Once we were free of crackling ice, Donohue paddled me by an
elongated peninsula. It was the farthest he paddled when he first scouted Icy
Bay as a destination for leading trips several years prior.
“I camped at the edge of the trees and went for a paddle,” said
Donohue, pointing toward a treeline of spruce. “When I returned, I found a
grizzly bear ravaging my camp.”
Farther along, the ice floes increased once again, as we closed in on the
Tyndall Glacier. Creaking and cracking, we slammed into them with the bows
of our kayaks. When we got to the base of the glacier, we sat and relaxed
marveling at its chunky face. Ice floes swirled around us while the glacier,
calved inside bellowing across the fjord. Then a huge chunk of ice the size
of a Mack truck broke free from the outer edge of the glacier. A thundering
splash followed, sending a three-foot wave our way. We both sat up pointing
our bows into the oncoming roller. It barely capped, and afterward we moved
away from the glacier.
EPILOGUE
I
recently learned that the Taan Fjord and Tyndall Glacier region is one of
the most seismically active locations in the world. Just before Christmas
2015, Donohue sent me a link from Columbia University about an earthquake
that occurred October 17, 2015, at the back end of the Taan Fjord, sending a
200-million-ton landslide down to the base of the Tyndall Glacier right where
Donohue and I were kayaking and listening to the calving glacier. Satellite
images showed the landslide covered more than half the glacier’s chunky face
with rock and dirt, filling up the back end of the fjord.
FAR
FLUNG
TRAVEL
84
summer
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fall
