- Aug 1-8 Berkeley, CA; Seattle, WA; Bainbridge Island, WA; Ketchikan, AK
- Aug 9-11 Ketchikan, Misty Fjords, Metalatka, Petersburg, Le Conte Bay, Tracy Arms
- Aug 12-13 Tracy Arms, Sawyer Glacier, Sitka, Neva and Olga Straits, Sturgis Narrows, Peril Straits
- Aug 14-15 Glacier Bay, Skagway, Whitehorse Pass (Canada), Chilkat, Haines
- Aug 16-17 Juneau, Mendenhall Glacier
- Aug 9-11 Ketchikan, Misty Fjords, Metalatka, Petersburg, Le Conte Bay, Tracy Arms
- Aug 18-19 Yakutat, Cordova, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Coldfoot, Barrow
- Aug 20-21 Fairbanks, Anchorage
- Aug 22-23 Anchorage, Denali, Backcountry Lodge
- Aug 24-25 Denali, Anchorage
- Aug 26-27 Anchorage, Turnagain Arm, Hope
- Aug 28-29 Turnagain Arm, Seward, Kenai Peninsula boat ride
- Aug 30-31 Seward, Anchorage, Seattle, WA, Berkeley, CA
- Aug 20-21 Fairbanks, Anchorage
Tuesday, Day 14, 8/14/2007
I woke up, and Games and gameboy. My signal in games is almost impossible to figure out. We saw otters in kelp while they rolled around. We had lunch and saw a whale, rested and heard a talk about the Natives. Finnally, we played more cards and games, then went to bed.
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Glacier Bay, AK with a layer of fog
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Glacier Bay, AK: bachelor sea lions, gulls, murres, puffins, and cormorants on South Marble Island
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Glacier Bay, AK: puffin bird
Tuesday, 8/14/2007
We're in Glacier Bay! In 1750 the entire huge bay was filled with glaciers. Now they have receded so far that there are few glaciers left on the US side, only on the Canadian side. I saw an otter lying on his back and eating and doing the backstroke away from the boat. Other saw some humpback whales flapping their fins to round up schools of small fish for breakfast.
We went past South Marble Island and saw tons of gulls, murres, puffins, cormorants, and a huge colony of bachelor sea lions.
At the head of Glacier Bay was the Grand Pacific Glacier, which now goes 34 miles. The front edge of Grand Pacific glacier is dirty black from glacial rubble, and was mistaken at first for a mountain. Right next to it is Margery Glacier, which was mostly snow white and streaked with black and blue.
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Glacier Bay, AK: bachelor sea lions
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Glacier Bay, AK: bachelor sea lions, gulls, murres, puffins, and cormorants on South Marble Island
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Glacier Bay, AK: bachelor sea lions, gulls, murres, puffins, and cormorants on South Marble Island
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gull
On the way to Margery Glacier we saw a brown bear (grizzly) swimming deep in the bay. I tried to get some photos, but am not sure I succeeded. We saw Margery calve two iceberg chunks. Margery currently goes back 21 miles. At Margery, we could see a big current of meltwater gushing out at the bottom of the glacier. Many birds were flying there in hopes of snagging one of the small fish that the melt water stirs up from the bay. Then we traveled back along Glacier Bay past Lamplugh (?) Glacier and Reed Glacier.
Faith (Nakash-deh), a Tlingit and a local ranger, gave us a lesson on Tlingit. Faith is a Huna Tlingit, and a member of the Eagle moiety. Her mother is in the Eagle moiety as well. Faith said that a saying in Tlingit is "when the tide is down, the table is set," because so much of their food was gathered from the bays at low tide. They would preserve fish and meats by smoking them, or by covering them with seal grease. they would eat chocolate lily roots, and get a form of celery from "cow parsnip".
Tlingit --------------English
gunasheesh ------- thank you
gunasheesh ho-ho - thank you very much
coqwantan --------- wolf
coo-eee ------------- potlatch
jan-woo ------------ mountain goat
hoonia ------------- shelter from the north wind
keet -----------------orca
kuteea ------------- totem pole
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Glacier Bay, AK: fireweed
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bachelor sea lions, gulls, murres, puffins, and cormorants on South Marble Island
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Glacier Bay, AK: birds
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serves 4
1/2 c kosher salt
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c rice
1/4 c oolong tea leaves mixed with 2 T water
cooking-oil spray
4 6-ounce salmon filets with the skin on
fresh ground pepper
olive oil to drizzle
Line the inside of a stove-top smoker or wok with aluminum foil that comes up at least 2 inches up the sides. Mix the first 4 together, and pour into the base. Grease a small roasting rack with oil, and put it on top. Season the fish filets with salt and pepper, and place them skin-down on the rack. Turn the heat on high (and turn the exhaust fan on). When it starts to smoke, cover the pan tightly with a lid, and reduce heat to medium, and smoke until it is cooked through (10-16 minutes depending on the size of the filets). Drizzle the fish with extra virgin olive oil. Serve with Corn and Fennel Ragout.
serves 5
3 T finely chopped red onion
2 T lime juice
grated zest of 1/2 lime
salt and fresh ground pepper
6 T mayonnaise
15 oz canned skinless, boneless, salmon
1/4 c finely chopped celery
1 T capers
1 T chopped chives
1o slices white bread
2.5 T soft butter
Combine the first 4 and let sit 5 minutes. Whisk in the mayo. Fold in the next 4. Butter bread on one side and toast in a frying pan. Spread the un-toasted side with salmon mix and top with another toast slice.
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Glacier Bay, AK: birds
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Glacier Bay, AK:
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Glacier Bay, AK:
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sea otters, humpback whales, pelagic cormorants, Steller sea lions, tufted puffins, black-legged kittiwakes, common murres, pigeon guillemots, black oyster catchers, surf scoters, kittlitz murrelets, mountain goats, brown bear, black scoters, harbor seals
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Glacier Bay, AK: puffin
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birds
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birds
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puffins
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Tracy Arms, AK: glacier
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_
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Glacier Bay, AK:
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_, Martin Kolb, and our ranger, Jessie Soder
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bear swimming across the strait
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bear getting up after swimming across the strait
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Glacier Bay, AK: bear
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bear getting up after swimming across the strait
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birds on an ice floe
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Glacier Bay, AK:
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Martha and Arthur Luehrmann
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Glacier Bay, AK: Natan Luehrmann looks at the glacier from his window
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the rock shows striations from the glacier scraping
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Glacier Bay, AK: calving glacier
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Arthur Luehrmann, Ranger Jessie Soder & _
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Glacier Bay: crew and staff: _, Kristen Buccigrossi, & _
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Glacier Bay, AK: our ranger, Jessie Soder
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Glacier Bay: crew and staff
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cooks!
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crew and staff
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David Miller & _
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Glacier Bay: crew and staff
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Glacier Bay, AK:
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aerial view of an ice field and several glaciers
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view of a tidewater glacier above and below the water line
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Glacier Bay, AK: flamingo tree
David told us to look for a rare tree -- We found it! It is a tree decorated with plastic pink flamingos!
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our ranger guides leave us
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sea otter
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crew and staff
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Glacier Bay: crew and staff
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Natan Luehrmann enjoys yet another dessert
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aboard the Yorktown: _, _, _, & _
Wednesday, Day 15, 2007
I woke up and arrived at Skagway. Skagway means the air you can't breath twice. It's really beautiful but in the winter it's freezing and still. That's how it got its name. We took a bus into Canada and came back train. When we came back you could look down a cliff 3,000+ ft. below. The rail was built for the Gold Rush. 3,000 horses died of starvation. The people walked in ice and snow. Many died just to mine and get gold for their families. During dinner, we saw a porpise. It's pretty wierd. with a ___. We saw a slide show of alot of beautful pictures and went to bed.
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Skagway, AK: Natan Luehrmann, Kai & Adrian Lee
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Skagway, AK: costumed guides
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Skagway, AK: costumed guides
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Wednesday, 8/15/2007
We arrived this morning is Skagway, Alaska. The local indians called the place Skwagwa Skwagwa, which means the air you can't breathe twice (because of the fierce winds that buffet Skagway. In Skagway we were taken by a small tour bus up across the Canadian border to White Horse, where we picked up the old railway to go back the 18 miles to Skagway.
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Skagway, AK: the famous (or infamous) Red Onion Saloon
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driving from Skagway, AK to Whitehorse Pass, CANADA:
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Skagway to Whitehorse Pass and the Yukon train
Our bus tour guide was excellent, and told us of the history of Skagway, that had a highly hyped Gold Rush where about 10,000 miners came lugging provisions for a year (about 1 ton of provisions) as required by the Canadian government. The trails were horribly rugged, and there was 30-40 feet of snow on the ground. In many places the trail was only one person wide, and it was packed with men in a single file. If you fell or got out of line, it might be 2 or 3 hours before you had a chance to get back in line. During that gold rush, 2,000 horses, starved and exhausted, stampeded to their deaths in the mountains, and many men died.
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driving from Skagway, AK to Whitehorse Pass, CANADA:
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driving from Skagway, AK to White Pass, CANADA:
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Arthur Luehrmann
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driving from Skagway, AK to White Pass, CANADA:
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The train that we took back was a narrow gauge train. We went through tunnels, spectacular terrain, bridges over category 6 rapids, and massive rocks and boulders left by the glaciers as they retreated. The ground near the summit was full of small lakes and ponds, and was spongy from lichen. The waters were all clear, but with that milky-aqua cast that you see in glacial waters (like Lake Victoria in Canada). On the trai we saw the old rusted steel trestle, which, at the time it was built, was the very highest railroad trestle anywhere in the world.
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Whitehorse Pass, CANADA:
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the old snowblower for the train
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taking the White Pass, Yukon, and Skagway narrow-gauge train from Whitehorse Pass, CANADA to Skagway, AK
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fireweed
Incidentally, we were not told before-hand, but apparently no one (besides the parents can take a child outside of the US without the parent's written permissions. We wrote a fake one and Arthur signed for Mia (since they both have illegible signatures) and one of the guys from the boat signed for Ben. Luckily, we never had to use the forgery, but got by with giving them a phone number for Ben and Mia.
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Skagway, AK:
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Whitehorse Pass, CANADA
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taking the White Pass, Yukon, and Skagway narrow-gauge train from Whitehorse Pass, CANADA to Skagway, AK
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taking the White Pass, Yukon, and Skagway narrow-gauge train from White Pass, CANADA to Skagway, AK
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the old trestle - highest in the world when it was built
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Skagway, AK: high trestle bridge on the Skagway to Whitehorse Pass and the Yukon train
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taking the White Pass, Yukon, and Skagway narrow-gauge train from Whitehorse Pass, CANADA to Skagway, AK
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Skagway, AK: Chilkoot Trail
this was the old trail that claimed so many lives of gold prospectors
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Chilkat, AK: bald eagle
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Skagway, AK: view from Skagway to Whitehorse Pass and the Yukon train
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Skagway, AK: Skagway to Whitehorse Pass and the Yukon train
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taking the White Pass, Yukon, and Skagway narrow-gauge train from White Pass, CANADA to Skagway, AK
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taking the White Pass, Yukon, and Skagway narrow-gauge train from White Pass, CANADA to Skagway, AK
this was the sign put up by the youths that followed President Buchanan's urge to go to Alaska
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notice the chalky look of the glacier-melt water
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taking the White Pass, Yukon, and Skagway narrow-gauge train from White Pass, CANADA to Skagway, AK
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Skagway, AK: panning for gold
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gold nuggets and a copper penny
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taking the White Pass, Yukon, and Skagway narrow-gauge train from White Pass, CANADA to Skagway, AK
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back in Skagway, AK
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Skagway, AK:
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Chilkat, AK:
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Chilkat, AK:
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Chilkat, AK:
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Haines, AK:
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Haines, AK: bald eagle
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Haines, AK:
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Haines, AK: rafting
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Haines, AK: rafting
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Haines, AK: rafting
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Haines, AK: rafting
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Haines, AK: rafting
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Haines, AK:
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Skagway, AK:
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Haines, AK: Hammer museum
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mockup of blacksmith
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Haines, AK:
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Haines, AK:
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Skagway, AK:
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Skagway, AK: crew member
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Manager Corey Roettgers and _, crew of the Spirit of Yorktown
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Amy Grant and Brian DeVille, bartenders
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Markus Koontz, hotel staff
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Amy Grant, bartender
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Skagway, AK: Captain's dinner
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Skagway, AK: Captain's dinner: David Miller shows pictures from the trip
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Captain's dinner
cook staff:: TJ Maguire, Brian White, Adam Potter, Melvin Bugarin, and Executive Chef Marlon Runkel
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Skagway, AK: Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights)
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Skagway, AK: Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights)