Leaving
Haines today for a new adventure in Glacier Bay.
A
sunny morning and the prediction for the entire day is sun (yea)! We were originally supposed to have a free afternoon today, but on recommendation of the Bear Track Lodge manager (this is where we are staying), we are going whale watching this afternoon. Nothing better than whale watching on a sunny day!!
We
head for the airport around 9am and take off in our charter flight to
Gustavas. Hey, there's a great mountain view at the airport!
Oh my what a fabulous flight. We first head out over Haines
and briefly up the Lynn Channel. I can clearly see the glacier's
milky water meeting the salt water of the channel - a clear
demarkation in the water.
The
folks on the right side of the plane see a bear (i.e., a dot on a
beach).
Then
comes the mountain portion flying over the Casement and Davidson
Glaciers. Totally incredible!! I've walked near a glacier, on a
glacier but have never flown low enough to see how beautiful it
really is.
I
can see where glaciers have merged, I can see the sediment pushed up
from a glacier as it receded. I can see the little milky green lakes
left behind by a melted glacier. And waterfalls -- tons of waterfall
- again tumbling down from the ends of the glacier down the
mountains. Totally amazing!!!
After
we pass over the glaciers, we come to wet valleys probably many many
years post-glacier succession. Varying shades of green (grass and
pines) and lots of lakes. I'm looking for moose (as is the pilot) but
no one sees one.
Before
I knew it we were landing. Totally amazing!
We
head to our "home" the Bear Track Lodge (a log cabin building - beautiful), unpack and head
out for some whales watching near Point Adolphus. It nice and warm (60s) outside but very very windy at Bartlett Cove - where we board our boat. (It's within Glacier Bay.)
We
board the Tazz and head out in the chopping waters.
From
below deck (too much wave splashing to be on deck), we watch a sea otter as we pass by from a window.
We
finally get to calmer waters and get our first whale sighting of the day. It's a few whales and we watch them blow
and then see their dorsal fin go under the water. Soon we see the tell tale sign of a dive, their tail.
After the tail, they disappear for a
while so every waits to see where they'll come up.
The
whales move away while we wait for two kayakers to board -- yes from
the open water. They were on a five day paddle -- nasty waters to be out
paddling today. Once they were on board, off we went to find the
whales again.
I
stay deck - I didn't think we were going that far - however, after
getting a face full of water a few times, I decide it was time to head for
cover. :)
We
find the whales around the island and pass them so they can approach us and
we can watch. The whale are between our boat and another having some fun - pec fin slapping. Never have seen that before (in person)
They eventually dove for a period of time. We're all
waiting looking to the sides of the boat for their return. I happen
to turn around in time to see this streamline whale propelling itself
like a bullet out of the water and then slamming itself in a breach
back into the water. I try to yell "Whale!" but I'm not sure anything
came out. I turn and another lady was pointing too! We look at each other and say "Did you see that!" We were the only 2 to see the breach. And it was pretty close
to the boat! Amazing! That made my day!
We continue to watch these whales
and then our boat took off fast. A guy on the deck tells me
that there's a whale ahead that has already breached about 5 times,
that's we were heading.
I
watch it breach a few more times before we arrive and what an
incredible show this one whale put on.
He must have breached 30 times
over the next 20 minutes. A couple times maybe 100ft off the back of
the boat.
Then there were tail lops,
spy hops,
pec waves and pec/tail waves
this was
just crazy!! That humpback must have been after a very happy day!! So
wonderful to watch!
We
finally had to leave to head back and that whale was still breaching.
So fun!
What
a totally awesome day -- flying over glaciers to a spectacular whale show!!
Fantastic!!