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We meet a fisherman that night, he owns a large fishing vessel, the Moonlight Maid. He reluctantly responds well to our idea of having him drop us off in the morning near the waters surrounding the Colombia Glacier. We will spend the day kayaking to its head and then return for a pickup in the evening. We all rendezvous in the morning, and head out into the Prince William Sound. When we get dropped, the tide is going with us as we paddle up the channel toward the glacier, several miles away. As we invade into the depths of the ice burg, they get bigger and closer together. Eventually we call it quits as the ice is getting hard too push through. We navigate to shore to consume some lunch and restore our dwindling energy. We are all content, watching glacial debris drifting by, sun skimming peaks that we stood upon just yesterday. I think we all felt lucky at that moment to be a part of this journey to Alaska. Chris, the guy who brought us here, is our guide for today. He is a skilled class five kayaker, swift water rescue certified and a NOLS instructor to name a few credentials. When he notices the shift in tide and the directional change in ice flow, he reports the time to depart is now. In the few minutes it takes to pack our boats, the walls of ice that terminated our push to the head of the glacier are well past us. We must now negotiate through that which we chose not to navigate by heading for shore for a food break. |