Le Conte Glacier and Petersburg
After a series of lovely days in Alaska, you wake up and think that it is not possible to have another one; it has to be raining today. Well, no. Another lovely day here in heaven (quite north, isn’t it?).
We had been steaming south, then east all night long, and morning met us in Frederick Sound. As we advanced, we began to see pieces of floating ice. More and more, and pretty soon we were anchored at the mouth of the Le Conte Glacier’s fjord. We had a hurried breakfast and soon were riding in the Zodiacs toward some enormous pieces of blue ice.
The tide was very low, and the growlers, bergie-bits and icebergs were stranded in the shallow waters, or even on shore. Blue, blue, blue! Slowly we approached some of them, and were able to touch one or two that were definitely stable. Some were as big as two houses! One group even stopped at the shore and walked to a big, beautiful iceberg that was, as all the others, melting away in the slightly warmer weather. The kids even drank the dripping water, melted off crystal-clear ice.
Back on the ship, we sailed at full speed toward Petersburg, on Mitkoff Island, where we eventually tied up to a big dock, and, after lunch, began our afternoon enjoyments. Some of us walked into the small, lovely fishing town, founded more than a century ago by Norwegians; some of us visited fishing ships along the dock; others took flights over a glacier in small amphibious planes. Others were taken across Wrangel Narrows to the island of Kupreanof, where they visited a bog or muskeg, with very special plants, all adapted to acid water. Tall trees were to be seen; they were lodgepole pines!
Eventually we were all back, and we steamed away into the distance, en route for another super adventure tomorrow!
