We slip quietly into Williams Cove. There are misty clouds twining in the trees around us. Icebergs in fantastic shapes float, reflected in calm water. There is some early morning fun on the bow, guests saying what each berg looks like: a snail, an otter, a whale’s tale. Then its breakfast, and we’re off for an expedition morning. Long hikers make their way through old forest, stepping over roots and through streams, following bear trails, climbing to a lovely meadow. Our feet squish on the moss, birds are singing, and the low bright plants of the Alaskan muskeg surround us. There is a pond, with a few blooming water lilies. “This place,” someone says, “is the most beautiful place we’ve been yet.”
Meanwhile the kayakers are paddling the bay, finding harbor seals on floating ice. They take a closer look at a waterfall, or check out the shapes and colors of the ice (keeping a safe distance, of course; one big berg flips over while we are watching it!). Short and medium hikes explore the rainforest, finding lots of signs that bears use this place including – surprise – a pile of scat left next to our life jackets. In the time we were hiking in the forest, a bear must have come out to this very beach and left it there!
In the afternoon, we cruise the spectacular glacial fjord known as Endicott Arm. All day, we have been in the Tracy Arm/Ford’s Terror Wilderness, a 653,179 acre wilderness area within the Tongass National Forest. It’s spectacular. As we get closer to the glacier, cliffs rise high to either side. Waterfalls cascade down rock. We spot the u-shaped valleys that show where side glaciers carved down to join the main channel. We pass forested hillsides and progress to more recently revealed land, where hardy shrubs and small trees make green lines across the steep rock. We are following a retreating glacier, which carved this fjord, and 30 miles in we find it. Now it is time to board the expedition landing craft for an ice cruise. Bundled up against the cool breeze blowing down off the ice, we meander through floating bergs calved off the glacier’s face. There’s ice in every shade, from blue, to clear, to white, and even grey where it is carrying the broken rock plucked from mountains as the glacier passed by. The shapes are fabulous. We find seals, arctic terns, and even a harbor porpoise at home in this place. We pause at a waterfall, close enough to feel the mist on our faces, then make our way to our closest vantage of the glacier’s face. Our great wish, of course, is to see some of that cliff of ice fall. It has become kind of a theme this week: we get what we wish for!
Now we are safely back on board the ship that has become home base, sharing photos and memories, hot chocolate, and the Captain’s Farewell dinner. It feels like a celebration. Success!
