Pacific NW

Expeditions

Some day I will return to Landlocked Bay and spend more time there. Today our original plan was to go to Valdez. But the weather was so good and we took one look at Shoup Bay and couldn’t pass it up. The landscape in Port Valdez is crazy. We are at 61 degrees North now. There are little to no trees anywhere and snowline comes right down to the water. Shoup Bay, like the rest of the area, is walled by massive peaks and has a huge glacier at its head. We anchored off of a moraine field that leads to the lake that the glacier calves into. There is quite a current coming out of the stream through the moraine field. In the afternoon (our afternoon we consider 1700-2100 hours) Modulus and I went on an expedition to the glacier. I worked my way through a series of back channels and kettle ponds, and hauled Modulus over much of the extensive moraine field. The shores still had about 10-15 feet of snow, but a thin forest of huge cottonwood trees was budding through it all. I will never forget the sight of that bright green against the white of all that snow and ice, not to mention the sweet smell the trees gave off. I finally made it to the lake, but no further. I tied Modulus to a willow tree and climbed up a steep rise, filling my boots with slushy snow. At the tops of all the prominent points I found piles of Kittiwake feathers and blood along with heavy eagle tracks surrounding all these places. Below me was the vast Shoup Lake and Glacier, all frozen up. The lake was in the process of spring break-up. Massive ice sheets were breaking apart and flowing out the river, where they were ground up and discharged into the bay where we were anchored. One of the islands in the lake was completely swarming with Kittiwake gulls. Apparently it is the largest Kittiwake rookery in Prince William Sound. Their shrieks were deafening and ceaseless, and they appeared to be in a constant state of agitation. I have never seen so many birds in one place before! The blinding sun, roaring Kittiwakes, and booming glacier combined to make quite the spectacle. I hauled Modulus over to the main river and we shot the rapids amongst the chunks of ice from the lake, where we were washed back into the bay and to “Silent Partner”. I had a close encounter with a porcupine later in the day, who was eating away at some willow trees. He didn’t care that I was there, I could have reached up from Modulus and touched him.