Seward - kayaking, hiking & fishing

Hello again,

We have now been in Alaska 2 weeks.  It has rained everyday, except 1.  The good news is that we have the right gear for the weather!  Thank God for that!

We made our way from Valdez to Seward via ferry.  We had to be in line for the ferry at 5:30 am.  This was not great.  The ferry ride was almost 6 hours.  That was just boring.  I had hoped to see whales or something .... anything really ... but nope - just fog, clouds and rain.  We were safe and dry inside so it was not the worst thing ever.  It saved us a 7 hour drive.

The port where we disembarked was Whittier.  This is an interesting town.  Because of an earthquake in 1964, all 250 residents of Whittier live in this ONE building.  Can you imagine?!?!

Apparently there is a tunnel to the school building.  I'm here to tell you there is not much to see here (also, as you probably guessed, it was raining).

At the beginning of WW2 there was a need for the army to transport stuff to Whittier.  So, they built a tunnel.  The tunnel was originally for rail.  Now, it is rail plus a one-way-at-a-time tunnel for cars/trucks.  It goes one direction for 1/2 hour, then flips to the other direction.  It is not very long - under 3 miles.

So, after all that we arrived in Seward at about 3pm and checked into our place.

Next up on the agenda was a kayaking trip.  It was supposed to be a full-day trip to the Aialik Glacier but that got canceled.  We were fortunate to get on a 1/2 day trip to Bear Glacier Lagoon.  Here you can see the map - this is one of the only places in the world where the calving ice is "stuck" in a lagoon.

It was super neat to kayak around the icebergs.  We were a small group of 6 + the guide.

It is hard to tell in person, even harder to tell in these pictures - some of these icebergs are huge. 50 feet tall!

We had such a good time.  It rained a bit (surprising no one) but we were bundled up in our gear plus dry-suits from the outfitter.  The most challenging thing about some of the excursions is bladder control for the length of the trip. LOL

A harbor seal -

From my perspective this looked like a martini glass -

The icebergs appear blue because the ice is so compacted only the blue rays in the spectrum are seen.

On our way back, as we were picking our way through the ice we ended up in a bit of a traffic jam.  Felt like home!

That was a very good day!

Yesterday (Thursday) we went on a hike - Tonsina Point.  This is the beach on Resurrection Bay.  Named because some dude was able to find shelter on Easter to avoid some bad outcomes.... wikipedia can tell you more ...

The trail was through a rain forest.  Not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Alaska - until you have been here 2 weeks - in the rain!

The moss grows everywhere!

So many little babbling brooks...

Tonsina point.

This was a nice hike.  On the way back down to town we saw this bald eagle about 30 feet off the road.

It is so cool to see the eagles here!

Ok - today was for fishing!  We had a halibut/salmon full-day fishing tour.  It was super fun!  Carsten caught the 2 fish limit on Halibut (one under 30 inches, one over), and a King Salmon (which we could not keep b/c we did not have the extra "King" stamp).  I also caught the limit on Halibut and the limit (4) on Rockfish, a King Salmon (also thrown back) and a little shark (thrown back).  We are shipping the Rockfish and Halibut home.  It was a long day but super fun!

 

Some pics...

The King Salmon I had to throw back... :(

Carsten's King.... thrown back...

Carsten's halibut.

The haul for the day (entire boat). Everyone got their 2 Halibut... plus lots of Rockfish, etc.

Now we are tired but happy and, having showered, no longer smelling of fish.  LOL

Tomorrow we move to Homer for the last few days of our trip.

Take Care,

Sheri & Carsten