Glacier Bay Day 1

It was nearly 6pm before we were on the water. It was raining lightly. E&H had donned their dry suits. Lisa and I were in our Helle Hansens. We passed our only kayak of this day by the dock. A double clearly rented for the afternoon by a camper. We were greeted by our first seal almost instantly. We were later than we had hoped and were already fighting the tide. Glacier Bay has tides of 15 to 25 feet so they can be a significant factor. Within a half hour the going was already slow against the tide. We were all uncomfortable with the fit in the boat. The loose foot pegs of a ruddered boat were unfamiliar. The wide boat altered our strokes (as did the load).

Suddenly I noticed a large “brown” bear on the shore. I pointed to him to alert the others. Lisa rafted up with her binoculars and we debated whether this was a brown “Black Bear” or a “Brown Bear” aka a Grizzly. The most notable feature is the hump on the back of the brown bear but when feeding with their heads down the distinction is not as clear. It was all very cute and comfortable until it looked up at me as I was focused on it with the binoculars. Sure I was fine in this kayak but the face gave me chills when I realized I was going to be camping with this beast in just a few hours.

Because of our late start, the tides, the rain, and the fact that this was all new to three of us we decided to look for camp fairly quickly. We found a small island with a limited amount of bear trail and only one large pile of bear poop. It was small enough that we were fairly certain that there was no bear on it at least at that moment.

We all set up our tents without fighting although they were pretty close so no one was far from the bear spray. The procedure is to set the tents away from a bear trail. Store the boats empty in one location, the food in a different location, and cook in a third location. 100 yards is the recommended separation. Add to this the fact that a 20 foot tide puts the low tide line an awful long way from the high water line and you have a recipe for a lot of walking.

The misty air gave us limited visibility. Light rain made it less than “perfectly comfortable”. At this point we were happy to be on our way and the quietness and isolation we found a mere 4 miles from our launch point was the excitement.

We cooked our first meal and watched as the receding tide connected our little island to the much larger neighbor. So this is how the bear gets over. Shit! Fortunately Lisa explained that the nesting pair of Oyster Catchers on the beach would be our security system. If a bear walked over they’d go nuts protecting the nest. True I’m sure but Oyster Catchers are just nuts in general and made a racket at random times causing me to think a bear might be approaching when none was in sight. (I know this because I got up once just to check … well I had another reason also.)


The next day was less misty and we could see mountains to the east and a plethora of islands to the northwest. We could see salmon jumping, porpoises, and more seals. We ate breakfast, broke camp, and patiently waited the turn of the tide to get our second days paddle under way. Four happy campers were beginning to relax, Alaska style.

Air Temp 60, water temp 45, winds light, 4.3 miles