I had originally intended to wake up early for the trip up to
Margerie Glacier. My alarm sounded at
5:45, but I was still tired and I shut it off.
I figured it was only about 10 nm to the Glacier, and there were plenty
of anchorages available if I didn’t make it all the way to North Sandy Cove.
When I finally did crawl out of bed around 8:30, I noticed
how much colder it was at the foot of Reid Glacier than anywhere else I’ve been
this trip. Barely 40 degrees, both
inside and out. I quickly turned on the
heater, pulled the anchor, and got underway.
As I was pulling out of Reid Inlet, two 50-60 foot powerboats were
leaving as well. They hadn’t spent the
night, but had come in to take a look at the glacier for a few minutes on their
way to Margerie Glacier.
The weather, like usual, was rainy, with low clouds obscuring
all the peaks around the bay. Visibility
was only a mile or so in places, and I spotted a Holland America cruise ship
passing behind me. I called it on the
radio to see if they’d be heading up Tarr Inlet as well, since I wanted to
ensure I didn’t get run down. They were,
and appreciated the heads up that I’d be in there. The benefit of traveling close to the cruise
ships in ice-infested waters is that they travel slowly and keep a sharp
lookout. That said, my boat is way
smaller than many of the icebergs and I can imagine it’s somewhat hard to
distinguish it from them.
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| The cruise ship with Lamplugh Glacier illustrates just how massive the glaciers are |
I initially headed up Tarr Inlet on the SW side, but ran
into thick, impenetrable ice after just 3.5 nm.
At that point the two other boats caught up to me (they had gone to Lamplugh
glacier first) and we discussed other routes up to the glacier. I let the larger of the boats lead, since he
was operating his boat from a flying bridge 30 feet of the water and I figured
he might be able to see a clearer path through the ice. We got out to mid channel and made a bit more
progress, but the ice closed in again and we were left wondering if we’d even
be able to see the glacier today.
At that point I noticed a fast moving target on radar on the
far NE shore. As it got closer I could see
it was the tour boat that leaves daily from Bartlett Cove, and it was making 20
knots. I figured that the ice must be
pretty clear for him to do that, so I made my way over to that side of the
inlet and found it virtually ice free.
For the next 2.5 nm it was easy cruising, just dodging the
occasional large berg. About 2.5 nm from
the face of the glacier, the ice again started getting thicker. I let the other boats go ahead of me to break
a path through, and followed them for another half mile or so before deciding
the sickening grinding noise of ice on the hull wasn’t worth the closer
look.
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| My view of Margerie Glacier |
The other two boats continued pushing through the ice for
another mile, and I shut down the engine and drifted among the bergs for about
45 minutes. I could see the glacier,
hear it groan, and watch it discharge huge chunks into the water.
As I was getting ready to leave, the Holland America ship
made its way past me, only a quarter mile off my bow. Hundreds of people lined the railings on the
bow, and I noticed a huge number of flashes from cameras pointing in my
direction. I looked through the
binoculars, and sure enough, many were taking pictures of me! I had noticed this phenomenon in Misty Fjords
as well.
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| Passengers lining the bow, taking photos of me! |
While Margerie Glacier is among the largest in the park, and
probably the most visited, it was probably my least favorite of my trip so
far. The weather was lousy, the ice was
thick, and most critically, there were a lot of other boats around. Two other private boats, the massive cruise
ship, a smaller mini-cruise ship (think Lindblad/National Geographic) and the
day trip from Bartlett Cove. At every
other glacier, I’ve had significant time alone, which is pretty special. It really feels like you’re on the edge of
the world, the first person to ever witness the grandeur of the place. The sheer immensity of the glaciers,
icebergs, and fjords beautifully illustrates how insignificant we are in
comparison.
The trip out was
actually pretty easy. About three
nautical miles of weaving through the ice and only a few times where I had to
shift into neutral and drift through thicker bits of ice. I made it out easily, and headed up towards
North Sandy Cove. Notably, the NPS doesn’t
allow camping in the vicinity of North Sandy Cove because of high numbers of
bears. Since I wanted to see bears, this
was perfect.
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| Traveling through ice is challenging and rewarding |
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| Lots of these little guys |
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| Resting on kelp |
I pulled into North Sandy Cove around 7:00, anchored close
to shore where I figured the likelihood of seeing bears was highest, and
paddled around in the Kayak for 45 minutes.
Miraculously, the sun was peeking out, and blue sky was visible
overhead! No bears though, so I went
back to the boat, made dinner, and read for a while. At one point I looked up from my Kindle and
spotted a black bear ambling along the shoreline. I grabbed my camera, hopped in the kayak, and
paddled towards it.
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| Watching me... |
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| Scraping for food |
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| Eating |
As I got closer I could tell he (maybe she?) was foraging
for food. He’d use his paws to flip
rocks over and scrape food off rocks. He
looked up a few times at me, but seemed completely unconcerned with my presence. I got pretty close (staying in water deep
enough that he’d have to swim to get to me), took a ton of pictures, and
marveled at him for about 30 minutes. As
I paddled back to the boat I saw a guy on the boat next to me standing outside
fishing. I went over and told him about
the bear onshore, then paddled back to the boat and continued watching the bear
until I went to bed an hour later.
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| North Sandy Cove is beautiful |
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| Nice light as the sun sets |
51.1 nm today and 1350.1 total
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