Embarcation: Seattle to Juneau
I'm at the gate in plenty of time, but it's been so long since I've truly had nothing to do that I'm antsy. SeaTac is a mess and a shock for COVID times, lines just as long and tightly spaced as usual. But as usual, it's efficent enough. We got our six totes of gear inside and checked despite three lanes deep of dropping-off cars.
The plan is nebulous. In broad strokes, Rick, Ryan, and I are meeting up with my cousin Charley in Juneau, who's taking us on his fishing boat out to more remote places. I think it's Glacier Bay, then a stop in Pelican to pick up aunt Bonnie, then out to Lituya Bay, where we'll get dropped with our gear. Is he coming back? Maybe. If not, we ping Eileen on the satellite InReach to charter a seaplane to come find us.
We have the InReach set up so we can hit a button to send a "things are fine" message with coordinates to all three partners. But we're hoping they don't get too anxious over a missed message; the InReach took 40 minutes to send our test message last night, which is not a great indicator of reliability.
Here's what I know about Lituya Bay:
- It's a long bay with a narrow mouth and a sizeable island in the middle with nesting seabirds
- Rick's childhood stories about fishing there revolve around infinite quantities of fresh shrimp
- People who are not usually concerned about grizzly bears seem to take extra precautions here
- There are three glaciers at the head of the bay, coming down from the Fairweather range
- There was a tsunami there decades ago that family legend says a relative rode out in a fishing boat
- Technically you can hike there from Yakutat, but it's pretty intense and involves multiple river crossings (we considered it but are leaving it as Plan C for leaving)
For the trip, we have a couple of totes of dried food, really thick raingear, an inflatable boat and an 8hp motor to pick up in Juneau, fishing gear, and supplies for making base camp: tent, water filtration, a pot and pan. If all goes well, Ryan and I have May 31st flights to Seattle- three weeks to play, fish, hike, explore.
Next: Change of Plans
