A flawless day bookends a flawless trip. If typical Alaskan weather was the expectation for our six days together then we had anything but the ordinary. Our last full day in Southeast Alaska was spent in Tracy Arm-Ford’s Terror Wilderness under yet another blue sky, atop more calm water and embraced by another 70-degree day. First light found us surrounded on all sides by 3-4 thousand-foot vertical walls of plutonic gneiss topped with snow-lined ridges. Tracy Arm takes those lucky enough to experience it through 22 miles of sinuous geology matched by no other. If one were to flood Yosemite Valley and lengthen that flooded valley floor two to three times, you would begin to match the scale of this landscape. Soft morning light guided us east, deeper and deeper into the fjord until a minefield of icebergs slowed our progress and the luminous, craggy face of South Sawyer Glacier signaled the beginning of our morning tours.
Left adrift at a depth of 640 feet, National Geographic Sea Lion drifted amongst ice sculptures while our entire fleet of inflatables probed deeper into the fjord, as we attempted to get closer looks at the looming blue mass that is South Sawyer Glacier. Stymied by ice and hundreds of pupping harbor seals, we could only push our boats in so far without encroaching on our 100 meter limit to these protected marine mammals. One and half miles, thousands of icebergs and hundreds of mother seals with pups separated us from the glacier face but this was more than enough stimulation to fill our time at the eastern end of Tracy Arm. Noted additions to our day were countless waterfalls, a swimming brown bear, a swimming beaver and a harbor porpoise that decided to catch a 10-minute ride on the bow wave of our inflatable before peeling off. Known as a most unassuming, elusive animal it was an incredible event to have it pop up time and time again at the bow of the boat, blowing porpoise snot on all in its wake!
After our morning in the ice it was time to return the way we came and the rest of the day was spent in leisure cruising slowly towards the dipping sun. By the time we reached the entrance to Tracy Arm the sun was at on oblique angle and all available eyes were on the horizon taking in the maturing light. Calm water and a soft glow guided us into the darkness of an Alaskan evening and six days of perfection that will not soon fade from our memories.
