When we woke today, we were dockside in Petersburg. A fishing town off Mitkof Island since the turn of the 20th century, guests had several options to explore and feel out this one-of-a-kind fishing town. Many embarked on a flightseeing adventure around the high glaciered mountains, while others down below ventured their way through the muskeg (bog) on nearby Kupreanof Island. Other guests kept closer to town, going either by foot or on bike for a photo walk, or to learn about the fishing industry and life under the docks with undersea specialist Jared Berg. We spent the wealth of that afternoon exploring the nearby iceberg-filled fjord of Leconte Bay, offspring of the Leconte Glacier, the southernmost tidewater glacier in the northern hemisphere.
7/14/2024
Read
National Geographic Venture
Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness
We started the day with Zodiac tours of South Sawyer Glacier, a tidewater glacier. The air was cool, and it rained throughout the day, but that made the waterfalls gush. The walls of the Tracy Arm were dark yet glistening, and blue icebergs recently calved from South Sawyer Glacier stood out. The sea water stood in contrast against the ice. The brown of the land flushing into the sea swirled with a rusty hue that turned out to be a zooplankton bloom. The misty afternoon was spent kayaking from the base of one of the waterfalls with icebergs in various forms carried by nearby currents. It all made for a fantastic backdrop with swallows swooping close to the output of the falls, arctic terns darting and calling above, harbor seals cautiously following along, and pigeon guillemots surfacing with a whole silvery fish in their bills. After such a fantastic day, we finished up by viewing numerous waterfalls cascading down the steep fjord walls and a look at Sawyer Glacier misted in fingerlike clouds. What a beautiful sight.
