bob Carter is the Presbyterian minister in Petersburg, a town of mostly Lutheran Norwegians. Within five minutes, Bob had offered us a ride, a place to store our kayaks, and time to sit and look at maps to help plan the next section of the trip (during the planning section, we came to realize that Bob is a pretty hard core paddler, having done solo trips up here that make our trip look fairly mundane, most impressive of all is that he is totally humble about his exploits).
We have been dreaming of Halibut nuggets for most of the 150 mile trip (fresh, lite Halibut chunks battered and fried...best eaten right out of the backcountry). We check into the motel and head to the spot where we last ate nuggets two years ago. They have since closed their kitchen and aren't sure anyone in town makes Halibut Nuggets...our dreams are crushed. We head to the Northern Lights restaurant with our hopes high, no dice. We tell our sob story to our waitress, Ailis, who is sympathetic. The folks in the next booth here this and push for chocolate cake. When we arrive the next night, Ailis has made the special of the day...you guessed it, Halibut Nuggets (with a side note that reads "for Phil and Derek"), she has also baked chocolate cake, which she has saved 4 pieces for us.
We stay an extra day, since our packages hadn't arrived from Juneau, or maybe it was the allure of town and rest? We each pay a visit to the chiropractor and get a massage. After the massage, Nancy offers to loan us her car if we need to run any errands, "it'll be parked out front and the keys are in it if you need it." Petersburg is a great place to arrive and a hard place to leave.

Where do we go from here?
Tomorrow we head back out for a 10 day tour. We will head south down the east side of Mitkof Island to Dry Straight at the southern end of Frederick Sound. There, on 7/27 we will get picked up by a jet boat and taken up the Stikine River (John Muir has a great story about the Stikine and a dog). Along the Stikine, we will stay at NFS cabins at Chief Shakes Hot Springs and Twin Lakes before heading north to Le Conte Bay on 7/29. We will spend a couple of days exploring Le Conte Bay, home to the southern most tidewater glacier in the US. From Le Conte Bay, we will head North up Frederick Sound and back to Petersburg by 8/3, where Phil will pass the kayak baton to Brian Melley who will head south with me to Ketchikan on 8/5.

Ferries Made...Ferries Lost

With Cathleen and Logan at the Ashland 4th of July parade

Hanging out at Tana and Rick's house in Port Townsend with Tana, Amanda and her twins Chloe and Sam

On the ferry with Mike, Josee, and West (red hair)






I can't remember exactly how the saying goes, but it is something about humans making plans and the heavens laughing? After a smooth trip up to Juneau, I called to confirm the next ferry to Glacier Bay only to find out that they had cancelled their service, leaving us no reasonable way to get to Glacier Bay. So we make new plans. Phil and I are packing up to head out tomorrow. We will paddle south to Admiralty Island, portage Oliver Inlet to Seymor Canal and down the east side of Admiralty. We should be in Petersburg by July 23. At this time we will find another short route before returning to meet up with Brian on Aug 3. Just the way things go around here, only option is to roll with it.

Backtracking, I had a phenomenal trip up here. A fantastic stay in Ashland with Cathleen Sheehan and Rebecca Shapiro on the night of July 3. We went down to see the hometown parade (my favorite part was the junior high marching band in tie-dye uniforms). I spent the rest of the 4th driving north to Port Townsend to stay with Tana and Rick, who had a warm welcome for me (feeding me, giving me space to set up a tent and sprawl as I reorganized). I am more and more aware of how the help from so many friends and family is what is making this trip possible for me, thank you everyone! While in Port Townsend I got to spend some time with old friends Lampy and Amanda and their twins Sam and Chloe after staying a night in their yurt, so great to be back in a yurt. On the 6th, Tana drove me to Bellingham where I caught the ferry(my car limping in to the finish line in desperate need of a tune up).

On the ferry I met some wonderful folks, Mike and Josee from Canada who had just finished biking around Vancouver Island where they were performing plays addressing issues of social/environmental justice. They were heading on to points further north for their own biking adventure. Also in our little group was West, who had come out from Virginia to Seattle, rode his bike to Bellingham then off to Valdez where he would find work in order to make enough money to get home later in the summer. Some fun adventurous folks out there. The communal spirit of the ferry was wonderful, pitching tents on the back deck, chatting with people over meals and taking in the wildlife and scenery. I highly recommend traveling the inside passage by ferry to anyone-young, old, families, adventurers...

I am excited to leave town and head out on the water. It hasn't stopped raining since we arrived and doesn't seem like it is planning on letting up any time soon. This town has a strange energy, we have met some wonderfully generous people but have mostly been surrounded by thousands of tourists by day (up to four cruise ships arrive and depart each day bringing upwards of 10,000 different visitors each day), and serious drinking at night (we can hear the bar music thumping through the floor until 1:00 am each night, not even my earplugs do much to help). At any rate, I am excited to begin doing what I came here to do, kayak and be out in the wilds of Alaska.

I will try to upload some photos when we reach Petersburg, but for now I am having technical difficulties.

Derek

On the Edge...

Friday, June 29th--Paul, Ned, Dai, Igor, and Drew joined me in riding in critical mass followed by some yahooery and foosball back at the house.


Saturday, June 30th--I met up with Bob Harrison and his fellow boat builder Dave for a trial paddle out to Angel Island (Bob is paddling with me from Bellingham to Port Townsend, WA.

Perched on the edge of departure, I am scurrying about trying to get it all finished and ready to go. It has been an intense last 10 days saying goodbye to everyone, gathering the last of my gear together, lining up housing stuff, and still taking time to breathe. The range of emotion has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, the sadness of saying goodbyes, excitement of realizing what is ahead, all mixed with a healthy dose of fear (just enough to keep me focussed). I should be able to post about every 10 days during the Alaska kayaking section, so keep checking in.

The Schedule
7/3--I drive north to Ashland to hang out with Cathleen Sheehan for the night

7/4--What is more patriotic than spending the 4th driving? (off to Port Townsend)

7/7--Tana Leach drives me to Bellingham to see me off on the ferry

7/9--I arrive in Juneau and meet up with Phil Samuels

7/11--Phil and I head to Glacier Bay

7/12--At long last, BOATS GO INTO THE WATER!!

7/20--We paddle into Juneau for a resupply

7/22--We Paddle south towards Petersburg

8/3--We paddle into Petersburg (Brian Melley arrives by plane)

8/5--Brian and I paddle towards Wrangell and Ketchikan (Phil flies home)

8/14--We arrive in Ketchikan

8/15--I board the ferry to Washington and Brian flies home

8/17--I arrive by ferry in Bellingham, WA (greeted by Bob Harrison)

8/18--Bob and I depart for Port Townsend, WA

8/23--We arrive in Port Townsend, WA (Bob heads home)

8/25--Tana's Wedding

8/29--I start riding south

end of September I ride through the Bay Area, more details to come about opportunities to join me for a few days on the way in or out of the Bay Area.

10/17--I arrive in La Jolla at GiGi and Bills

10/18-10/21--I fly up to San Rafael for the Bioneers conference

10/23--I drive south to Baja

Some time before Thanksgiving--I return home

11/26--I am back teaching at Urban in a classroom with windows! (Garden room?, just not the basement)