Linda and I have now been in Juneau for a week. For the first several days we did mundane things like do the laundry, wash Hobbit, stock up on groceries, and learn how the bus system works. On Sunday afternoon we picked up Win and Chris Eyles who flew in from England to join us. Cruise ships are even a bigger attraction here than in Ketchikan. During our stay we saw as many as six humongous cruise ships simultaneously in port. Because there are only docks for 5 ships, one had to anchor. The cruise lines want to build even bigger ships.
Juneau and environs is an amazing place. The four of us spent three days being tourists. Highlights include visiting the Alaskan brewery, a fish hatchery, the Mendenhall glacier with extended hikes, riding an “aerial tram” (per Chris - cable car for the rest of us) then hiking fairly/extremely high up a mountain, and if that was not enough, taking a float plane flight across the Juneau ice field (Chris in the co-pilot’s seat and me). Weather has been fantastic. We kept seeing forecasts of rain on the evening news but it didn’t materialize. Instead, we found ourselves getting quite warm on our hikes and wishing we hadn’t dressed so warmly.
There’s no doubt that, in Chris’s mind, the flight over the Juneau ice field was the highlight of the Juneau experience. I found it awesome! The Juneau ice field gets about 100 feet of snow a year in addition to about 100 inches of rain. It feeds numerous glaciers all of which are receding, except one. Normally they don’t fly across the ice field, but the weather was so nice that we got a special treat which included flying across the Mendenhall glacier. In the pictures below there are pictures of the glacier from the ground, the air, and from a long distance away while on Hobbit.
For me it’s a toss-up on whether the Mendenhall glacier or the trip up the mountain on the cable car was best. After riding on the cable car to above the 2,000 foot level, we saw a movie on the history of the Tlingits from their perspective. The film was titled Seeing Daylight. It included legends about the origins of the earth and man as well as the impact of the Russians, Christian missionaries, and others that had a negative impact on their culture and health. Personally I like the Tlingit holistic approach to viewing the world. Linda and I hiked up about another thousand feet. Win and Chris kept going higher while I pulled out the Christmas present I gave myself last year – a high quality macro lens for the camera – and took pictures of wildflowers.
The Mendenhall glacier was a striking sight. The glacier calves into a pond and icebergs are floating everywhere. Waterfalls come out of the glacier face and a valley beside the glacier. The glacier moves down the valley 1-2 feet per day yet the glacier is receding because the front end melts and calves faster than it moves down the valley.
We had put off the trip up the aerial tram until the last day in the hopes of getting excellent weather without clouds to restrict visibility. When we were only a block away from the tram, I got a call from Ron Barrow, a good friend who is also in the Navy Yacht Club. Ron was in Juneau with his boat, Restless, and crew. A few minutes after the first call, Ron called back and let us know that a cousin of one of the people cruising with him lived in Juneau and had two season passes to the tram which we could borrow. Each pass allowed two people to use the tram. Borrowing those passes saved us $108. Ron also made a Costco run for us to make sure we are fully provisioned for the next few days of cruising.
We ended our stay in Juneau with a wonderful dinner at the Twisted Fish restaurant and a mad dash to the grocery and liquor stores prior to their evening closure.
Juneau Hillside by Hobbit
Chris, Win, Bartender, Wally, Linda at the Alaskan Brewery
Mendenhall Glacier
Mendenhall Lake
By the Falls at Mendenhall Glacier
Relaxing by the Falls
In Front of the Mendenhall Glacier
Heath in Flower
Linda Takes a Break
On the Mountain Overlooking Juneau
Alpine Meadow
Porcupine
Tlingit Art Carved into a Tree
Cable Car Down to Juneau
June 23, 2011, Thursday
A light rain greeted us this morning as we arose and prepared our departure for Skagway. Fortunately it stopped only an hour or so after we left and the rest of the day was marvelous. Linda and Win spent most of the day on the bridge reading while Chris played Killer Su Doku.
I tried bottom fishing for halibut but the breeze was blowing Hobbit just fast enough so that I had trouble keeping my bait on the bottom. We did see a lot of eagles, some of which came very close to Hobbit, and two humpback whales. We got pictures of each whale as their fluke went into the air for a deep dive, but none were particularly good. Sometimes it’s just best to stop and watch.
After just over 50 miles on our journey north to Skagway, we pulled into Echo Cove, Berners Bay, Lynn Canal. Had I fully appreciated how shallow the entrance was to Echo Cove, I might have searched for an alternative. The ruling depth in the entrance is only 1 fathom (6 feet) at mean low water. Fortunately, when we entered the tide was just over 10 feet and the minimum depth we encountered was 14 feet.
Inside the bay the water was deep, however, there were so many crab traps that we had difficulty finding a place to drop the anchor and have adequate room to swing. Looking north there was a wonderful view of a snow-capped mountain; unfortunately we were forced to anchor beside a boat launch which was moderately active.
June 24, 2011, Friday
Starting the generator just after 6:30 woke everyone. Because we were in a bay whose entrance dried at low tide, we had to time our activities to cross the bar at high tide which was 10 feet. By the time everyone was up I had made tea and oatmeal. We raised the anchor just after 7:30 and crossed the bar at 8:00 just before a 10 foot high tide. As we crossed the bar, my depth finder showed 11 feet. I’m not sure that I want to come in here again.
Shortly after leaving Echo Cove I took a plastic sample then we ran into 7 or 8 humpback whales which we watched for the better part of an hour. Eventually we moved on and ran into a pod of Orcas which included a mother and calf; unfortunately no good pictures of them.
The weather was gorgeous!!! It’s difficult to adequately describe the environment. We were in Lynn Canal, a long, relatively narrow body of water leading to Skagway. On both sides were mountains that rose to 3 or 4,000 feet straight out of the water. In the distance were peaks that rose to more than 8,000 feet. The peaks near the water were rounded by ice age glaciers and had trees growing most of the way up. Peaks in the distance were more like a bunch of inverted ice cream cones surrounding us. Above about 3,000 feet there were no trees and the mountains were bare rock. Most peaks, even the ones close to us still had snow. Every once in awhile a glacier could be seen meandering down a valley. Clouds around the peaks or in the valleys added a feeling like something out of a Japanese painting.
The glaciers carved out marvelous valleys which had many waterfalls. Periodically we would come across a stretch of shoreline that had large rounded boulders that were clearly out of place – white rock below a mountain of granite. Obviously the glaciers deposited them during the last ice age. Looking behind we could see interesting cloud formations with each valley having its own set of clouds streaming out over the water.
Bald eagles and marbled murrelets (a small aquatic bird) were abundant and a delight to watch.
Occasionally we would see what was essentially a scar on the side of the mountains – a landslide of grass green deciduous shrubs and trees surrounded by the dark green of Sitka spruce and western hemlock which dominate the forest. It’s amazing to me that trees are able to grow at all on many of these slopes; they’re nearly vertical and solid rock. The roots must just force their way into cracks. Ironically, the logs which presented a navigation hazard further to the south have not been around since we left Wrangell.
The water has had many shades of color. Near human habitation such as Juneau there have been algal blooms that clogged up the net I use to sample for plastics. Water there tends to be a deep green. As we came up the Lynn Canal, the water was a brilliant shade of light green and you could see through it to a great depth. As we approached Skagway we could see a brown line across the water from miles away; this was the brown silt from a river.
Su Doku (Chris), Calligraphy (Win), and Watercolor (Linda) Before the Storm
Ten to fifteen miles from Skagway we entered a narrow channel with towering mountains on each side. Win said the view was reminiscent of fjords in Norway. What the fjord did was to create a venturi that funneled the wind to high velocity. In a period of half an hour the wind rose to more than 20 kts and swells rose to 5 feet which, fortunately, were on our stern. Three cruise ships were docked as we approached the harbor. When I slowed down to let Linda, Chris, and Win prepare lines and fenders for docking, the wind took control of Hobbit.
I snickered to myself as I read the sign on the side of a Princess Cruise Lines ship which announced a security zone and that I had to stay 50 meters away. We were broadside to significant seas; Chris put dents in the stainless steel handrails hanging on for dear life while Win and Linda hunkered down as low as they could get on the deck. Linda got saturated as water came over Hobbit’s side. Staying 50 meters away from the cruise ship was the least of my worries; I was worried about being blown into it.
We managed to get Hobbit rigged and entered the harbor. Unfortunately the fenders and lines were on the wrong side of the boat. Once again the wind took control as I tried to turn around while struggling to keep Hobbit off the beach. It took full power to turn. When we did turn, I called for help from people on a tugboat already docked and pulled into in a spot reserved for a foot ferry. After re-rigging lines and fenders, and making sure that two people were on the dock where we were supposed to be, we backed out. Wind was howling at 30 kts and I was using full power in both forward and reverse in an effort to control Hobbit. This is one of the few times I would have liked twin engines. We were able to tie up successfully - I hope I never have to go through that again.
After tying up we broke open one of the bottles of Scotch that Chris and Win brought from England and quickly put a significant dent in it.
June 25, 2011, Saturday
The wind continued most of the day but became somewhat abated. It was only blowing 15 to 20 kts. Surprisingly, much of downtown Skagway is a National Park and the National Park Service owns many of the buildings which are original from the 1890s. Buildings which are not original from the 1890s have been built to look like the old buildings. We took a walking tour of the town given by a park ranger and also watched a movie of the history of Skagway and the gold rush. Late in the afternoon we took about a 4 mile hike up 500 feet then around a lake. Wildflowers around the lake, particularly columbine, were beautiful.
Great photos, Wally. Enjoying reading your exploits. Wishing we were there. Our new boat still out on the hard. Maybe splash down in August.... Kathy
ReplyDeleteThat sounds bad Wally, the Wx, I mean. You have good line handlers obviously.
ReplyDelete