Le Conte Glacier 06.17.2013

Just 25 miles SE of Petersburg is Le Conte Glacier, the southernmost active tidewater glacier in North America, and is located on the mainland on the Horn Cliffs side of Frederick Sound. 

We made the decision to visit the glacier but decided to hire a local guide rather than take Second Chance.  So we stopped into the local travel agent and were able to hire Captain Scott Hursey from the M/V Pelican.  His guide service company is called Alaska Passages Adventures.  We STRONGLY suggest that if you want a guide in the Petersburg area call Scott!!  He was FANTASTIC and certainly knew his way around the Le Conte Glacier!!

This trip was amazing – I don’t have the words to describe the beauty of this glacier.  Hopefully you will get a small glimpse of how truly awesome this really was. 

We left the dock in Petersburg at 12 noon and returned around 6pm. 

First I’m going to show you one of the video’s we took of the glacier calving.  Calving is when some of the glacier breaks off from the main mass.

 

 

 

I culled these photos from the 200+ pictures and 6 videos that we took at the glacier.  I really hope you enjoy!

Our first glimpse of icebergs or "growlers" from the glacier:

 

More photos.....

 

 

 

Wrangell to Petersburg, AK 06.16.2013

Working with the tides to catch Wrangell Narrows we pulled away @ 9:445am AK. 

Stopped here & there to try our hand at fishing.  Only rock fish, Bruce couldn’t get the bait past the rock fish to reach the salmon!!

 

Ron had a good salmon on the line but as he drew it to the boat it got away! Darn!  Better luck next time!

 

How about this view off the back deck! 

 

What a wonderful day for traveling!

Taking the Wrangell Narrows into Petersburg was very interesting.  This is a snake-like channel that has 63 different aids to navigation in the space of 21 miles – helping us boaters to clear shoals and islets.  There is one part on this channel that is really skinny – only 100 yards wide!  While we were attempting to clear this skinny section of the channel a small fishing boat decided that they wanted to fish going right down the middle of the channel!!

 

 

 

We are located in the North Marina and plan to stay here for a couple of nights. 

Tonight is dinner on Ron & Lynn’s boat Contessa.  We are having Phai Thai using the prawns that we caught and the last of our crab!

Wrangell, AK 06.15.2013

Going into a new marina is always interesting and today was no different.  All of the guest moorage is on a linier dock.  Because we arrived after noon there was good space available for both Contessa and Second Chance. 

 

 

 

 

In town it happened to be “no tax” day so most stores had “sales”.  The grocery store had 20% of all groceries AND no sales tax!  When we got to the store to provision we found many of the shelves completely empty!!

Lynn & I went to the library for their free internet while the guys went to the marine & hardware stores for supplies.  While walking through town there were several different locations that had totem poles – very old ones that have been left in their original locations.  Hopefully someone maintains them going forward because it would be a shame to lose them because of neglect.

 

 

 

The town had a street fair so the guys came back with root-beer floats. 

At dinner time we walked up to the local movie theater, which is located inside the local museum, and saw the new “Star Trek” movie.  The movie theater is set up in the museum auditorium and has folding chairs which looked very uncomfortable but actually turned out to be just the opposite!  The folding chairs even tilted back!  We have never seen this type of chair before.  What a unique experience. 

After the movie, we went back to the street fair and got a hamburger.  Making it back to the boat around 10:30 pm AK. 

 

What a fun day!

Maden Bay, AK 06/14/2013

After Anan Bay we continued traveling north through The Narrows and up the 1 ½ miles to our anchorage for the evening. 

Along the way we had more porpoise traveling with us!

We set the hook and Bruce caught a flounder for the crab pot and set it out overnight.  Ron set his prawn trap overnight.  Let’s hope they’re both successful!

 

 

The next morning the guys went out to pick up their pots and Bruce wound up with a skeleton in his crab pot!  Whatever small fish got in there, they sure had themselves a feast!

 

 

 

 

Ron was successful with his prawn trap!  He has to make some repairs to the trap – as he was pulling the trap, prawns were getting out!  If you look closely you can see that the prawns were escaping his trap even in his dinghy!! LOL!

 

 

We raised the hook at 9:30am PT for the short run up to Wrangell.

Anan Bay Bear Observatory, Bradfield Canal 06.14.2013

As soon as Bruce finished for the day, we started moving north. 

We stopped at Anan Bay Bear Observatory which is north of the turn-off to Zimovia Strait on Bradfield Canal. 

There is a half-mile boardwalk leading to the blind observatory at the head of a lagoon.  Once the salmon come up the river you can view the bears fish for pink salmon or “humpies” attempted to jump the waterfall.  There are both black and brown bears at the observatory.  Unfortunately we did not see any bears but we did see A LOT of bear droppings that were fresh!

The anchor holding is not very good at this location so Ron & Lynn stayed on the boats while Bruce & I walked out to the observatory.  Ron said he has seen lots of bear so another bear was not a big deal! LOL!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vixen Harbor, AK 06.12.2013

To get to Vixen Harbor, we used the scenic route which travels through Ernest Sound and Zimovia Strait.  This harbor is on the north end of Cleveland Peninsula.  The entrance to the harbor is very narrow and you have to line your entry to make sure you do not run into trouble.  There are numerous rocks and very shallow.  The charts indicate a width of 100 yards but at low tide there are reefs extending out from both sides that reduce the channel width to closer to 30 yards!

Once getting through the channel the harbor opens to very nice anchorage.  A perfect spot out of the wind:  36’ depths, mud bottom for anchoring. 

 

We set the hook and then Bruce & Ron went fishing for bait and set the crab pots.

Once settled we rowed over to Contessa and sat out on the deck in the sun visiting.  Bruce actually fell asleep on the deck it was so peaceful!

The next day the boys went exploring on shore.  There is an old wreak of a fish boat which made great exploring.

 

When Bruce and Ron came back, we all decided to take Second Chance out and see if the guys could catch a salmon for dinner.  While we were traveling a pod of porpoise traveled with us!  Then hung around for a least a ½ hour!  Very cool!

 

 

 

 

 

No luck on the salmon.

On our way back we picked up the crab pots and yes, of course, there were four good size crab!  The guys are becoming pros at cleaning crab!  It’s a good thing Lynn and I have several seafood cookbooks to find new and interesting ways to prepare the crab! Yum!

 

 

Once the crab were cooked, we got together on the deck of Second Chance and cleaned the crab before leaving the next morning.