Sunday, July 12^th

Bartlett Cove

• The official state motto is 'North to the Future', which is meant to describe Alaska as a land of promise. I think the promise is a mosquito will bite you!
• Their un-official state motto is Alaska, pissin’ off Texas since 1959.

What a great day! This morning while slowly cruising into Bartlett Cove under cover of thick wet fog, we managed to munch through thick crispy bacon, fresh baked croissants (the on-board pastry chef is from San Diego) and pancakes stuffed with blueberries. After docking at a small pier and collecting our cameras and rain gear, we headed off on a 3-mile hike, slogging our way over a slick muddy trail and stepping over roots attacking us from all angles, all the while under a damp and dripping canopy of Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock trees.

2015 Alaska-0043 Slogging our way over a slick muddy trail

2015 AlaskaM-1571 Our trail thru the rainforest

2015 Alaska-0037 A family of mushrooms

Being that we’re in a temperate rainforest, the area is blanketed in lichens, moss, ferns, and fungi of all different shapes, as well as flora of all different sizes. One of the more interesting and unique fungi is a species called bear bread. While some fungi only have a few days of life, this one continues to grow for years. Protruding out of the sides of trees about 2-6”, they look like a nodule or growth, but with seasonal growth rings just like trees. On one of them, I estimated the number of rings to be 25-30, meaning this one could have been nearly 30 years old, and the envy of mushrooms everywhere!

2015 Alaska-0050 A menagerie of rainforest growth

2015 Alaska-0054 Bear bread fungi

In the afternoon we cruised up to the end of Glacier Bay, just this side of the US/Canadian border and the home of 2 glaciers – Margerie & The Grand Pacific. Along the way we saw a variety of local birds, including tufted puffins and kittiwakes. Of the larger variety of animals, we saw sea otters, a mother and cub brown bear foraging for dinner along the shoreline, and waaaay off in the distance there were humpback whales breaching, fin slapping and tail lobbing. Breaching is where the whale propels all 847 metric tons of its big ole’ blubbery body out of the water as far as it can, and then does a giant belly-flop, creating a small tidal wave. Scientists aren’t really sure why they do this – it’s possibly an attempt to knock off the barnacles growing on their big unwieldy bodies, or some kind of a mating dance. “Hey baby, wanna see a massive belly flop?” I’m thinkin’ if you were swimming around in 30 - 40F water like they are, you’d try to jump the hell out of the water too!! When they fin slap, they slap one of their ginormous pectoral fins on the surface of the water, and a tail lob is where they stand on their head and wave their tail in the air – it’s the whales version of mooning us.

2015 AlaskaM-1632 A puffin flying low over the water

2015 AlaskaM-1723

2015 AlaskaM-1731 Mom & cub foraging for food at low tide

As we got closer to the glaciers, we were surrounded by small chunks of ice flow that had calved off. Sitting on one of these giant floating popsicles was a bald eagle, and then a bit further up was a harbor seal resting on another. I kept looking for a polar bear with a Coke in its massive paw, but disappointedly never saw one. What we did see though was a very intense rainbow that from top to bottom of its brightly illuminated and colorful arch was not much taller than the top of our little boat.

2015 Alaska-1316 A bald eagle, just chillin'

2015 AlaskaM-1665 This rainbow was only as high as the boat

We stayed at the glaciers for a few hours in the hopes of seeing some major calving, though watching some of the minor stuff – about the size of our house falling into the water, was pretty impressive on its own. Unfortunately, there was none of the huge Manhattan skyscraper sized chunks like you see on National Geographic TV specials, cracking off and creating massive waves. I wasn’t sure what was going to give up first; me standing and waiting out on the deck in 40F weather waiting to take a picture of one of those massive chunks, or the glacier calving into the bay. In the end, neither happened, as our captain made the decision for us and left the area. Just before everyone went to bed they made an announcement of possible aurora activity that night, but nothing ever came of it.

2015 Alaska-1340 Minor calving of the glacier, just as it hit the water - about the size of a small house