well, it’s that time of year again. we are heading south! today was our last day in glacier bay national park/preserve, and my what a beautiful day.
i woke up in front of johns hopkins glacier. the sun was sparkling and the ice was a bright, vibrant blue. the contrast between our northbound trip and this week is so apparent – there was snow everywhere, more ice, and deeper colours in early may; today, green was the colour: in the trees, the scraggly brush near the waters edge, and in the moss. we saw mountain goats at gloomy knob, orca just north of the marble islands, and hordes of sea lions hauled out at south marble island. even the puffins were celebrating the perfect alaskan fall day.
the summer up here has been unreal. i never expected to spend my entire summer in the southeast part of alaska. its stunning scenery, down-to-earth people and incredible wildlife made this a summer to never forget. i am thankful everyday for this job that allows me to be up here “working.”
i’ve enjoyed my days in petersburg, a tiny norwegian town south of juneau, where i always pop into sing lee alley books and pick up a new book to read. i’ve wandered the streets of juneau on sunny days where i lounged in the park and watched float planes take off and on rainy days where i hunkered down in the rookery and read. i’ve trekked out to the totem park in sitka, where i walked under the spruce trees and admired the old tglintgit totems. and i’ve hiked, kayaked and sat down to watch a bear fish for salmon. i’ve seen a glacier calve a third of its front, the resulting splash and wave enough to rock us ten ways til sunday. i’ve been in a zod watching a glacier calve a half a mile off; i’ve also driven a zod through 8 foot seas and gotten thoroughly soaked in the process (i;ve also driven in the pouring rain and – duh – been thoroughly soaked). but i’ve also seen the northern lights, the perseid meteor shower (both on the eve of my birthday), the sunrise over every bit of the inside passage, and the sunsets, which rival those in the midwest, which i do think are some of the best. i’ve seen a killer whale chasing a porpoise, breaching and leaping out of the water in order to close the distance. i’ve seen bubble-netting humpbacks, and i FINALLY figured out where i went last summer and haven’t been yet this year (iyoukeen cove).
(that was a perpetual question this summer, by the way)
anyway… what an amazing summer. i get to work here, with some of the coolest people, and i get to see places every week that some people never get to see in their lifetime. and so, we head south. we have a 12 day trip that takes us through british columbia and into seattle, and then we repo the ship to portland, where i get to traverse the columbia river to clarkston, wa and back to portland. this trip, we’ll hit juneau and petersburg, but then we get misty fjord and alert bay (canada), prince rupert and the san juan islands. then a day in seattle and onward we go.
here are some pictures from the summer — both early on and now, for comparison…