July 23 – We had two more museums left
to see in town, but it was an absolutely gorgeous day. Our campsite was in a
state park along a bay that was protected by a narrow inlet. Across the bay
was a range of mountains with
glaciers between them –
Rainbow Glacier and Davidson Glacier. One of the glaciers looked like it made
it all the way down into a low forest and we had heard that it was possible to
hike to the glacier. The bay had been very choppy the day before but today
there was no wind and the bay was calm. We took the kayaks down to the boat
ramp and headed for the glacier with a simple plan – kayak to the river of melt
water and then hike along the bank until we reached the glacier. Simple enough
we thought. On our way to the river a seal stopped by and checked us out, but
stayed just far
enough away so that pictures didn’t come out. We reached
the river in just over an hour and landed on the western bank. We carried the
kayaks up on the shore and tied them to a fallen tree and headed up the river.
The river was fast flowing and deep so we were unable to walk in it so we
walked along the bank for a while, but were stopped by an impenetrable tangle
of Alder trees that reached out over the edge of the bank. It
looked like the
east bank would be easier as it was comprised mainly of Sitka spruce which
don’t grow close together. We returned to the kayaks and paddled to the other
bank. Again we carried the kayaks up a ways and tied them off to a fallen
tree. As we were crossing a mud flat near the river we were reminded that we
were in bear country by a very large paw print. We made more noise than normal
as we worked our way through the woods along the bank. Every so often we would
venture out to the bank of the river and make sure that the glacier was ahead
of us. An hour into the hike the river took a hard bend to the west and was no
longer headed towards the glacier - instead it was going up a valley. We had
to decide on a course of action – it was possible that the river would turn
back towards the glacier or it was possible that we were
following the
wrong river (the visitor’s center had no maps available after all). We had
seen several busses parked further east of where we landed and another kayaker
had told us that there was a road that led to the glacier. We decided to play
it safe and turned back. We launched the kayaks again and paddled over to
where the busses were parked and found the dirt road. We found that the road
ended at the busses so we started walking the other way. After some time we
ran into a group of people walking towards us on the road. They seemed very
surprised to see other people, but told us that the canoe launch was not too
far away. The glacier, however, was a mile and a half from the canoe launch.
We kept walking and arrived at some buildings and a bathroom. There was a
trail leading away and as we walked along it we ran into a good number of tired
looking tourists, all wearing boots and life jackets. We arrived at the canoe
launch and ran into one last person who asked us if we had forgotten something
on the boat. He was quite surprised when we told him we were hiking and asked
how to get to the glacier. He pointed out an overgrown bear trail that ran
along the lake
and said it was probably two miles. We thought it might
be nice to bring the kayaks to this place by truck and explore the lake and
asked for directions. “You can’t get here.” was his response. So we asked the
question – where is here?
We were near Davidson Glacier in a place called
Glacier Point. There was no road linking the area to anywhere else.
The road was built specifically to take tourists from the beach where boats
dropped them off to the canoe launch area. From there they boarded large (8
person) canoes and used motors to go up the slow moving river to the lagoon
where the glacier was. After touring the area and seeing the glacier they
paddled the canoes back to the launch area. Only a few guides for the canoe
trips lived out there. With the knowledge that we were close to the middle of
nowhere, we started out on the trail to the glacier. The trail was thick and
overgrown and we soon abandoned it in favor of walking along the bank of the
river. We saw many moose tracks and Stacie was hoping she might finally see
one. After a while we went around a bend in the river and saw the glacier and
the landscape it had created. We were
used to glaciers that end
in a deep lake or the ocean, but this was different. We were in a wide valley
surrounded by gravel piles and ponds. No plants had moved in yet so it really
looked like it could be the moon. As we crossed this terrain we were
constantly thwarted by small ponds and arms of the lake that were too deep to
cross. We realized that the only way to actually make it to the face of the
glacier would involve a long hike along the edge of the valley. It was past
six in the evening at this point and we knew that it would take several hours
to get back to camp so we abandoned our quest and hiked back to the canoe
launch. We ran into the same guide and he was surprised that we made it to the
glacier (or maybe that we made it back!). We got to the kayaks and were on the
water by 7. Unfortunately the wind had picked up and our nice calm bay was
filled with small waves and occasional 2 foot swells (well within the limits of
our kayaks). The good news was that the wind was mostly at our backs and that
helped us on our
way, but steering was tricky (the waves wanted to turn us
one way while the wind tried to turn us another). Once we crossed the bay we
were in more protected waters and the waves subsided. By 8:15 we were back at
the campground dock. Our day would have ended there (and we really wanted it
to since we were quite tired), but we needed ice for the coolers (why Dave
didn’t pick any up at the glacier we don’t know) and had to get to town before
the grocery store closed. We made it in time and also grabbed dinner since we
didn’t want to deal with cooking.
We slept well that night.