80
summer
|
fall
I
t is day five of an eight-day sea kayaking trip in southeast Alaska, and
we haven’t gone any farther than between our tents and the cook
tent. There’s been steady rain since we arrived via bush plane and then
ferried over by boat to the cobbled finger of Kageet Point. It’s icy cold in
this narrow, desolate sliver of Alaska, living up to its name of Icy Bay.
I met friend and Alaskan guide Carl Donohue in Yakutat to explore
the innards of Icy Bay. He leads kayak trips there but had never kayaked
beyond Icy Bay, to the rear of the Taan Fjord where the Tyndall Glacier
calves inside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Although this national park
is North America’s largest, it’s also one of the most remote. It has only two
dirt roads running through it, so to get anywhere you need to fly in, catch
a ferry, or paddle in.
After we unloaded gear, we camped in the first row of spruce, willow,
and alder trees to hunker down, shielding us from the frigid winds blowing
off Icy Bay. Sideways rain pelted us as we quickly pitched our tents
surrounded in fragrant Nootka lupine, and at that point we had no idea
if we would outlast the rain and reach the Tyndall Glacier, one of three
glaciers calving inside Icy Bay.
FROM DISTANT SHORES
O
n his third and last epic voyage sailing the globe, British sailor and
explorer captain James Cook sailed up the West Coast of North
America in 1778. Commanding the HMS Resolution, he was searching for
SEISMIC WIGGLE ROOM
FAR
FLUNG
TRAVEL
STORY
AND
PHOTOS
BY
CHUCK GRAHAM
