We spent the first day back in Valdez, doing laundry and visiting the fish hatchery with Lian. The fish were coming in and the well fed sea lions were taking part of the easy pickings. It was easy to see how they could become so large. There were salmon being eaten constantly.
Later in the summer, the bears also take advantage of the fish hatchery. We were too early to see them, but the sea lions were quite entertaining.
It was back to the campground for another peaceful night of sleep. The rain began to fall and we were glad to be sleeping in the car. Next morning we were up at 5 and heading to Safeway where we purchased some food to supplement our rations. A covered pavilion in a park became our staging area. Our friend Ben came to say Hi and see how things were going.
We made lunch repacked our bags and headed back to the launch site. The tide was flooding so we didn’t have far to carry our gear. Last time we headed out of Valdez we had paddled against a strong headwind with clear blue skies. Today was the opposite. We had overcast skies and no wind. There was also low visibility. We had the radios on and stayed quite close to the shore. The fog finally lifted by the time we rounded the point and headed into Shoup Bay.
The tide was flooding into the bay so we decided to check it out. There were several forest service cabins here and also several kayaking groups. It is pretty close to Valdez so it is a popular trip from there.
We didn’t paddle to the toe of the glacier as there is a narrow channel which has a flow depending on the tide. The tide had a little time before it changed and we didn’t want to get stuck.
There are so many water falls on this stretch, sending cascades of water to the ocean.
We were again reminded that Valdez is an oil community as several large tankers make their way in and out of the terminal.
Since the oil spill they are a lot more cautious. Hopefully there will never be another wreck like the Exon Valdez.
Our destination for the day is Potato Point. We pass thru the narrows where we are entertained by sea lions and a whale. When the sea lions surface near your boat, there is always an adrenaline rush. They come up for air and let our a huge breath. Somewhat curious and somewhat territorial I always like to stay out of their way.
Potato Point has a great beach for camping. Our tides are 14 feet tonight so we need to have a high camp tonight.
Pretty scenic view.
There were a couple of fun birds that shared our site today.
An oyster catcher
And a varied thrush
We took a walk today and found some salmon berries, we hope that that is a sign we will be finding more.
It was a pretty quiet night and even thought the tide came up 14 feet, we had no need to check to make sure we were not going to get wet. There were boats moving out of the narrows so we figured that there must be an opener tomorrow.
It was nothing like the number of boats that were fishing last time we came thru.
There definitely wasn’t the rush of getting nets in and out of the water. like the opener the first day. We were easily able to paddle along the shore with out interfering with the nets.
Out destination today is the mouth of Columbia Bay. Our goal for this trip is to check out the receding Columbia Glacier. We camp tonight at a well used campsite. Glad that no one was here when we arrived. We really haven’t seen any kayakers except for the first day.
Our camp tonight is tucked into the trees. It is another high tide so we secure our boats well.
We had arrived close to high tide and are leaving closer to low tide. Packing and carrying gear has not made this a fun morning. Today we should be paddling with the ice bergs. It is always fun to see what shapes are created by the melting ice.
We headed toward Heather Island. It wasn’t long ago that the Columbia reached all the way to the mouth of the Bay. In fact the ferry could see it from their passage to Whittier, not any more!
It didn’t take us long to catch sight of the bergs.
Gotta remember that we are only seeing about one third of the ice berg two thirds are below the water. We keep our distance. Some of the bergs have sea otters and seals on them. This is quite the beautiful day of paddling.
We found the most scenic camp of the trip tonight. I wouldn’t be surprised if we were the first to camp here.
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Since pictures are worth a lot of words the next set of photos is from our camp site!
This was a five star site! Tomorrow we head toward the glacier!
The morning was overcast when we first woke up. We knew that the Columbia can create its own weather and it is often cloudy. We decided to have a leisurely morning and pack up our boats. As the morning progressed the clouds lifted. We are in for a gorgeous day! Once again the photos say it all.
It was noticeable colder by the glacier. we paddled around by the ice and then headed out toward the mouth of the bay. The wind coming off of the glacier even gave us an opportunity to umbrella sail. We had dressed for cold weather today, it was great for being near the glacier, but by the time we got away from it we became so hot!
We stopped at a site to camp. before overheating.
Tomorrow we plan to paddle around glacier island and then turn our boats back toward Valdez. The camp site which we had chosen had so many snot(slippery rocks) that we decided to wait for awhile till the tide started coming in. We had a leisurely breakfast and even listened to a podcast before we cautiously started carrying our gear to the water. This was definitely the worst launching that we experienced on the trip.. Finally we loaded our kayaks and crossed over to Glacier island.
The north shore of glacier island provides good protection from the main part of the sound. We were going to circle the island so we would have quite a bit pf exposure on the south side. Don had done this paddle before and when the wind came up it was time to seek shelter. As we rounded the western side of the island we encountered many large male sea lions. They didn’t seem to be too happy that we were encroaching on their space. Don and I were not paddling real close together and when they started coming up between us we realized it was time to paddle closer. Several of the sea lions followed us for a ways. They seemed to be young very curious and quite a bit smaller females and younger males. We found a site in the back of the bay.
Nice hiking right behind our camp. We hadn’t done much walking so this was a nice change of pace.
We weren’t the only ones that were hanging out here, Most likely a black bear.
When we returned to camp a group of young sea lions were checking out our camp. I started doing some stretches and they became quite animated, swimming back and forth and stretching their necks out of the water as they checked me out.
it was an entertaining evening!
A flower garden
Next morning we headed out and intentionally stayed quite close together. We passed several large rookeries with many sea lions. Most of the groups ignored us but the males let us know we weren’t welcome. The weather remained calm which allowed us to make good time around the island and away from the lions. I would have liked to take some photos but paddling seemed to be a better option. By the time we got to where we were going to cross from the island to the mainland the fog lowered and we couldn’t see where we needed to go. Out came the compass and a bearing was taken. By the time we were half way across it lifted and we were able to go the rest of the way aiming for a point. We camped by a beautiful water fall tonight and the beach made for good walking.
Not the greatest beach to load, but we made it work.
We will be going thru the Valdez narrows today. The wind generally picks up as it gets channeled here. The morning started out so calm that we just took in all the views.
We plan to paddle to a campsite relatively close to Valdez tonight.
True to form though as we entered the narrows the water went from flat calm to a 15 knot wind rather quickly. It was a tail wind which pushes you along but also causes a surfing condition. We paddled safety and cautiously until we approached the point going into Shoup Bay. Our thought was to take a break here and see if the wind would decrease in the late afternoon. We did some reading and a little exploring. Then just as we expected the wind died and the seas became a lot calmer. We headed to a beach that we had picked salmon berries on the way out. It was a berry pickers’s dream. We filled several containers and will have them on our cereal in the morning.
Morning arrives and we head back to Valdez. We arrive at the kayak launch spot and give Ben a call.
It has been a great trip exploring new territory in the Sound.
And we are still smiling!