Saturday — We left Petersburg for the relatively short cruise over to Thomas Bay (20nm). Conditions in Frederick Sound were calm with gray skies and no significant rain. Kali and Evenstar 55 anchored near the Cascade Creek trailhead, and the rest of us anchored at the Ruth Island anchorage, just across the way.
Soon after getting settled, we dinghied to shore to hike the Cascade Creek trail.
After the hike, a few of us stayed on the beach enjoying the scenery and the lack of rain. Said lack of rain made us start thinking that that maybe we should continue back to Scenery Cove now rather than waiting until tomorrow. It was early — 2pm! David pulled up the weather radar on his iPhone, which showed more rain tomorrow at the time we were hoping to try to get into the glacial lake (forecast had changed since we made our original plan). Hmmm.
High tide today (Saturday) is around 6:30pm. High tide tomorrow (Sunday) is around 7:30pm. So if we moved in to Scenery Cove today we could try to get into the lake an hour earlier, with no rain, and have another chance tomorrow evening if the opportunity was there. We quickly got a consensus from the few on the beach (let’s go!) and rallied the others who weren’t present to make sure everyone was game (they were), and so off we went!
Six nautical miles back into the bay to reach Scenery Cove…we were all anchored by 4:30pm with a plan to meet up in dinghies at 5:30pm. We directed everyone to dress warmly…warmer than you think you need to! Dinghying around ice, in water with temps in the 30s…taking your hands in and out of gloves to take a zillion photos…gets cold pretty fast!
The path in was slightly different this year, but we finally found it and had the others follow us in (slowly, with a few rock bumps at slow speeds, as usual). It’s always a bit of a challenge finding the depth we need to get all the way into the lake, but fully worth the effort every time!
First glimpse of Baird Glacier:
Awe-inspiring, other-worldly, incredible. Everyone was extremely excited for this adventure as we discussed the plan and showed photos leading up to it. None of the hype was unfounded. Cruising around among these big grounded icebergs with a view of Baird Glacier in the background (after working pretty hard to get past the 1-2ft depths as the tide is rising)…it’s hard to describe what a cool feeling it is.
Collecting glacial ice for post-cruise cocktails:
We got some nice clear pieces!
Since we really need high water to get back here, we tend not to linger too long inside.
We had a little post-adventure pow-wow before heading back to our boats to get warm and have some dinner.
There was a local skiff here in Scenery Cove when we came in (they were panning for gold at the base of a small waterfall and probably not thrilled to have us come in…sorry about that guys!) but they didn’t stay the night and we’ve got the place to ourselves.
We cooked up some pasta with bolognese sauce and a salad for dinner, sipped a manhattan with glacier ice, and then called it a night.
Sunday — After a VERY still night at anchor, we woke to another gray but mostly rain-less morning.
It eventually rained a little today, with intermittent sun and clouds. People kayaked, got out in the dinghies, relaxed on board, did boat chores, watched the Monaco Grand Prix, and napped.
Our current plan is to gather after dinner around 6:30pm for another visit to the glacial lake. It’s rather likely we’ll have more photos to post later, and Kevin’s working on a video from yesterday.
Tomorrow, we’ll head up to Pybus Bay/Cannery Cove on Admiralty Island. The adventure continues!