Bjorklund Log: Alaska Trip Day 53

7/8/11

Reid Inlet, Glacier Bay, AK

Miles Travelled: 41.5

Happy Birthday Mom a.k.a. Grandma Cheryl!

We had a slow morning since we were only planning on going about 26 miles to Reid Inlet, so we had breakfast while still anchored and took the boys over to Taranga so that Gerd and Linda could meet them. We had a nice visit with Gerd and Linda. They are definitely kid people and though their kids are now just a few years younger than us, they were raised on Taranga, so Gerd and Linda are used to having babies aboard. Linda pulled out bowls and wooden spoons for the boys to play with and we got to see their photos of a mama grizzly bear with her triplets, including a shot of the babies nursing. Too sweet!

By 10:00 we weighed anchor and were on our way north. Lars soon fell asleep in the play area…he just curled up with a burpie (the loveys that they sleep with) with his head on Tor’s pillow and fell asleep. Crazy. He ended up waking up about 30 minutes later and was grumpy! He got over his grumpiness when I put him in his life jacket so he could help me look for wild life on Gloomy Knob.

The weather couldn’t have been more gorgeous. We slowly motored along the steep rock wall where Gerd and Linda had seen the mama grizzly and her 3 cubs on Gloomy Knob, and we were rewarded with the sight of mountain goats, but no bears. We puttered along and Tor gave the boys breakfast and then got them down for their nap. Since Lars had snoozed a little bit earlier it took him about an hour to fall asleep, but once he did, he had a good nap.

While the boys napped, Tor and I were inspired by the gorgeous weather to hatch a plan to head up into Tarr inlet and see the Marjorie and Grand Pacific Glaciers. This is the quintessential Glacier Bay experience…it is the Old Faithful or the Half Dome of this park. Marjorie glacier is an active tidewater glacier that calves ice frequently, and we wanted to make sure to have the best conditions we could to see it. Since we hadn’t planned on a long day we got a late start and by adding the detour up Tarr Inlet and back to Reid Inlet for our anchorage we ran the risk of having to put the boys to bed while we were underway and then perhaps waking them up while we anchored. We also would have to feed them dinner while underway where we have always been anchored for dinner up to this point…it’s important to have dinner as a family and that just isn’t possible when one person is running the boat. All that being said, the weather was amazing today, and the clouds were blowing in from the south, potentially changing our weather for the worse, and it looked like we would likely have the place to ourselves, or at least the 2 giant cruise ships that are allowed in the park each day would have already left, and if we did it, the timing was such that we would have gotten there before dinner and been able to appreciate it as a family. We decided to go for it.

Boy are we glad we did. When we got there a private sailboat and a smaller tour boat were both leaving. One of the large cruise ships, the Island Princess, was there, but they were pulled off to the side and it hardly impacted us at all. In fact they left fairly soon and we had the whole place to ourselves. We stayed about ½ mile away from the glacier, and though it would have been cool to be closer, it just isn’t prudent since big ice chunks falling from the glacier can make for big waves. We got to hear and see the Marjorie glacier calving and that was super cool. We also collected burgy bits and Tor got in the dinghy to take pictures of the boat in front of the glacier and with bergy bits all around. It was as touristy as getting our picture taken with Smokey the Bear in front of a spouting Old Faithful, and we had so much fun being tourists!

Soon the wind came up and it was getting to be time to get the boys some dinner, so we skedaddled and headed towards our anchorage for the night, Reid Inlet. I got the boys dinner and Tor piloted us. We hurried and we actually made it to the anchorage and got all set by about the time we normally put the glacier when the conditions were so right.

Reid glacier is grounded so you can anchor in the inlet right next to it without the worries of being near a calving glacier. It’s pretty stunning to look out and see the glacier right there from your anchored boat! It looks very close, but in this huge landscape distances are deceiving and we are probably at least a mile away from it, so no going to visit it this evening. We only have oars for the dinghy and I don’t want to row that far alone since someone needs to stay with the boys. Next time we come here we will be able to investigate Reid glacier better. We did enjoy scotch on ice with our newly acquired bergy bit ice from the Marjorie glacier…yum!