KAYAKING BEAR GLACIER LAGOON

As always, you can view the photographic narrative for this story below. What is a photographic narrative?

On our final night in Seward, we sat at the bar of the Flamingo Lounge for the second time on this trip, eating dinner, and talking with a local fishing guide sitting on the stool to our left. In the course of our conversation, we told him that we had plans to kayak Bear Glacier Lagoon in the morning. He gave a half frown and said, “You might not be able to.” He went on to say that because of forecasted weather and high seas (about 9 feet), his company had already canceled their trips for the next day, and they were in a fishing boat much larger than the one we’d be taking to get to the lagoon. An email came through on my phone from the guide company with whom we’d booked our kayaking trip confirming the fishing guide’s suppositions. There was a high likelihood that our trip would be canceled in the morning. My disappointment set in over the course of dinner, but I knew that when planning outdoor activities, such things are to be expected. You can’t fight mother nature. 

That night, we packed our things to head back toward Anchorage the next morning. And when we awoke, we were in no particular hurry to get up and moving, assuming that we now had a large block of unscheduled time to meander around town a little. I hadn’t yet heard any final word from our guide company regarding the status of our trip, so I gave them a call. To my surprise, our trip was still on. 

We hurriedly cleaned the Airbnb, gathered our belongings, and got in the car. Two minutes later, we were at the office of Liquid Adventures preparing for a day on the water. We half donned our dry suits, tying the arms at our waists so we wouldn’t get overheated on the journey to the lagoon, got in a ford van, rode to the docks, and boarded a Customweld jet boat. The ride to the Bear Glacier lagoon was an epic adventure by itself. We zipped along the coast about two hundred yards from where the mountains dove below the water. I sat outside on the back step of the boat to both feel more immersed in the gloomy, rainy beauty around me, and so that the cool air on my face might help to ward off motion sickness. 

As we neared the lagoon, our captain skillfully timed our entrance into the lagoon between large waves from the adjacent ocean. And just another quarter mile or so later, we were safe and sound in Bear Glacier Lagoon. We fully donned our dry suits and threw on a few additional layers to fend off the cold and rain. And then, we climbed into our kayaks and followed our guide through channels between huge floating pieces of ice that had broken off from Bear Glacier. Getting this up close and personal to the huge glacial ice chunks was an almost otherworldly experience, their cold and compact structure creating a striking blue color, with tendrils of all shapes and sizes twisting out away from the central components. The rain came on harder and harder, testing the weather sealing of my Panasonic Lumix S5 (which performed admirably), and creating ripples on the otherwise glass-like surface of the water. 

After a couple of hours of slowly paddling back and forth through different parts of the lagoon, our time in the water came to an end. We headed back to the shore where our boat was moored and sipped hot chocolate while tying down our kayaks for the next day’s adventurers. In the jet boat again, we reversed course and headed back to the harbor of Seward. I again sat outside on the back of the boat, my elation over the experience we’d just had making it impossible to feel cold. I snapped pictures of seagulls flying along the coast at the same speed as our boat, and relished every second on the water surrounded by the staggering beauty of southern Alaska. 

Eventually, we made it back to the docks, and then back to the guide office. We took off our dry suits, tipped our guide, gathered our gear, and walked across the street to Firebrand BBQ for a late lunch. Then we headed back to Anchorage for a night of sound sleep before our flight home in the morning. Along the drive to our hotel for the evening, I reflected on the previous week in Alaska and all of the incredible experiences and adventures we’d had. After half a lifetime of waiting, I’d finally visited Alaska. It was everything I’d hope for, and more.