South OZ Adventurers - Adventure, Travel, Expeditions


Le Conte to Endicott Arm

From the southern most tide water glacier in the northern hemisphere, through to Endicott Arm was a five day journey that took us through some of the most beautiful seascape so far, we met interesting people, and had some interesting weather.

We left the hut outside Le Conte making for Thomas Bay and Biard Glacier. We paddled back past Petersburg and over tidal flats for most of the day. At one point we were looking into the water at the bottom only a foot away and saw a whole bunch of Dungeness Crabs. Now we had been tld by the locals that Dungees are the crabs to eat. And who are we to argue with the locals. And when Kim said that she thouhg that she could catch one I knew we were in for a good meal, because she wouldn't stop until she HAD caught one. As it turned out Kimbo manged to pull in three, and in only about 5 minutes. The mehtod was simple, Kim would lean onto my boat and reach in between the boats and grab the crabs from behind and then we tied them up with bits of string and put them into our helmets. This was how we managed to catch our first bit of Alaskan sea food.

That afternoon we paddled into Thomas Bay and stayed at the Spurt Cove cabin with a Swiss gu called Bleis. Whilst we were in Baranoff we had heard a Pan Pan, a distress call put out over the VHF radio, for anyone with any imformation about a missing Swiss kayaker. As we were pulling up our boats and cooking dinner Kim whispered to me "I think this guy is the missing kayaker." Afrter talking to Bleis and asking him a few questions I started to agree with Kim on this. Before he left the following day we made him promise us that he would go and tell the harbour master in Petersburg that he was ok and was not in any form of distress.

We used the cabin in Spurt Cove as a base for a day trip upto Baird Glacier. Where Le Conte had icebergs and seemingly unnaturally blue water leading upto it Baird Glacier had dirty brown water and only a few small submerged bergs for us to bump into. Baird isn't a true tide water glacier, it has receded about half a mile back from the ocean and any ice in the fjords had washed downthe river that flowed out of the bottom of the glacier.

We approached on a falling tide, which meant that as we stood looking at the glacier and ways to access it, what had been shallow water became part of the river. Once again I was starting to get dangerously cold and told Kim that i would have to turn around. Kim however wanted to try and get closer. Having discussed a reasonable return time with her I headed back out the river towards the cabin. Out of interest i turned on the GPS to see how fast I would be going as I was washed out of the brown murky water, where I couldn't see, only feel, any of the rocks that were certain to be just under the surface. 10.5 knots!!! Almost 20 km/h!! Not really a speed which is comfortable in a 19 foot sea kayak when you can't see what's under the water. However I manged to make it back to the cabin where I had a warm fire going in a matter of minutes.

The next day we departed from the cabin back out through Thomas Bay making our way to what was shown as a cabin on our topo map. The 2 hours out through Thomas Bay was somewhat surreal. We were on the edge of a sea fog for about an hour and a half and could hear boats of all sizes only a few hundred metres away yet couldn't see a sign of them, and yet we were paddling in blue sky and pristine sunshine.

Some time around 6 we reached the place which was marked as a cabin site all that we found was a large black bear and a fire circle. Not something that was really inviting, especially as there wasn't a small island in site! We made a decision to continue on and see what else presented itself. The coast here was relaitively flat, however the next two beaches we landed on both had bear prints on them, which was more than enough incentive for us to keep on paddling. We finally stopped some time after midnight and camped underneath a navigational light, surely a bright flashing light on a narrow point would be enough to keep any bears away. However it wasn't the most comfortable nights sleep that either of us had ever had.

The next morning I went off in search of some berries to make our porridge more edible, and stumbled upon a Japanese photographer, Norio. We had heard stories about this guy, people had seen him in his little rubber ducky totally surrounded by humpbacks bubble feeding snapping away as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Norio told us that every summer he gets dropped off at a location in Southeast Alaska with his zodiak, lots of fuel and enough food to last for a month and then goes out and photographs the humpbacks whenever they head past.

After a leisurley breakfast and packup, when hadn't hit bed until after 1:30, we made our way to Five Finger Lighthouse about 10 Nm away. Miles, a young builder from Junuea greeted us and watched in amazement as we dragged our kayaks 10 feet up the steep rocks so we could sit out the ebbing tide. Five Fingers sits in the entrance to Frederick sound and from the top of the light house we could see the water flowing out of the sound, not something that we would be able to paddle against very easily. We spent the early afternoon relaxing with Miles and exploring the light house and island. Theres always something a little bit spooky about lighthouses in my mind. Porbably all those wild ghost stories you get told as a kid, and the fact that there was a murder novel written about this one!

However as happens in this part of the world the tide turned and it was time for us to be back on the water, making for the small community of Hobart Bay. It turned out to be only one house with a couple living there, the store had closed down about 10 years ago! We made Hobart Bay just as it was getting dark and set up camp on the dock. After getting my tent all set up I went back to get the food and stove out of my kayak and it wasn't there! "Oh no" was not what i said, but it was something to the end. This was a situation that was looking pretty bad, pitch black on a dock in the middle of nowhere without a kayak. Jeremy Beers word were ringing in my ears, "Its undignified to be on an island without a boat." Thanks Jez but it was't helping.

I started down the dock to wake one of the other boats to see if they would help us look for it, and there she was, just resting up against the otherside of the dock. The tide must have dragged it out and then the wind was nudging it back up against the dock. I quickly pulled it back around to its original location and made sure that it was tide up properly!

The next morning we woke to rain, which didn't let up for another 4 days! Kim paddled over to the house while I finished packing to ring hom and let them kow we would be out of contact for a while. There wasn't a phone but the lady assured us that she was heading into town in a couple of days time and would ring from there for us, which she did. The hospitallity and camaraderie of the local Alaskan sea farers was something which always struck us, perhaps it was because we were kayaking a long way and were well prepared. Most Alaskans had a pretty dim view of kayakers, seeing them as ill equipped and with limited experience. Or perhaps it was that we were Australians, something which is about as rare as an outback-steak in that region of the world.

The day was spent slogging it out into headwinds and freezing rain alone what was probably a beautiful coastline, which we were too tired and cold to take much notice of. However we pushed on in the knowledge that we would be able to get warm and dry out with the kayak rangers on Harbour Island at the entrance to Endicott Arm, where we were planninig to camp for the night.......