August 2, 2017: Gustavus to Point Carolus

It's been months now since the final, separate leg of my summer of kayaking, and unlike most of my entries from the Seattle to Juneau stretch, I did not type out log entries as I was paddling, so I'm only now getting to writing about the final legs of the trip.

"I thought they were a little intimidating until I started
to think of them as puppies."

The plans for this outer coast trip actually predated my plans to paddle from Seattle to Juneau; Jason Amundson and I began talking about an outer coast trip, most likely from Pelican to Sitka, around the time of our eight day paddle from Tenakee to Sitka in 2015.  We were both struck by the relatively unprotected waters of Salisbury Sound, North of Sitka, and we hoped to return someday.  This turned out to be the year.

After discussing several options, Jason and Christian and I settled on an August 2 departure (about three days after my arrival in Juneau from Petersburg and points South) which gave me time to get some work-related tasks out of the way, resupply, and do some boat maintenance (easier in my basement than on the beach).

On the 2nd, Jason and I boarded the ferry, enjoyed our ferry breakfast of pancakes and bacon, napped for a few hours, and unloaded our gear and boats in Gustavus, home of what must be the longest ferry ramp in the state.  There, we shot the breeze with some University friends while they waited to board the ferry for the return trip to Juneau  They had just completed a week in Glacier Bay doing forest ecology stuff; updating what I understand to be the longest time-series dataset of post-Glacial forest succession, now 101 years old.  Had a nice chat, and after they departed, we pushed off from the beach under the ferry ramp and started paddling down Icy Strait.


Our timing for the crossing of the mouth of Glacier Bay was fortuitous, right at slack.  Along the way, we got lots of attention from a dozen or two sea lions, who played around us like puppies--maybe they thought we might have some fish for them?  We got much less attention from the rafts of hundreds of sea otters, who dove before we could ever get very close.  I often wonder if sea otters have evolved to be especially afraid of sea kayaks, which decimated their numbers during the Russian Alaskan period.

After the crossing, we began looking for a campsite, shortly finding a comfortable spot on a bench above the beach about 1.4 miles (statute miles) Southwest of Point Carolus, just West of a notable creek.  Some bear sign, but not too bad, and wild strawberries!  They never look ripe, but are very, very sweet.  Cooked dinner and hit the hay early after an early morning and long traveling day.