Ice Dodging and Rushin' the Russian

A dear friend has reminded me many times that adventures that go awry usually make for great stories. A recent 2 day excursion with my good friend Brady has the distinction of having come off without a hitch (or at least not a serious one) and having a few good tales (or tails as you'll read below).

Brady is the young fellow that helped me get the job up here in Alaska. He works up on the Slope periodically throughout the year and after his last trip stopped off in Anchorage to start his R&R. I feel particularly privileged to have had his company seeing as how he hadn't seen his wife in about a month... thanks Molly! Our first day out started with an early call in Whittier to go off on a paddle through Blackstone Bay. Thanks to my friend Pete (of Alaska Sea Kayakers) we were able to rent gear and piggy back on a charter... this has the advantage of saving a few bucks, being self guided, and getting to Blackstone Bay and back in one day.

We were dropped of at 17 mile lagoon on Willard Island and left to our own devices. After a brief gear check and paddle plan discussion we were off down the southeast shore. We crossed from the tip of the island to apoint between two glaciers, had a bit to eat and headed over to visit Beloit glacier first. It's a funny thing being within 500 yards of something as big as a glacier while you're in a sea kayak... only a foot or so above the water. Funnier, or stranger still, is the deep chord struck within when you hear the glacier crack and thunder. Absolute peace and quiet... a few small waves lapping against the hull... whispers of wind in the trees along the mountainous shore and then... KARKOOOOOOM! The learning point from this is one: don't get too close to a glacier that might be ready to calve (which is every last blessed one of them) and two: that glaciers crack fairly frequently but don't calve (or dump a small city sized load of ice in to the water) every time they crack. For all the ice thunder we heard I only recall seeing relatively small amounts of material cascading in to the water on two occasions.

Next, we paddled back across the point to Blackstone Glacier. It's freakin' huge and not only comes down to the water but flanks to the North and down a long ridge line with a waterfall near the end. I should mention that up to this point and throughout most of the day we had clear skies and very little wind.

Our next leg took us to the toe of another glacier in Blackstone Bay that I don't recall the name of. The toe was a short hike back from the shore so we beached our kayaks and headed inland to have a look. Hiking in Alaska is a bit different then in the "Lower 48" even if it's only for a short distance. Hikes are seldom quiet (because loud talking or singing scares away bears) and usually require a bit of extra gear (because pepper spray or a large handgun scare away or defend against bears). Did I mention that there are bears in Alaska? All kidding aside the best tools when hiking in bear country are knowledge and vigilance... let's just say I've been doing a lot of reading, talking to locals, and zero solo hiking (which in other parts of the world has been a long cherished past time). A stream runs out from underneath the glacier or more correctly bubbles up in to a pool from underneath the ice and then cascades in two streams down to the bay. We started to hike up the side of the toe to get up on the ice but decided against it as we weren't roped up and then there's that whole crevasse issue :) Like two fat cats on a lazy afternoon we beached our selves for a nap in the sun after our hike as the other group from our charter waved hello and passed by headed North. I knew they had planned to hike up a trail along the other side of the glacier about that time and I was surprised to see them stop short of landing, turn, and head back out in to the bay. We later found out that there was a black bear cub and likely proximal but unseen sow about a hundred yards away from us. We never saw or heard them but it's pretty likely they knew we were there.

After our rest we headed back out in to the bay and began crossing over to Willard Island to meet the charter for pickup. When we hiked down from the toe of the glacier we noticed a few billowing, white clouds poking up over the North ridge of the bay. These clouds were a bit more pronounced when we hit the water again but conditions were still pretty calm. By the time we were about half way across, or about half a mile out, winds started kicking up from the southwest and then quickly shifted and came out of the northeast. The interesting thing was a swell out of the northeast that preceded the wind shift. Pretty soon we were having an awesome and fun paddle in to the wind and 2 foot chop for a great end of day work out.

Both parties made it back to the pick-up point with plenty of time to spare, the boats and gear were loaded and we headed back to Whittier. Here is where the advantage of a water taxi became apparent... the channel between Blackstone Bay and Passage Canal was howling with wind and 4 to 5 waves... yikes! We ended the day by excepting a kind invitation to grill out with the owner, guides, and other friends of Alaska Sea Kayakers, made the 11 pm tunnel to get out of Whittier (you have to drive through a time regulated one way tunnel to get there) and pulled off the road in Portage Valley to pitch a tent for the night.

The next day we headed down to Ken's Alaska Tackle to pick up brand spankin' new fishing rods and a one day license for Brady... it was time for a try at fishing for red salmon on the famed Russian River. Thanks to great directions from my roomate James we were able to find the most upstream fishing boundary along the river just below the Russian River Falls. The hike in was about 2 miles over easy and gravelled trail. When we reached the viewing platform at the falls you could see a salmon attempting to jump up stream about every minute or so... in the Alaska vernacular this means that "the fish were slamin'!" They were so thick that at spots you couldn't see the river bottom. Each of us must have had about 20 or so fish on the line and we nearly limited out by landing five red salmon in about four hours. It was just what you dream about... fishing with a good friend, hard running, hard fighting salmon, great weather along a near pristine river running down a mountain rimmed valley, only a couple fo other folks around, and actually catching fish!

Then we realized that in our effort to go "country" i.e. bare bones on this excursion we forgot to bring along something to carry the fish in on the hike back to the car. Our solution... parachute chord and my fleece made for a nice gunny sack. Let's just say that our hike back went pretty quick with our effort motivated by carrying freshly gutted, smelly fish through bear country! Fish tails sticking out and all we made for quite a site and were stopped by some tourists dressed in matching black denim and new white sneakers so they could get photos of these "true Alaskan fishermen and their catch". Ha!

After we got back to the car we had to get ice to keep the fish, dash back to Anchorage, look up how to fillet salmon on the web, actually attempt this process, double bag the fillets, and get Brady to the airport to catch his flight to Portland. He wasn't headed home just yet and was able to grill out six fillets with friends on a rafting trip down the Deschuttes River the next day. Whew!

Thanks to B-man for being a great travelling partner and patient fishing-sensai. Laters.