Alaska kayak trip

Alaska kayaking

Roger and I started this trip back in January with a mere mention of the possibility. By Noon on July 7th, we were at the airport. Flight to Anchorage arrived at 8 PM their time, then off to a Ramada for the night. 5 am at the train station for a 4 hour ride to Seward. Nice train, good seats, plenty of things to watch, but the constant patter from the conductor types made it seem Disney-esque. Arrived in Seward before noon, too early to check in at our B&B, but they let us drop off the bags to walk around “town”.

We stayed 2 nights at Soo’s B&B, one prior and one after. Nice place, good food, and a very gracious host. Highly recommended as long as she owns the place.

We dropped in at the office of the outfitter, Kayak Adventures Worldwide, and laughed with the staff. Meeting arranged for 7 PM. We had lunch, looked into some stores, walked along the shoreline, and waited until 3 to go back to the B&B. Napped, ate Thai, got to the meeting. Met the guide, Josh. One of his questions was, “What do we want out of this trip? Miles, glaciers, wildlife?” No one said miles was important. I think we had a miscommunication there. More on that later. We selected paddles, PFDs, skirts, some picked up boots, and one got a sleeping bag. 6:45 AM meet up the next morning.

July 9th— At the dock, we met Mike, the ship captain, at 7 AM. We were to board his 55 ft motor /sailor Starr ( with the mast needing replacing and a sail nowhere in sight. Repairs were underway for sailing) for 4 nights, 5 days of paddling. We had an orientation meeting on the deck. A brief explanation of the marine toilets, followed by the request that if we had any trouble to find Mike or Josh so it would not become a larger problem. Mostly, it was a quick introduction to life on the boat. There were 5 paying customers, 3 guys, 2 women. The women were a couple, and got the separate cabin while the 3 guys had bunks in the forward cabin. Josh had his own room, while the captain had the aft suite.

It was a bright sunny day as we put some miles on the engine. We saw Stellar Sea lions, Bald Eagles, seals, otters, humpback whales and many other birds along the way. I’d say we saw seals and otters daily. Humpbacks most days. I missed out on seeing any Orcas, as they were not near us at any time on the trip.

Night 1 found us in Taz Basin in Granite Island, some 45 miles from Seward. We had a short paddle around the protected cove, mostly a shake out so the guide could determine if we really knew what we were doing. The tandems were the same boats as the one I bought for M and I. Made it easy to acclimate. We had 6 paddlers, counting Josh, so we each had about 3 days in tandems and 2 in solos. After dinner, we began what would become a routine for the trip. We sat up looking out at the scenery or the wildlife until we realized it wasn’t going to get dark for quite some time. I went to bed each night around 10 PM, and only saw the sunset when at the airport for departure, at midnight.

July 10th— Another bright sunny day. We moved after breakfast up Harris Bay to Otter Bay where we put the kayaks back in the water. This routine took about 20 minutes for each of the up and the down portions as we became better at helping out. We leisurely paddled for 3 hours, including a stop at Sunlight Beach. The Starr moved to Erratic island at the base of Anchor Glacier and we reached her in time for lunch. As we ate, we could hear loud pops, cracks, and some calving, but not always could we discern from where. The bay had 4 glaciers in it and the sounds were mystifying sometimes.





After lunch, we cruised past Southwestern Glacier, Anchor Glacier, No Name Glacier, and Ogive Glacier. That is where the paddle was supposed to end, but it was only 4 and we could see Northwestern Glacier down at the far end of the bay. We all wanted to go, and after it was determined everyone was up for it, we headed off. Josh had to radio Mike to tell him we would be later back to the Starr. We were adding 3 hours to the day. It was only about 7 miles RT to Northwestern, but we were not going to be satisfied with just a there and back. We sat still and watched, listened and took many pictures. The late light was perfect, and this was my personal favorite spot on the trip. It made for a long day, our longest at 20 miles.

July 11th— We motored down to Cataract Cove for a close up of the falls in sunny skies. The steepness of the cove allowed us to pull in so close that the bowsprit was only 2 feet from the wall of the falls. The depth was still 45 feet on the finder. From there, we moved around to Aialik Bay and put the boats in Verdant Bay for a paddle up to McMullen Cove. As we left the Starr, we began to see several humpbacks near us. One surfaced 100 feet behind me, but so close that when the blow drifted by me, I could smell it. Listerine would’ve helped. We sat still and watched them for a short time, then continued paddling up towards McMullen. Roger was a bit out in front when a humpback paid him a close visit, surfacing about 30 feet away from him. Roger said he could count the barnacles. This only excited all of us to see more.

We had lunch in McMullen, then paddled over to Quicksand Beach for the afternoon. We spotted a black bear there, as well as the familiar Cow Parsley and Devil’s Club. We managed to avoid all of that. The night was spent in McMullen Cove. This was to be the last of our good weather days. We had 3 very nice days to begin the trip, and the last 2 were cooler and rainy.

July 12th— Rainy, or misty. We motored up near Pederson Lagoon and paddled up to Pederson Glacier. Entrance was restricted to high tide because of the shallowness of the lagoon and Josh timed it properly. Pederson Glacier provided us with big ice, including a 3 story chunk, and an archway about 30 feet tall. I wanted to paddle through the arch, but it wasn’t safe and Josh properly talked me out of it. On our way out of the lagoon, we went passed a family out of the lodge in the area, paddling a double ended “war canoe”. None of them looked happy about being out in the mist and rain, not even the guide. We made it back to the boat and moved around to Slate Island.



After lunch, we paddled from Slate up to Aialik Glacier. The water was a bit wind blown, but no white caps. The route was through small ice floats, and Josh would reach out and break off a piece every so often to eat. As we arrived as close to Aialik as we would get, we all stopped and just watched. Eventually, a large calving event took place, but it was not so large as to endanger us. We never got as close as 1/2 mile, and the waves caused by the event were more like 1 ft swells. We moved to lower Coleman Bay for the night.

July 13th— Misty, cold, but this was the last 3 hour paddle before heading home. There were no slackers in our group. We paddled around to upper Coleman Bay and found 30 or so falls running healthily. No one wanted to return to the Starr, signifying the end of the paddle trip. We had an uneventful motor back to Seward, despite Mike’s best efforts to find Orcas.

This is the course of the Starr, not including the RT to Seward.



In summation, each of the five of us had to have Josh give us a personal lesson with the marine toilets. The pump action was just a bit foreign to all of us. There was 1 shower in the forward cabin, and we were told the fresh water would only allow for 1 shower per person for the trip duration. None of us used it. The 2 women said they were not bathing out of self defense from the guys who were not bathing either.

The food was plentiful, and tasty. Mike is a great Captain and a good cook. We had 4 breakfasts, 5 lunches, and 4 dinners. The breakfasts were eggs, oatmeal, eggs again, and cold cereal on the last morning. Lunches were sandwiches, wraps, & grilled cheese and soup on the coolest day. Dinners were African Peanut Stew, Salmon, Pasta Alfredo, & Thai Curry Chicken. We had 1 vegetarian, 2 Gluten Free, 4 who wouldn’t eat pork, and yet all were fed well. There seemed to be plenty of accommodations for those folks. There was always fruit out for us, and appetizers before dinner.

Our trip mates were Brian from Austin, Tx, and Michelle and Sue from somewhere near the Hudson in NY. Sue was very energetic and a hoot. Her sense of humor kept me entertained for hours. Michelle was quieter, but also capable of a few zingers. Brian was more like Sue, in that his timing matched her’s best. Our ages ran from Brian’s 48 to Roger’s 68. We were a well matched paddling skill group.

At the end of the trip, we dined in town and exchanged contact info. The following day we shared the train ride back to Anchorage with Brian while the women stayed over a few more days. I plan on doing this trip again soon.