Gliding on Glaciers... A Life Experience!!!

June 24 - Haines

We made it!!! A smooth landing.

On our second day in Haines, when Roland suggested we book a private plane tour of the glaciers, I thought how cool. When he told me the plane also could land on the glaciers, my heartbeat doubled!  

Adding to my trepidation, the day we were scheduled to fly, Haines was experiencing a record heat wave –80 degrees and sunny. After standing for thousands of years, common sense says one day of heat won’t destabilize a glacier ... but then common sense doesn’t always prevail when you are gliding next to ice covered mountain peaks thousands of feet high ... looking for a spot to land.

 Awe-inspiring beauty quickly conquered fear ... along with our competent pilot Drake, who confessed he used to race Formula One cars before moving to Alaska.

Roland and Drake on Davidson Glacier.

Alaska has 100,000 glaciers (only 600 are named) and 30,000 square miles of glacier ice, about 5% of the entire state. Viewing glaciers by air provides an incomparable perspective of their size, and we gained a new appreciation for the miles of ice that you never see from water level on Engelenbak.

Similarly, landing on a glacier provides an all-together different view. You can’t get more up close and personal!

Since the entire surface is white, there is no real sense of depth and you can’t tell you’re landing until the moment you hit the snow. You’ll see in our photos, the plane literally is on skis when it lands. Pilot Drake decided to put us down on Davidson Glacier. As we landed, I couldn’t help wondering how he would keep the plane from skiing over the cliff that seemed dangerously close in front of us. But as soon as we hit the ground he put on the brakes and glided the plane in a curve to the left before skidding to a stop. Whew!!!

It was overwhelming to climb out of the plane and experience the absolute dead silence surrounding us on that glacier. I don’t believe I’ve ever experienced such an unspoiled, pristine environment. Just Roland, Drake, the plane and me, in a vista of snow, ice and granite covered peaks stretching for miles ... truly God’s beauty.

Roland and Pilot Drake behind the controls.

Taking off was another adrenaline rush. Once in the air heading west, our pilot had the perfect Van Morrison song piping through our headphones as we crossed over the east arm of Glacier Bay. Looking down above massive ribbons of glaciers snaking around mountains down into Caribbean blue-colored waters, we felt truly blessed. 

Overlooking Riggs Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park.

If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name.

June 22 - Haines

Three years ago when we were cruising Alaska, we did not have the chance to visit Haines with our boat. Nonetheless, we feel like we know Haines and its colorful residents intimately as a result of a book we picked up in Petersburg entitled If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name.

It was written by Heather Lende, one of Haines many authors. She also is the obituary writer for the Haines Chilkat Valley News, an NPR commentator, a contributor to the Christian Science Monitor, and a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News.

She has an amazing talent for giving you an upfront and personal glimpse of small town Alaska ... connecting life, death, neighbors and God in her narratives about this remote community that is bound together not just by the harshness of mother nature but the quirky personalities of the people who choose to live such a life.

Heather (we’re on a first name basis because I feel like we’ve been friends for years after reading her book) came to Alaska from the New York/New England area as a newlywed with her husband Chip and together they decided to make it their home.

In planning our trip this year, we decided to put Haines on our agenda, largely because of her book. And we were not disappointed. We met many of the personalities she’d written about, including Pizza Joe, our assistant harbor master, who greeted us at the harbor office right after we tied up the boat. He was quick to inform us that Heather is not the only author in town, and sold us his book.

And as luck would have it, our first night in town we had dinner in the Commander’s Room at the Hotel Halsingland, overlooking the parade oval of Fort William Seward where a wedding was taking place. Our waiter encouraged us to head down to the wedding reception after dinner and explained it was common in Haines that weddings are pretty much an open house. In a town with 2,300 residents, I guess that’s a nice tradition ... unless everyone shows up!

Crashing Heather's daughter's wedding ... in the parade oval of Fort William Seward.

In any event, much to Roland’s chagrin, I decided to crash the wedding. OK, not really. But I did walk into the area where the reception was taking place in hopes of seeing Heather. Instead, I saw the bride, her eldest daughter Eliza, walking around in a long white wedding dress with a bright green sweater over her shoulders ... surrounded by friends and beaming.

Lynn Canal: Connecting Disneyland North and South

June 21 (Summer Solstice)

Some of the boaters we’ve run into here in Alaska refer to Juneau as Disneyland South, and Skagway, at the tip of Lynn Canal, as Disneyland North, due to the influx of cruise ship passengers flowing into both towns. So it was only apropos that as we left Juneau to head up the Lynn Canal we should see Donald Duck swinging off the transom of this Disney cruise ship in the harbor.

We opted to avoid Skagway. Instead, we plan to spend a few days in Haines, which is 90 nautical miles north of Juneau and 14 miles south of Skagway ... on the Lynn Canal.

The Lynn Canal is 75 miles in length, making it North America’s longest fjord. Not only is it long, it’s narrow, so depending on the wind direction, the water can very quickly turn nasty with 4-6 foot waves. 

The good weather gods continued to follow us with beautiful clear weather, little wind, and spectacular views of the Mendenthal Glacier to starboard and Glacier Bay National Park to port.

We split the trip up, cruising 57 miles in slightly more than 7 hours the first day, which for us is good time thanks to a nice push from the tide. We anchored in William Henry Bay, and enjoyed a beautiful evening where the sun seemed to never set on a Summer Solstice evening.

The next morning we continued another 34 miles up the canal, but choppy waters and low hanging clouds dramatically cut back our view. We did enjoy a few whales along the way, and arrived in Haines, a cute little town wrapped around Portage Cove on the Chilkoot Inlet, before 1 p.m.

Getting Closer to Jesus in Juneau

June 19-20

For all intents and purposes, Juneau is not much more than a tourist town that caters to the cruise ship industry ... and just to keep the politicians entertained, also serves as the capitol of Alaska.

 But if you peel back the layers, there are a few hidden treasures in town. One of them is Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church – an historic landmark built by Tlingits in 1893, which Lora and I visited during a walking tour into town to stretch our legs. The Tlingits were introduced to religion by an Orthodox bishop when the Russians were still in control of Sitka, and Saint Nicholas is Alaska’s oldest continually operating church.

Inside we met a serene and soft-spoken monk from Eastern Pennsylvania who was working at the church for the summer, telling visitors about its history.

Designed under an octagonal dome, the interior is beautifully appointed, featuring 18^th-centry Russian religious relics and paintings. The elaborately detailed icons seem in stark contrast with the rough, harsh wilderness that must have surrounded this structure 120 years ago.

Next door to the church is a small gift shop were Lora and I met the shop tender, also named Laura, who passionately told us more about the history of Orthodox religion in Alaska. Today Tlingits continue to make up the majority of the Orthodox congregation, and they alternate services between English and Tlingit languages.

It was a rude awakening when we later walked back into town and peeked into a few souvenir shops before meeting Roland and Scott at Juneau’s most famous tourist watering hole ... the red Dog Saloon, a colorful bar fashioned more like a saloon from the Wild West.  

The next day, following lunch at a colorful local establishment called The Sandbar, we took Lora and Scott to the Juneau airport and sadly bid farewell. We had a lot of fun together and really hated to loose such wonderful crew members ... just after we had them trained ;-)

Taku Harbor’s Magical Swing

June 17-18

Taku Harbor is a delightful anchorage off Stephens Passage, 19 miles southeast of Juneau.

We spent the first night at anchor in the harbor, and Roland and Scott journeyed out in the tender to drop crab traps.

The next morning they pulled the traps and we had three crabs. One female (all female crabs must be returned to the water, so back it went) one male too small to keep, but alas! One legal male crab!!!

That afternoon we moved the boat to the public float on the northeast end of the bay and used the opportunity to stretch our legs, walking along a beautiful trail through the forest and greenery lining the shoreline.

We discovered a hidden gem back behind the trees half way down the shore ... a broad wooden swing tied to lines running at least 40 feet up suspended between two trees. It was a magical ride ... a feeling of free-flow weightlessness swinging back and forth in smooth long sweeps under a canopy of green ... with an occasional chirp from an eagle sitting high atop in the tree above.

It also was a great day to kick back, read and catch up on naps. The highlight for all may have been our afternoon treat of Dungeness crab dipped in melted butter.