Hero day! Kayaking

Day 42

8/1/26 Saturday

We have an expression in snow skiing to define snow texture when it’s so perfect you feel like a hero when you’re skiing… it’s indescribably perfect, the snow is so easy to ski that you feel like you’re an awesome skier! Effortless. 

If days could have that description than today was it! Calm seas, comfortable temp, all the wildlife shows up to say hello and the glaciers talk to you, the kayaking is so simple and easy…that’s a hero day! Just a wonderful day to be alive and experience so much of the natural world. Definitely lucky.

Rise and shine.We were up early and making sure we had a hearty breakfast before we met everyone and our guide at the kayaking HQ in town at 7am. The company was Kayakak. Kayak Adventures Worldwide. We were shuttled to the water taxi at the harbor and on the boat in the water by 8am. We had all the life jackets and guide bags and our bags loaded on the taxi.

Guides and groups.Our group of 6 and the guide was one of four groups on the taxi. One group was an overnight group so they had tents and bear proof food bins and whatever else they needed to camp. The boats and paddles are cached on the beach where we were dropped off.

Water Taxi. Interesting fact that our boat cat and first mate were both females. The guides were all are female except our guide who was male…Freddy.

Let’s Kayak Aialik Bay. Our destination was Aialik Bay… pronounce “eye-al-ik”. To get there we had to go around Aialik Cove then into the bay. The glacier lies within the Kenai Fjords National Park. Above the glacier lies the Harding Icefield.

Not long after leaving the harbor and heading to more open water the fog rolled in. We had fog nearly all the way to the beach.

Sea wildlife. As we approached the side of Rugged Island we slowed down to see all the wildlife off shore of the island. We had porpoises swimming along side of us. Puffins all around. Seals on the rocks followed by sea lions on other rocks. On the ride out we saw 2 humpback whales and on the way back 3 orcas (killer whales). Also from the kayak we saw oystercatcher bird, eagles, sea otters, seals and a river otter.

Sea lion or seal? Sea lions can bend their backs and articulate their flippers to walk. Seals cannot bend or move like that.  (See Video) 

Just before our landing on the beach it was starting to break up and beginning to look like a beautiful, calm sunny day.

Beach drop. The taxi dropped us at the beach and we unloaded all the gear. Since the kayaks were cached up high on the beach above high tide we all had to carry our two person boats to the waters edge. They were heavy to say the least and the rocks were big and bouldery. Hard to walk in our Alaska muck boots!

We put the two part paddles together, made sure the foot braces were the proper length and listened to a fairly short safety talk and quick paddling lesson.

Once we were all in our boats and sprayskirts attached we were off toward the glacier. Since it was still a bit foggy we stayed close together. As we were paddling the fog kept lifting.

Glacier Thunder. We were scheduled to paddle for three hours and we were in our kayaks the entire time. When we were paddling for just a few minutes we heard a loud boom. Like thunder or a sonic boom. It was the glacier moving… 2-4 ft a day I think he said.

As we got closer there were various sized chunks of ice all around us. On some of them there were seals and seagulls resting. At first we could hear the “thunder” after we saw it calve. As we got closer up to 1/2 mile away the calving and thunder were at the same time. We did see some amazing calving which looks like an ice waterfall but I wasn’t quick enough to capture a photo. I do have a video where you can hear the glacier!

 

When we were within 1/2 mile of the glacier we stopped. Regulations said it wasn’t safe to be any closer. This is where we sat quietly for maybe 45 minutes and had lunch and just watched and listened. It was so peaceful and quiet and as one young woman in our group said, “the air smells incredible here”.

Tranquil setting. While paddling and sitting at the glacier it was just our 3 groups there. On our return to the boat beach a big tour boat was approaching the glacier for viewing. We all felt fortunate to have had all that peace and quiet to ourselves viewing the glacier without motors and lots of people talking.

We took our time returning and paddled close to a couple of islands. On one island was a sea gull nesting site. As we were watching a river otter swam up and quickly move up the rocks. The seagulls went crazy. They were flying all over and squawking… they kept this up for quite awhile. We had to get out away because poop was dropping all around us🤣. They were not happy with Mr River Otter coming for their eggs.

Once at the beach all the boats and gear were returned and sorted pretty quickly. We were back on the boat and headed to Seward. This is when the Orcas arrived. We stopped and spent some time watching them. We think there were 3 in this group. That was fun.. they put on quite a show. I have a few short video clips of them.

By the time we got back to their store and our vehicles it was 5:30pm. Good day for sure.

We walked a few blocks and found a taqueria for a quick dinner. It was a busy little place with the best rockfish tacos.

When we arrived there was a 4900 person cruise ship in the harbor. I read that it was the largest cruise ship in their port yet. It is now a staple. The next morning it was a smaller cruise ship but it was gone by the time we returned from kayaking. So the downtown was not teeming with people. We walked around a bit before going back to the van.

Tonight’s camp was on the glacier washout near where our pullout camp was the night before. There were dozens of campers spread all over the washout. 4×4’s were further out than most. When we were here previously the creek was too high to camp out here. There happened to be a wedding at one end so we could hear the base thumping of the music. Ear plugs in and off to sleep. We were tired!

It truly was a hero day. I don’t know what more we could ask for from Alaska! …. Except we have yet to see a caribou!

Tomorrow we are spending most of the day around Seward before we head toward Anchorage.

I’ll leave you with this…