Last August, I traveled up to Alaska to visit Gustavus and join my friends Kim and Nate for a paddle trip up the West Arm of Glacier Bay. I had three days in town to visit friends, gather berries, bike along quiet roads, watercolor paint, and visit little art galleries around town. The fireweed was in full bloom and covered the landscape in pink streaks. Visiting Gustavus always feels like visiting an age and time in my life where I built on my love of the outdoors while learning how to foster community and live slowly. I shared every meal over the three days with friends; joining them for dinner parties, quiet cups of coffee on porches, and snacking on fresh veggies as we gardened and caught up on life.

Looking out to the boat dock, Gustavus, AK

August 7, 2023

6.44 Miles paddled

After a few restful days catching up with folks in town, Kim, Nate, and I got ready for our trip. Wayne would be staying back home on this adventure to prepare for a separate trip with Tidelines Institute. I was a little under the weather and we paused to confirm that I was negative for Covid before departing.

We put on our rain gear and started packing everything into the truck as we reviewed the weather for the week. Rain. We drove out to the park in a blanket of fog and loaded out gear onto the the Baranof Wind, the Glacier Bay Day Boat which would ferry us to our drop-off at Blue Mouse Cove. During the ride, we had the opportunity to see our intended route as we traveled up bay. We sat back and enjoyed the day and wildlife sightings of otters, Steller sea lions, tufted puffins, mountain goats, marmots, black bear, bald eagles, and nesting birds in the tens of thousands.

Loading kayaks onto the Baranof Wind, the Glacier Bay Day Boat.

A tufted puffin flies amongst the Marble Islands. Steller Sea Lions can be seen hauled out in the background.

A view of Johns Hopkins Inlet from the comfort of the Day Boat.

A patch of blue sky is visible during our visit on the Day Boat.

We departed the Baranof Wind at Blue Mouse Cove where we offloaded our boats and gear onto a beach of muscles. We efficiently sorted our gear packed our boats so that we could set out for our first camp. For me, the paddle was difficult. My fitness was lower than I would have liked and the wind was consistent. We paddled along with currents, and we had a few sharp boat wakes.

I stopped on a tiny rocky landing to put on my dry suit and promptly topped my Xtratuf, the thought of what are you doing crept into my head. My companions kept me good company and we landed at the first accessible beach after about three hours of paddling. We had only planned on taking a break for a snack, but we found nice tent spaces and decided to stay the night.

We settled in under the tarp to make dinner and I started the process of squeegeeing water out of my boot with a sharp rock. Kim had an extra pair of neoprene liner socks that I was lucky to benefit from.

I set up my tent quickly and jumped into the vestibule as the rain started to come down harder. I stripped down in the vestibule and looked at my round belly as rain drops fell from my head and rolled down the hairs on my tummy. I sighed and waited in the vestibule for some of the moisture to leave my body before getting into my dry tent, clothes, and sleeping bag. I mentally noted that I needed to focus on keeping everything dry with the week of expected rain.

The view from our paddle. The waters calmed with our protected campsite.

Day 2: August 8

17.7 miles

We woke early and started breaking down tents and making a quick breakfast of oatmeal and coffee. I had slept extremely well that night and was excited to see that we had flat, glassy calm waters to start our day. We could hear cruise ship horn blasts through the fog and occasionally caught a glimpse of the ship as it passed through the white cover.

We launched our boats and rounded two points where we passed by our intended campsite at Gilbert. Here we saw another group of kayakers. We continued on with a consistent paddling pace through overall stunningly calm conditions.

A cruise ship passes in the distant fog.

Nate paddling in the distance as the fog begins to lift

Kim paddling near a growler, an piece of glacial ice floating through the Bay.

We were lucky to find a nice spit beach for our lunch break as the fog and mist lifted for a dry respite. We aired ourselves out a bit, ate our lunches, and packed up as the mist came back in. I was feeling good, and enjoying the smooth water even thought I was a little tired and sore from the previous day’s paddle. We saw a beautiful pocket of blue sky as we paddled past Reid glacier and onto Lamplugh glacier. We stopped to stretch our legs at Lamplugh and enjoyed hearing water flow from the glacier. It had been more than fourteen years since I paddled to Lamplugh last and it was striking to see the difference in size. The same striking blues remained as its face changed over the years.

Growlers and bergy bits of ice caught on the low tide beach near Lamplugh.

From Lamplugh, we paddled along the rocky cliffs of Mount Parker. The landscape felt huge.

We spotted waterfalls cascading down the rocks and the cliffs glinted silver as the sunshine hit the reflection of water on the rocks. We started to see small rays of sun cutting through the cloud cover highlighting the silty green-blue waters. We made good time as we rounded Jaw Point and made our crossing. In the scale of these cliffs, we felt so beautifully small.

Our day ended at Topeka. The first time I camped at Topeka, I declared it as one of the most beautiful places I had ever been. This trip it looked a bit moodier as we camped on the opposite end, but was still gorgeous with a fast glacial river cutting through the rocks creating the sound of rolling thunder as rocks and boulders turned in the flowing water. We pitched or tents, set up for dinner and paused to journal and take in the landscape as the darkness set in and the mist returned.

Wildlife sightings - otter scratching its nose, stealthy seals, silly pigeon guillemots, many more birds.

Nate regales stories along the cliffs below Mount Parker.

View of Jaw Point from the Topeka campsite.

Day 3: August 9

5.59 Miles

One inconvenience on any trip is a sleeping pad that won’t stay inflated. In the night my sleeping pad decided to become a problem. Despite rigorous investigation, I couldn’t find a hole, or a leak, but the pad would have me sleeping on the rocks within a few hours of every reinflation resulting in a fitful rest.

I didn’t have a lot of time to fret about the sleeping pad as the morning mist started to get heavy and turned into drizzle. We packed up camp, had breakfast, and shuttled gear down the beach to launch. We noticed a cruise ship in the distance and made an effort to race the ship to avoid catching the wake while we were near the beach. The large cruise ships only come into Johns Hopkins Inlet up to Jaw Point, but the wakes carry energy through the water a great distance. We launched in time and were off to Johns Hopkins glacier.

Mist turning heavy as we break down camp.

9am grey that nearly blocked out the light

Kim and Nate paddling along the inlet walls.

Nate paddling near a small glacier and waterfall.

As we paddled farther into Johns Hopkins Inlet, the cliffs towered above us and the inlet narrowed. Small glaciers and waterfalls were peppered across the epic landscape of high walls. I was feeling really good in my boat. We were making great time and the water felt easy to move with. We came around a point and were surprised to see a humpback whale moving along the vertical cliff walls. It was exhilarating for me to see a humpback whale all the way back here so close to the glaciers. It was a very pleasant experience to paddle while watching a whale feeding along the cliffs. I pulled out the monocular and watched it slowly breathing after it surfaced from a deep dive, and repeating the pattern; 5 breaths, a dive. I could have stayed here in this little cliff cove all day.

Kim made the good decision to continue our journey on before our backs and feet got too stiff. My stoke was becoming less efficient and I could feel that I was getting tired.

When we made it back to the glacier I was blown away. We were just here a few days ago on the Baranof Wind day boat before our drop off, but there was a reverence I felt sitting in a small kayak and looking up at the massive glacier and experiencing the creaks and groans of the moving ice. Everything was still, and yet the anticipation of calving ice was there. We looked at a few camping options, but I was drawn to the waterfall.

The gear and boat haul at this site was quite long.

Kim enjoying a rest before breaking into a book.

As we unpacked our gear from the boats and began the long shuttle up the beach, we took turns being down by the boats incase of a wake from the glacier, or the day boat. As I looked into the icy bay, the whale we has passed surfaced right in front of me with a single breath before it dove. I was beaming with joy.

As we pitched our tents, we took some time to grab extra layers to warm up. The air off of the glacier cooled everything and I noticed I was shivering. We ate a good lunch to warm ourselves, added more warm layers, made dinner, cracked open birthday beers and chocolate and celebrated making it to our destination.

I took a walk and journaled before calling it a day. We would be spending another day in this spot so we went to bed with no agenda or plan.

Ice bits and Gilman & Johns Hopkins Glacier.

To the left you can see Gilman Glacier and In the center is Johns Hopkins Glacier

Day 4: August 10. Dulce Far Niente Day

0 miles paddled

Nearly 14 years ago, Nate introduced me to Duce Far Niente when we guided together for Spirit Walker Expeditions. He said it translated to The art or pleasure of doing nothing. He said that all trips must include time to do nothing other than exist in and appreciate the place we are in. I’ve always enjoyed this aspect of every trip.

During the night, we slept as calving ice shed itself from the glacier, and the waterfall behind us rushed and fell on rocks like a drum. As night transitioned to day, we woke to the sounds of the whale feeding between our beach and the glacier. We felt so lucky to have the whale return.

I was happy to stretch and get out of the tent after a cold night battling with my sleeping pad. It was misty in the morning, but the conditions had cleared up by 11am. We started to see spots of sun through the clouds and enjoyed sitting outside of a tarp for a bit.

Layers of debris melt out of the layered ice. History revealed.

As I walked the beach looking at little ice bits I was fascinated the the shapes and colors. I also noticed that the ice was actively melting and it could be fun to experiment with in my watercolor paintings. I painted some bold colors across the paper, and simply let the dripping meltwater influence the painting I was creating, I was pretty excited to have an art souvenir created with and by the ice we were visiting.

Temporary art of color in ice. This melted away within the hour.

Later, I hiked up to the waterfall where I continued to paint and sat in awe of the water flowing down to the rocks. The force of the water created enough wind to blow my hat off and my hair in a fury above my head. I sat a little farter away and spent time doing nothing other than watching and listening. After my waterfall visit, I went to the beach for a little meditation, I noticed Kim and Nate each had their own spot as well. The whale came back, this time at the far right of our beach. We heard the glacier calving and saw one spectacular building-sized block release followed by three others. The water along our beach pulled back as the wake from the falling ice came crashing in.

We gathered back under the tarp for a round of cards when the rain returned. I love playing cards and never find the opportunities to play as much as I would like. Kim and Nate taught me the rules and I had a lot of fun winning a few rounds. Nate made dinner, and we sat in awe as we saw a massive section of the face of the glacier fall.

Wildlife sightings: humpback whale, thousands of seals resting on the ice, bald eagle perched on a ice growler, lots of little gulls riding the waterfall outflow and flying up to ride it again.

Books, art, cards, and relaxing with these two is always a joy.

Day 5: August 11

16.76 miles paddled

Our last night at Johns Hopkins was active! Between 9pm -10pm the glacier calving was so frequent and loud it felt like thunder passing through the tent walls. Later into the night the calving calmed and I was able to fall asleep for a decent rest.

We woke at 6:30am to break down our dry tents, had breakfast, and launched. A lot of ice had moved from the edges of the water into the center distributed across the inlet. We made our way through the ice to and stopped for a while to admire the view of Johns Hopkins. In the distance we saw and heard all of the seals on the ice flow and decided not to continue closer and risk scaring them off their restful perch. There were thousands of seals, they looked like little pepper grains on floating salt.

The skies started to clear a little and we caught sight of one of the big mountain peaks in the distance, Mt. Crillon. The landscape already looked large, but getting a peak of one of the Fairweather Mountains was magnificent.

Watching the glacier calve in the distance

We navigated a small maze of floating ice.

Kim near Gilman Glacier using binoculars to look at the seals in the distance.

Gilman Glacier, and Johns Hopkins Glacier.

We began our paddle out of Johns Hopkins through a maze of ice. We paddled slowly and chose a path through the ice weaving as the water moved their position relative to our path.

We got through the ice and paddled along the cliffs near Gilman Glacier where we could hear in the distance a colony of Kittiwakes. Looking straight up the cliffs we could see the birds flying to and from their resting spots. We continued on the cliffs finding spot where fresh water flowed straight out of a hole in the cliff. We refilled our water dromedary bags (seriously cold!) and paddled calm waters out of the inlet.

We paddled through a lot of ice that day on our way back to Lamplugh.

14 years ago I wasn't able to access this spot because of the thick ice. It was a great experience to be able to paddle through the ice safely.

The color of the ice as the sun hits it quite pretty. My drysuit nearly matched it!

As we rounded the corner and left Johns Hopkins Inlet we were met with sunshine and warmth. We chose a beach to take a break and floated our kayaks so we could fully enjoy the sunshine and our rest. We aired out our paddle clothes and enjoyed the sun on our faces, the warmth was very welcome. As we relaxed, a few Oystercatchers began chastising our decision to land on their beach. We gave them lots of space and promised to not outlast our stay.

We paddled into Reid Inlet with blue skies at our backs. We planned to stay at Reid for two nights to explore the area and hike. However, as we got near the glacier, the winds picked up and saw a storm cell forming. We did a rapid beach haul of our gear, threw up tents quickly, and were hit with hard rain. I only noticed later all the bear sign and that Kim and Nate had their bear spray on them for the first time in the trip.

After dinner, we got a message from Wayne who was monitoring the weather. He let us know that a high-wind warning with a storm was coming in and was expected to hit the next afternoon.

A perfectly sunny break at Mary's Beach.

Reid Glacier from our campsite. We had planned on hiking up the ridge the next day, but with a storm approaching we chose to make our way back to Skidmore.

Day 6: August 12

9.54 miles paddled

There was a hard rain all night, it was the first time my tent had gotten water inside of it, thankfully my sleeping bag was protected by drybags I had used to level out the lumps under my still deflating sleeping pad. I packed up the tent soaked, but was happy to still have a dry sleeping bag and clothes.

We met under the tarp which now had small rivers running down the beach through our cooking area. We had a big breakfast to give our bodies fuel. We stocked up on snacks, and began the long boat carry down the slick rocky beach. I wore full raingear over my drysuit as the rain was coming down in sheets and I knew in this type of rain nothing is truly waterproof.

Thankfully, the heavy precipitation held off the high winds of the storm so although we were being rained on we were able to paddle safely to a site that would be more sheltered if /when the winds did hit us. While we were paddling, the rain was coming down hard enough it would cause a droplet to bounce an inch off the surface of the water.

Ahead of us, we say an eerie glow of yellow/green on the horizon. It looked like it hovered over the water. As we got closer, we could see it was runoff from a nearby river that was now full of yellow clay and mud. It was a sharp line between the salt and fresh water and as the rain hit the water it gave the perception of a glowing haze hovering above the water.

We paddled along the same shore as we did a few days prior, but now, all the waterfalls were kicking at full speed and new waterfalls had formed. We paddled consistently to make time and distance.

New little rivers cut through the beach after hard rain.

We made it to the Gilbert campsite in good time and put up a tarp to house the gear as we set up our tents. As we scrambled to manage our things, we lost sight of the Day Boat as it raced past us and kicked up a wake large enough to pick our kayaks up off the beach. Nate made it to two boats quickly and I grabbed the third just as the boat shot up in the air and as the water pulled it back towards the open water - I topped both of my boots holding onto the boat through the waves before having a chance to pull the boat up the beach. We were startled at how quickly the wake hit us and were thankful to have all boats in hand. We carried them up the beach were we were pleasantly surprised with an entire beach of ripe strawberries. We slid the boats up onto the green and grabbed a quick snack as we secured the boats and met back at the tarp.

We then went into wetness management with hot drinks, food, and hot water bottles to hold against our bodies to help warm up and dry off. We did this for a few hours until at last the rain broke.

The winds picked up in the channel and we were thankful to have made it to this beach for the additional shelter and proximity to the pick up spot at Blue Mouse Cove. We felt relief to have a break in the rain. We did get enough wind to make it difficult to keep up a tarp, but the wind also allowed us to dry out our tents and gear. The sun started to shine in the evening providing us some incredible light breaking around the clouds. As the evening came to a close we slept knowing tomorrow would be the main force of the storm, followed by hopefully calm conditions the next day.

Wildlife sightings: harbor porpoise, sea otters, humpback whales.

2" of rain was predicted for this morning. I do think we got all of it.

Winds pick up in the channel as the rain breaks.

Relatively sheltered we were able to enjoy a beautiful sunset.

Day 7: August 13. Rest Day

3.98 miles hiked

The winds were high last night so I put on some music to help me fall asleep. We wouldn’t be paddling this day so we were able to rest and sleep in. I woke up, listened to an audiobook, had a casual beach breakfast and started to re-organize the food in the bear cans. Today was the first day that I didn’t have to live in my drysuit and I enjoyed walking freely in leggings and crocs eating all the strawberries I could find.

We spent the day hiking from our campsite at Gilbert to the Scidmore Cut. We packed up and headed out on a hike where we would walk, pick berries, walk, pick more berries, walk, pick berries with only a little heartbreak that the Nagoonberries were not ripe. As we walked we noticed the Cow Parsnip was in seed, the Dwarf Fireweed in full bloom, the Fireweed at seed & fall red coloring, grasses tall and swaying in all colors - green, orange, peach, and red. Blue herons flew above us although our eyes were looking at the ground admiring all the old bear beds along the beach. The last time I had been on this beach was on a bear research trip the year a whale carcass washed up on Scidmore. The old bear beds were likely from that time where the bears camped out to feed on the whale.

Nate looking at an old bear bed. We saw tons!

Nagoonberries - just a few days from being ripe

The Scidmore Cut can be paddled at extreme high tides. It makes for a lovely hike the rest of the time.

Windy! This side of the cut without protection was so windy 25-30 winds made us very thankful for our campsite.

Our hike was a welcome journey which allowed us to enjoy the place we were in with contentment. We walked slowly, peacefully, and intentionally to be fully present in the space. The walk was something I was very grateful for as the previous day was quite difficult with the rain, and cold. Today, we rested, played cards, took beach naps, and watched otters playing in the waves and the whales move past us as they fed. We made dinner and made a quick radio check-in with the Day Boat, where they confirmed the 25-30knot winds would die down for tomorrow. It would be my last night on this trip before heading home. I sat and enjoyed the sunset as it changed hues and brought in night.

Points silhouetted in the distance. We had traveled along these points over the past few days.

Day 8. August 14.

9.81 miles paddled

We had otters playing outside our campsite last night, we started to hear them chatter and make sounds to each other. In hearing this, I realized the wind had stopped completely. We woke to a heavy mist and fog cover. At this stage in the trip we were efficient in our breakdown of camp. I started some hot water on the beach for to-go coffee and looked along the rocky shore covered in rockweed. I noticed movement and looked up to find a young brown bear on the beach. It was maybe 3-4 yrs old and walking in the intertidal zone. I shouted up a Hello Bear, and it quickly ran into the forest.

We packed up our tents and launched our kayaks with coffee in hand.

The conditions were flat calm for our journey back to Blue Mouse Cove. We had a negative tide that morning and the landscape always looks so different. Some beaches became inaccessible, and we saw rocky beaches that would have been covered by water any other day.

In Blue Mouse Cove we had a little time to spare so Nate and I paddled the cove. We saw a humpback whale feeding and slapping its pectoral fins. At times it would raise its head above the water, mouth agape feeding.

It is always a interesting experience paddling into the grey.

Kim and Nate checking out the intertidal zone.

Mist lifts from the mountains and shores

Blue Mouse Cove. Kim and Nate looking out over the landscape.

Always a wonderful time with Kim and Nate !

I said my goodbyes to Kim and Nate, who were only halfway through their trip. I boarded the day boat back to Glacier Bay and enjoyed some snacks as I told passengers about our sightings and experiences. Wayne picked me up and brought me directly to the airport. A dry set of clothes brought a lot of comfort as I checked my very wet gear through security. The next morning I would be back at work, and back to the moments of day-dreaming about whales, berries, glaciers, and waterfalls.