Travelogue - Northern Disclosure: Adventures in Alaskan Sea Kayaking (June 2005)

Travelogue - Northern Disclosure: Adventures in Alaskan Sea Kayaking



After enjoying an amazing sea kayak trip on South Island , New Zealand back in January, I set my sights on a similar adventure in Alaska . I contacted a buddy of mine who lives in Anchorage , and told him of my interest in kayaking and watching the glaciers calve. He gladly made the necessary arrangements. I arrived in Anchorage on June 30th, a few days following the summer solstice. Officially, sunset was 1130pm, and sunrise was 430am, but dawn and dusk seemed to meld together in a medium blue hue that never fully yielded to the true dark of night. Alaskan summer nights are wonderful!



From Anchorage , we drove 1.5 hours south to Whittier, a tiny seaport village on the western shores of Prince William Sound . We picked up our rental kayaks, checked-out the necessary gear, had our safety lesson and then the five of us headed off to the docks to meet our water taxi. En route during the 1.5 hour ride to our designated drop-off, we saw countless seabird life and the occasional sea otter – floating lazily on their backs in the gentle current.



We had arranged to be dropped off at Black Sand Beach , in the Barry Arm of the Sound. The beach lies at the top of the fjord, at the convergence of the Coxe, Barry and Cascade glaciers. All three glaciers calve into the same narrow bay, creating an awesome and unique vantage point. The campsite is adjacent to Coxe Glacier, with the glacier’s terminus less than a couple hundred (safe) meters away.



The calving of the glaciers is an incredible sight to behold and sound to hear. The sheer majesty and force of these tons of ice, compressed for thousands of years, as they break off, is amazing. The powerful natural forces of the glacier from behind, coupled with gravity below, compel these glacial remnants to yield their solid state and once again become one with the sea. The thunderous sounds of new cracks and fissures being formed echoes continuously and the occasional boom is heard as these shards of jagged ice crash into the bay below, sometimes creating huge swells in their wake, with waves rippling outward across the fjord. Note: it was rather appropriate that we were there over July 4th weekend, as the glacial cracks, echoes and booms sounded like a near-nonstop fireworks display, lasting all weekend long!



Sea kayaking in a bay with calving glaciers presents an exciting, adventurous experience. It is recommended that you keep a safe distance away from the calving face – usually a quarter mile, or several hundred meters. Kayaking through the floating ice chunks is like paddling across a giant bowl of nearly frozen Rice Krispies (with glacial milk instead of cow’s milk, of course…) The shards of ice “snap, crackle and pop” as they dissolve slowly into the icy sea water. The sediment-rich cloudy water is only a few degrees above freezing, so the meltdown process is a lengthy one. The twice-daily high and low tides also serve to flush out some of the ice chunks. The few beaches along the fjord become littered with craggy ice chunks during low tide. These white and crystal blue chunks stood out nicely on our black sand beach.



In terms of wildlife, an occasional seal is seen popping its head above the water’s surface, curiously observing the passing kayakers before redescending into the murky bay water. Seagulls and other sub-arctic waterfowl are seen/heard flying overhead. On land, little hairy marmots (a groundhog-looking creature) are seen scurrying among the rocks along the shore, or perched atop a high outcropping. They make a shrill noise that sounds like a whistle being blown. The camping area where we stayed was thankfully sheltered in the fjord, so the threat of bears was low. In Alaska , encountering bears (black and brown) is always a possibility, but luckily where we were, it was not a probability. I would have enjoyed seeing more marine mammal life, especially orcas, whales and the like, but the narrow, relatively shallow bay of the fjord where we stayed was not so appealing to those animals, which prefer more open, flowing waters in which to cavort.



This trip to Alaska gave me a new-found respect and appreciation for our 49th state. The sheer beauty, vastness and majesty of the natural landscape, coupled with the richness of sub-arctic flora and fauna made for an amazing adventure. I’d highly recommend the trip to anyone.



Websites which I found helpful in preparing for this trip include:



http://www.alaskaseakayakers.com/

http://www.lazyotter.com/lazyotterIE.html

http://www.alaska.net/~awss/pws.html



Pictures accompanying this travelogue can be found in the Alaska Sea Kayaking folder at: http://photos.yahoo.com/mark_haneke



Happy Travels!





Mark



p.s. the next sea kayaking adventure will have to be Baja California !

http://www.seakayakadventures.com/cortez.htm