Nelsea Adventures: June 2013

June 26 – June 30 Tracy Arm, Juneau, Endicott Arm

We spent the night of June 26^th in No Name Cove of Tracy Arm. The weather was raining and low overcast so we decided it made more sense to go up Tracy Arm in Miner’s Debt tomorrow instead of the dinghy’s. We left about 7:30 am on Tom’s boat with Tom, Jason, Elise, John, Steve and I and left the Nelsea at Anchor in Tracy Arm Cove – It is hard to again describe the magical trip up Tracy Arm. It was about 20 miles up to the North and South Sawyer Glaciers. Tracy Arm is a beautiful Fiord with deep water surrounded by vertical granite walls of up to 5000 feet and many waterfalls. The waters and views were amazing and we were able to drive the big boat to within about ½ mile of the South Glacier before it was clogged with icebergs covered with seals and seal pups. We were treated to an incredible show from the Glacier – we saw some major calving with chunks of the glacier dropping into the water below and a large splash and wave created from the calving. You can hear the glacier cracking and creaking and I managed to get about a 7:00 minute video that is amazing.

We headed back to the Cove to get the Nelsea and said goodbye to Tom and Jason. They are staying at Tracy Arm to meet back up with the Roche Armada. We needed to head on to Juneau as John and Elise fly out on June 28^th. We spent the night at the Aurora marina in Juneau and walked into town for dinner at a place called the Hangar on Juneau waterfront – great fish and chips! John and Elise left for the airport and Steve and I decided to hit Costco in Juneau for a little restocking before we head south. We purchased a new Nikon Camera as we saw the pictures others were getting with their zoom lenses and better cameras and we figure it is a good time for us to learn how to use it - Steve and I will be heading south soon on our own so plenty of opportunity to use the new camera. The others in the Roche Armada have another month until early August – they are going on to Glacier Bay, Sitka and then the bear viewing area at Anan before they head back to Seattle in Early September. After saying goodbye to the Lindseth’s and stocking up we headed out of Juneau and found Tom and Jason and the rest of the Roche Armada have made their way to Endicott Arm by Tracy Arm – we decided that we can join them for another night or two before they head to Juneau and we head south – another opportunity for another goodbye party! We are so glad to have made that decision. We had glacier ice margaritas on Friday night and a dance on the top deck of Reflections, took the dinghy’s up Endicott Arm to the Dawes Glacier and Ford’s Terror on Saturday followed by King Salmon dinner on Reflections and our final final goodbye this morning – Sunday June 30^th.

Ford’s terror was amazing –High Granite mountains with snow bowls and hanging glaciers, vertical cliffs and spectacular waterfalls. I have many pictures to post that will show the beauty of the place- the new camera is amazing! The reason it is called Ford’s Terror is that the entrance is very narrow and the rapids are huge- only about a few hundred yards of rapids but what a ride. You can only take the big boats up at High slack tide as the water runs too fast but in the dinghy’s we went up about 1 ½ hours before the slack and found a ride that was like a class 3 rapids – at times it seems that our dinghy was going backwards in the rapids! The scenery was well worth the white knuckles! The ride out was with the tide so it was totally different. After the beauty of Ford’s Terror we continued on to the Dawes Glacier which gave us a different view of a glacier –Unlike the trip up Tracy Arm to the Sawyer glacier, there was virtually no ice in the water in front of the Dawes Glacier so we were able to go as close to the glacier as we felt safe. The walls of the glacier tower above us and we could hear large thunderous cracks coming from the glacier which was scary. We got very close but were ready to quickly retreat if any calving started happening. Unlike Sawyer glacier, we saw very little calving which explains why there path was clear right up to where the glacier enters the bay but you could tell the ice of Dawes glacier was thicker – much more blue and solid ice looking than Sawyer. It is amazing to think about how old the ice touching the water is and we have many pictures. Then it was back to the boats as Tom and Jason had to leave for Juneau – Jason fly’s out on Sunday June 30^th and Tom will wait in Juneau for Chris to fly back in and spend the 4^th of July with the group in Juneau. Chris went home to get her grandkid fix while Jason joined his dad on the boat for a week!

Steve and I said goodbye to the group this morning (we are pretty sure this really is the last time!) as we are headed south to Petersburg and they are headed North to Juneau! It is another spectacular weather day in Alaska and we are a bit sad as we have had such an amazing time with everyone and we hate to see it come to an end! More pictures and posts to come later!