Day 3

Today was our glacier viewing day, so only a  half day of kayaking.  Mark took charge of us and I suspect Chris and I were put in an even wider kayak in an effort to slow us down.  Our goal was to kayak around the point and circumnavigate a large island.  We stopped on the island for a leg stretch/potty stop.  As usual the guys went in one direction and the women went in the other. There is a ‘leave no trace’ policy here which means that one does one’s business between the tide lines so the challenge is to find a place with some privacy. 

When the potty part of the adventure had been dealt with, we females decided to walk around the island in the direction the men had relieved themselves.  Chris made himself comfortable in the sun on the rocky beach for a power nap (not a good night’s sleep).  Mark decided to join us “just in case”.  We were commenting on not having seen any bears today, and as we rounded the corner, came upon a very surprised mother bear with one, possibly two cubs.  They hightailed it into the forest in one direction, and Mark hightailed us back to the kayaks in the opposite direction.  Chris was rudely awakened, and we were pushing the kayaks off the beach in very good time indeed.  Never saw mother bear again even though we paddled around the rest of the island in hopeful pursuit of another sighting.

Lunch was onboard ship as we sailed for the glaciers.  Chris declined to join us – ginger carrot soup and corn bread – two of the few things he refuses to eat.  I haven’t had cornbread in years (note previous sentence) so made a pig of myself.  We were then treated to one glacier after another as we approached and then sailed up the Muir inlet.  At one point there were three glaciers in view at the same time.  We had mountains, a rainbow (see below) and the most amazing scenery. It really is an incredible place Alaska.

We also enjoyed two mountain goats who regarded us gravely from their precipitous heights.  They were tiny in our binoculars but Zhang’s 400 mm zoom lens gave us the amazing photo below.

At the head of Muir Inlet we saw two kayakers who were eventually invited on board for a hot meal and hot shower.  They had been out for ten days and were only half way through their expedition.  So great joy was theirs, and great curiosity was ours.  Their kayaks were hoisted on board, and they sailed with us the 15 miles to Wachuset inlet where they were off loaded and some people watched the sunset.  We were in bed by then, since sunset occurs rather late up here!

On to the next day ...

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