Travel Blog

I’m playing hooky from work today, because I have the cold – or whatever it is – that has been making the rounds up here. Sue forbids me from going into work today, saying I would just spread it around to everyone else. So I guess this is a good chance to catch up on our blog.

This past weekend we went on a local’s excursion to Glacier Point. We did a similar trip back in ’07, so I won’t bore you with too many glacier pictures. The biggest difference between the trips was this year it was sunny. Even the seals had a chance to work on their tans.

But all this good weather is taking a toll. It has been so dry that forest fires are springing up. There is one going on north of Whitehorse, YT that has had us covered in smoke the past week. Even as far south as Haines you can see the smog the smoke has created.

The boat ride down to Glacier Point was amazing we saw four humpbacks and two porpoises along with the seals and eagles. When we got to the point this fellow was there to greet us.

After we disembarked we hopped in the all terrain safari vehicles (translation converted school busses) and went up into the woods to get outfitted for the canoe ride. For those of you who haven’t read about our last trip here, the canoes take you up to the foot of Davidson Glacier. This year we were traveling with our friends Nick and Liz, and Jay and Katrina, with Benji our guide.

And Jerry and Jeanie with Pat in the front of the boat.

Like any glacier, Davidson is still growing and part of that is calving off pieces of ice. They are all around you in the water, but this year we saw a huge piece that had come off in June.

In salt water this would be called an iceberg, but in fresh water it is a growler.

Unlike our last trip we did not get a chance to get out and walk around the glacier, but it was fun to paddle around the lagoon in front of it.

On the way back to Skagway, we had the rare opportunity to stop and watch a pod of orcas feeding on a salmon run.

There were at least five whales in the pod. The Captain said this was a mother teaching the youngster how to feed.

The rest of the trip back was spent up on deck watching the humpbacks that were still out playing in the water. We did not get to see any breaching, like Sue was hoping for, but we did have one wave goodbye to us at the end of our trip.