We spent 9 days kayaking up the West Arm of Glacier Bay National Park in a double kayak. The weather was sunny calm and warm everyday. We got about 35 drops of rain. We were lucky. We had expected cold, wind and rain, and I’m glad it didn’t happen. We saw 10 bears: 8 Grizzleys, and 2 black bears. One black bear woke us up on the last morning smacking our kayak around. I told it, “Leave the premises immediately. Leave the kayak alone.” It did.
I brought premixed pita bread with flour, yeast and salt. I mixed it with water, kneaded it, and let it rise. We backed it in a pan, and some in a flat slate oven we built from stones on the beach and it came out very well. Fresh bread in the wilderness! It was a camping breakthrough. The old time trappers used to bring only flour, sugar, salt, coffee and bacon (and a gun) and live on it for a season. So nothing is new, but its a break for us used to freeze dry, and crackers. Flour carries well, lasts, light weight, tastes good.
We saw about 27 humback whales, some close as 50 feet away. They were all around. Very cool. We saw them fishing, eating, scratching their backs on the shallow rocks, lazing about. We saw bald eagles.
The mosquitos and deer flies were vicious, aggressive, and dangerous. If you were to lie out naked you’d be dead in about an hour. They would literally eat you alive. Deet and a head net allowed me to keep my sanity.
We used the Hillegerg Nammatj GT and it was a godsend. It kept out the bugs, the wind, the rain. A really great piece of equipment and worth every cent.
We paddled with the tide and wind and went about 7 miles a day. The last day the wind and tide were with us, so we put up a sail and covered 8 miles in an hour.