LeConte Glacier and Petersburg
Coastal mountains as high as 10,000 feet above sea level trap moist clouds blowing off the North Pacific Ocean, creating an extensive ice field on the U.S./Canadian border that feeds LeConte Glacier, North America’s most southerly tidewater glacier. LeConte Glacier has experienced some of the world’s most rapid glacial retreat, filling LeConte Bay with growlers, bergie bits, and icebergs of unlimited size and shape. We started our day in Zodiacs exploring and photographing this maze of ice under cloudy skies that really brought out each berg’s icy blue color. Some likened it to cloud watching as each berg provided shapes that our minds morphed into a multitude of imagined objects.
As we left LeConte Bay and headed north to Petersburg, Dr. Andy Szabo joined the boat for an introduction to the work of the Alaska Whale Foundation and answered many of our questions about humpback whale bubblenet feeding and other behaviors. The Alaska Whale Foundation is one of two conservation organizations working in Southeast Alaska that is supported by Lindblad Expeditions from contributions made each week by its guests.
We docked in Petersburg just in time for our first group of flightseers to make their plane and experience LeConte Glacier and the larger ice field from the air. The rest of us took to exploring Petersburg, a fishing town steeped in Norwegian heritage and home to one of the state’s most successful fishing fleets. The Dock Walkers learned about the three main salmon fishing gear types—seining, trolling, and gillnetting—and they were introduced to the undersea life living on the dock floats, including the beautiful white giant plumed anemones, and feather duster worms. The Bog Walkers took Zodiacs across to Kupreanof Island and explored a muskeg bog, all the while keeping their feet dry on a Forest Service constructed boardwalk. Highlight of the hike was finding two species of insect-eating sundews!
An advantage to docking in Petersburg is our ability to get really fresh seafood, like Dungeness crab. A short tutorial on how best to crack crab by the Hotel Manager led to an all-you-can-eat crab dinner and the evening ended with a spirited Jeopardy! match.
