Rosie and The Operator are boating to Tracy Arm Fjord to view the mighty ice face of the South Sawyer Glacier up close and personal from the water. Our day trip is on the small converted Fishing Boat The Adventure Bound. We leave from Juneau where we travel up the Gastineau Channel out to Tracy Arm hopefully seeing whales, dolphins, ice burgs and some amazing scenery before we hit the Glacier, which will be the icing on the cake, especially as we will be able to see ice face calve.
It was going to be a big day, with the duration of the journey being a nine hour round trip. It was an early start and it was foggy, Rosie could hardly see the bank on the other side of the channel…bummer. The fog will lift and burn off said the Operator as soon as the sun rises above the mountains that surround Juneau.
We walked down to the pier where our boat was docked and were greeted by Mindy and John who were the deck hands and sandwich makers on the trip. The Adventure Bound was an old fishing boat that had been converted to do daily tours to Tracy Arm over the summer months and had done so for the last 35 years. She was a stout wee vessel, nothing fancy, no frills and totally up for the job. The inside cabins were lined with chairs to give you a nice wind free comfy environment and there was a wee bar that served sandwiches, snacks and hot and cold drinks throughout the journey.
Rosie and The Operator were first aboard and we carefully selected a seat at the back where the movement of the boat was less, on advice from Mindy. Rosie liked the idea of being in the back row so she could get out of the seat and get out onto the deck to see the sights quickly and easily.
The boat was pretty full, with approx 30 people on board and Captain Steve pulled out of Juneau harbor 15 mins early! A brief safety talk ensued but other than where the life jackets were stored we could get up and move around the boat inside and outside as much as we liked, when we liked…just watch your footing.
The early morning was still foggy but the day was still and there was barely a ripple, like always on the Channel. We motored past the Alaskan Seafood Smokeries housed on the docks and it was heartening to sea fish being offloaded to be smoked for the day on site. The town receded and we seemed to be going at a fair clip although The Operator felt it was only about 20 km an hour.
Our destination goal is to the face of the South Sawyer Glacier which was 80km south of Juneau and Rosie thought she would just settle in and enjoy the ride from the cabin…but it was so exhilarating outside on the deck! With her feet planted, rocking to the slight changes of direction in the frigid, damp morning breeze, drinking in the magnificent atmosphere and foggy scenery that was wrapped all around us was invigorating. Rosie and The Operator and a couple of hardy others stood in silence and just drank it in, being the only ones on the mainly deserted back deck.
Spruce and hemlock trees, line the channels vertical mountain and stretch back for as far as the eyes can see. Mist tendrils wove through the dark green landscape and the sea was iron grey like the clouds overhead.
Check out the size of this wilderness that was wrapping around us as we ploughed up the middle of the channel. The houses on the banks looked so small and inconsequential in comparison, nature rules and is mighty in this part of the world.
Within 15 minutes of leaving Juneau a cry went up that there were whale spouts ahead from the vigilant folks sitting in the cabin with their binoculars. Captain Steve was already all over it and was heading towards to the five pods of humpbacks. Each pod consisted of three whales and were about two hundred meters apart from each other. The whales were languidly and sinuously rising and falling in the water exposing their humpy backs. On each rise they would spout a stream of water into the air and you could actually see these spouts a long way out. Having never seen a whale before, let alone its spout, Rosie was very excited as we motored towards them.
Everyone was out of their seats and there was enough hand rail for everyone to position themselves on to catch the elusive tail flick just before these magnificent animals did a deep dive. Rosie groaned, it was fun trying to anticipate the whale tale, but her iphone was not up to the job….The Operator on the other hand did a nice job of capturing abit of video.
The forest around us just stretched on and on and these super tall and straight trees seem to grow on the shallowest of surfaces and were glowing a brilliant green as the morning sun came out and chased away the fog.
The solitude and enormity of this part of the world was truly amazing. Most of the coastline was rocky edge of land to the water, some areas had grassy banks, like wee grassy beaches that lead to the waters edge. Thin rivers flowed from the hills and exited into the channel via a small stony outlet. Everyone’s eyes were peeled on these areas of bank as these were prime locations to spot Black bear and the more prized the Brown/Grizzly Bears which live in these woods.
Before we could spot a bear, we came across our first iceberg! This is new for Rosie too, what a sight! The berg was as big as a school bus floating in the calm water shaped very much like a sitting bull, observed the Operator, with at least a couple of dozen seabirds perched atop the luminous blue icicle.
It was glistening with melt and it looked so beautiful in the morning light as Captain Steve did a loop around it for photos. This solitary burg was there all on its own in the channel and Captain Steve said it was from the glacier which was still another 40km away! Wow, it had drifted a long way…plus its melting on the way…it would have originally been a huge piece of ice. Remember said Captain Steve, 80% of its actual size is below the water, hence why Captain Steve kept a respectful distance from the burg, Rosie sure wasn’t interested in a Titanic encounter.
Why is glacier ice so blue one of the people asked Captain Steve? Apparently blue ice forms when ordinary snow falls on a glacier and is compressed by the weight of more and more snow until it melds and becomes part of the glacier. The air bubbles in the snowy ice are squeezed out and the ice crystals enlarge which makes the ice appear blue. And wow, does it look so beautifully, mysteriously blue, shining through from its core in the light of the day.
We saw more and more icebergs as we got closer to our destination. Each mysteriously different from the next, each with their own ethereal shapes, each with their own internal mysterious luminosity, some glowing brighter than others. Rosie couldn’t get enough of them.
Seabirds are abundant as was a pair of eagles Captain Steve spotted wheeling high overhead and bought to our attention. A couple of dolphins frolicked past us super quick and more whales were lazily spouting in the distance.
This beautiful waterfall came into view in the far distance and in no time we were positioned right next to it for some beautiful pics.
We approached Tracy Arm, a deep narrow fjord with towering scrubby rock on both sides of the channel. The forest has all but disappeared and solid scarred rock reached to the sky above us. This channel and its towering bedrock sides was once full of ancient glacier before it stopped moving forward and started retreating. You can still see the scars on the surface of this granite like surface from the grinding, moving living glacier as it surged forward, stopped and then retreated.
You can also see the tiny white specs of crazy mountain goats high up on the hillside, appearing to be standing on nothing but the thinnest of ledges. This is Rosie camera on full zoom!
We still had half an hour to get to the face of the glacier and Rosie was cold and stiff from her outside vigil and the constant bite of the wind on the deck. The closer we got to the glacier the colder the air temperature was becoming and Rosie retreated inside at Johns suggestion for a coffee and a freshly made sandwich manufactured by Mandy. It was delicious and warming and just what the doctor ordered (well John actually) having a wee defrost in the cabin.
We are so lucky as the cruise ships come this way as the fjord is too narrow for them to enter, plus it is shaped like an elbow (hence the name). Tracey Arm itself, extends for 60km with one fifth of it covered in ice…and this is why, the South Sawyer Glacier sits blocking the fjord.
Rounding the corner of the elbow in Tracey Arm, there she was, the South Sawyer Glacier in a big ta da revealing moment, stretched out in front of us.
The sea water was starting to turn into an icey sludge and large and small pieces of fallen glacial ice bobbed around on the surface. Seals basked in the shining warm sun which had come out specially, sitting on top of the floating ice and sea birds also sat on the bergs, heads cocked watching us. We were the only ones there, dwarfed by the grandeur of nature in a silence that was almost unnatural when Captain Steve turned off the boat engine.
No wait, there was noise, the Glacier was talking, in a deep sonorous undecipherable ancient language….the Glacier groaned and cracked and pinged in its secret tongue and it was quite incredible.
Rosie and The Operator were just in awe, this is a tidewater glacier and it extends deep underwater adding to that brilliant blue colour from compression through reflection. And blue it was, Rosie has never seen anything like it in real life. Some areas of the internal core were so intensely coloured and deep whilst other areas just shone like the sky on the bluest of blue days.
With the boat still and not moving, the air around us was zero degrees and we could see our breath as we breathed. Everyone’s eyes were just riveted on the glacier, taking in the expanse of it, the crevasses and the spiky icy top. The sides where the glacier met the fjord had a line of dark organic debris to it as it pushed the brush and growth forward during its travels.
As for the seals, they just sat there watching us watching them unperturbed by how close we were. Mandy and John had a large, long pole each and were pushing the small icebergs away from the stationery boat as they drifted near. A couple of times Captain Steve started the boat and re positioned away from some super big bergs which were coming our way.
Behind us the Captain Cook sailed into the bay, another tour boat from Juneau and pretty much the only other boat we have seen on our whole journey here. This boat was bigger and couldn’t get as close as us to the face of the glacier….there was more than enough room for both of us in the fjord but we were lucky enough to have the front seat.
The Captain Cook was doing a fundraising trip today and they had on board a string quartet…the faint strands of classical music could be heard from our boat as it wafted across the channel…a beautiful eerie sound in this cathedral of beauty.
We spent a bit of time parked up floating in front of the glacier as we were waiting for the grand finale to our day…witnessing the glacier calving….or in laymans terms watching a part of the glaciers face collapse and fall into the sea. We all waited and waited, no one was saying a thing, the silence and anticipation was palpable and…nothing happened…for a long time. How often does the glacier calve a passenger asked Captain Steve? Every 5 – 10 minutes said Captain Steve, as deadpan as…Rosie laughed out loud, at Captain Steves response, we had been waiting for 40 mins, the sun was shining on the face of glacier and the surface was shining with melt. You could see the lean on certain areas of ice and the deep cracks where you just know is where they are going to let go…but not today. Mother nature eh, totally fickle.
Instead, John and Mandy netted a couple of small sized pieces of glacier ice onto the boat. It was so heavy and solid to hold. Looking into the 3000 year old piece of glass was breathtaking. It was so clear yet seemed to have subtle spheres of blue luminescence swirling in its depths. Of course Rosie and The Operator licked the block of ice…no, our tongues didn’t stick to it. It tasted cold, salty and minerally….Rosie hopes they didn’t ingest ancient microbes…then again, it might be just what she needs as a life tonic…an ancient restorative.
Still we are waiting for the glacier to calve….Not today…Captain Steve started the engines and slowly started motoring out of the bay. All eyes were still riveted on the beauty of the glacier as we leave when we heard a giant bang like a super loud gunshot and there, as we were leaving a huge sliver of ice slipped down the face of the glacier and plunged into the sea with a rumble, a huge splash and flurry of ice cloud it took with it in its wake.
Wow, what an end to the day! It had just been spectacular. We started motoring into the evening sun that warmed the cabin and Rosie. John made a delicious hot chocolate and then Rosie and The Operator settled into our seats had a wee nap on the three hour trip back to Juneau. What an awesome day and one we will remember for a long time to come.
Tomorrow we are booked on a float plane that is going to take Rosie and The Operator flying over the top of the Juneau icefield out to a lodge on the edge of another glacier where we are going to have a salmon lunch. We cant wait, this is going to be another first for us and promises to be super special.
