Alaska 2021 - July 7 - July 14

 Alaska 2021 – July 7 – July 14

We left Pelican this morning for Elfin Cove.  The weather was cold, wet and foggy but it is still a spectacular area.  We anchored in the back bay where Eagle Charters has their lodge. One of their boats had a great catch of Halibut as you can see from the picture. Elfin Cove is another boardwalk community and we walked over to the outer bay and took the last two pictures of  looking at Glacier Bay across the water – we are really hoping the visibility clears up for our time in Glacier Bay – we have reservations from the 9 – 14^th.  

Steve picked up Pete and Linda in Gustavus in the Grady on the 8th. We headed into Glacier Bay the morning of the 9^th and went to Bartlett Cove to pick up books, maps and look around the area. There is a lodge at Bartlett Cove and museum that we were able to look around. The weather is actually nice and we had drinks on the back deck of Nelsea once we anchored in Southwest Finger Arm for the night. The other 2 boats joined us on the 10^th as they were not able to come in until then. Glacier Bay only allows 25 private boats per day – 10 with advanced 60 day reservations and 15 with last minute 48 hour reservations so we were only able to get Nelsea in on the 9^th.

Southwest Finger in Glacier Bay where we anchored for July 9^th.

We woke up on the 10^th and the weather was overcast but not raining.  We met up with the other boats and moved to Blue Mouse Cove to spend the night. On the way up we saw the first of the big glaciers from a distance – The Casement Glacier

On the 11^th we woke up to overcast skies again but it is not raining. We spent 8 hours traveling around in the big boats to see various glaciers.  It is huge here with so much to look at and see – I just wish the visibility were better but it is amazing. We went to Reid Inlet and saw the Reid Glacier. We continued on to Lamplugh which is another Tidal Glacier.  We were able to go in the John Hopkins Inlet so we saw the hanging glaciers of Topeka, Toyatte, Gilman, Hoonah and Kashoto and at the head of the Inlet we saw the John Hopkins Glacier and the Gilman Glacier which are both tidal glaciers that meet at the head of the bay. We continued on to Tarr Inlet where we saw Margerie which was my favorite glacier today. It had lots of calving and also is one of the glaciers in the park that is growing. At the head of Tarr Inlet is the Grand Pacific Glacier which is in Canada and is impossible to tell is a glacier – it is all rock and debris covering the end in the bay. As you can imagine I took so many pictures it is hard to show but I did manage to get pictures of one of the Glaciers calving that I have included.

We spent the night at Russell Island in the rain – it started to rain about 5:00 just as we were anchoring and it continued to rain until about 1:00 on the 12^th. We headed for a boat tour thru Tidal Inlet and got a whale show at the entrance - the Whale was feeding so we got a good picture of its mouth!

We spent the night of the 12^th in Wachusett  Inlet and took the Grady over to see the McBride Glacier – a beautiful tidal glacier. While there were bergs in the water on the drive up the front of the glacier was very clear and we were able to go up close.

 

On the 13^th we woke up to go to see the head of the Wachusett Bay and the Carroll Glacier.  We hit a wall of mud about 1 ½ miles from the Glacier and could go no farther – an amazing sight to see.  

On the way back to the boats we saw a bear on the shore that appeared to be watching to see if he could see any Salmon!

More pictures of our trip up Waschusetts.

We spent our last night in Glacier Bay at Beartrack Cove then on the 14^th (Steve’s and my 37^th Wedding anniversary) we headed out of Glacier Bay for Harry Island on Chichagof Island.

Alaska 2021 - July 5 - 7

 Alaska 2021 – July 5 – July 7

We arrived to the west arm of Mirror Cove – another very rocky entrance as you can see from our Garmin tracking but it is a beautiful spot. 

We went on a tour of the area including a walk ashore to look at the old nickel mine in the pictures below.

Next on the tour was the 1 mile walk to White Sulfur Hot Springs.  We went in 2016 but from the water side by dinghy since we were anchored North in Porcupine Bay.  This time we took the trailhead from West Bay of Mirror Cove. We saw a lot of evidence of bear also using the trail! There is an indoor pool  and two outdoor hotsprings that are right on the ocean. There is also a forest service cabin with a big wood pile that can be rented at Rec.gov for a small fee each night. It is a spectacular setup!

We left on July 6 headed for Pelican which is about 35 miles away.  It involved another ocean crossing of a few miles but today was a spectacular day on the ocean. The fishing fleet is out in force on the 30 fathom line – about 12 trollers. Unfortunately we have to keep moving towards Glacier Bay as we have a reservation to enter on July 9 and we pick up Linda and Pete Jung on July 8 in Gustavus so we have to keep moving.

We found room at the dock in Pelican so we tied up for the night. The moorage was $50 and the power was $29.80 but unfortunately the power was not working so my plan to catch up on laundry was not possible here.  Pelican is a town with 60 residents (not full time) but I was  able to attend the monthly RHYC Zoom board meeting by using the internet that is available at the Pelican Library. That is one of the most difficult parts of travel in Alaska – No regular internet or phone service is available unless you are in the bigger cities and it is not very good there either. At least we were able to get caught up on news from home at the Library!

 

Its July 7^th today – Happy Birthday to our son Josh! We will be leaving for Elfin Cove today getting closer for our trip thru Glacier Bay starting on the 9^th.