Glacier Bay Day 0

Lisa and I were planning a kayak adventure in Glacier Bay Alaska. We decided July would be the best time, after Eric and Heather’s wedding. We knew that they were planning their honeymoon in AK so we invited them to join us. I was not surprised to find them interested but was surprised that they would agree to participate in a 5 day un-guided adventure. There is significant planning and preparation to be done for a trip like this and they were already planning a wedding and buying a new house.

We located 17-foot singles from Glacier Bay Sea Kayaks. We could take these from the ranger station in Gustavus. We planned to paddle 30 miles up through the Beardslee’s into the east arm of the bay. There we would be picked up by the day tour boat and continue into the west arm. The plan would maximize our wildlife exposure on our kayak journey. The up close (and much colder) glacier viewing would be had from the heated tour boat. This doesn’t sound like a lot of miles but we wanted to go slow and take in the sights. The trip was about wild nature not exercise on the water.

Collectively, there were almost a dozen trips to REI/EMS involved in the preparation. Half that many to the grocery store. But we were well equipped and ate well!

Alaska air had a direct flight from Boston to Seattle and then a jump to Juneau. We chose a small plane for the hop to Gusatvus for schedule reasons. We also hoped the views would be great from the little plane but as it turns out we traveled over in the rain.

We arrived at the ranger station for our back country camping orientation and then our kayak orientation. This left fueling our camp stoves and the bear spray. Two items that can’t make the flight over in a plane. The fueling went well but the lodge and the hardware store in town were out of bear spray. Now if you can’t fly the spray over you can’t fly it back either. Where was all the bear spray left behind by the campers? Do bears like Cajun? No one knew. But Lisa managed to talk (someone) into letting her borrow theirs. It could have been an empty canister but it was peace of mind. (Yes Heather, it was full. I shook it.)

Combined we loaded two large wheelbarrows with equipment to pack into the boats. The boats were so large that they packed easily. Each boat held two bear resistant food canisters (did I mention we ate well?). Although L&I took a lot of grief for having three times as many bags as E&H, when the boats got packed theirs were just as full as ours.

And so the adventure began…