THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees
by Robert Glenn Ketchum
In 1985, I began a 2-year commission to explore the Tongass rainforest, the largest forest in the United States Forest Service (USFS) system AND the largest temperate rainforest in the world. It was a unique, old-growth environment under siege from industrial logging. The resulting investigative book I published helped to pass the Tongass Timber Reform Bill, protect 1,000,000 acres of old-growth, and create 11 new wilderness areas. This is the story of how that was achieved.~Robert Glenn Ketchum
Tuesday, October 3, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #366Tongass, #366: As I near the end of this Tongass blog, I am going to repost a number of images that marked the best of my various trip experience over the four years I spent working there. I was commissioned to work in the rainforest by Barney Mchenry who previously provided me with my Hudson River commission. Barney thought the best way to be introduced to the Tongass was aboard Boat Company boat which was owned by Michael McIntosh, so he introduced us. Michael was happy to have me join the other members of the boat, and one of the first places we visited was the very small community of Warm Springs. Warm Springs overlooked a large, and raging, waterfall, which Michael wanted to fish. When he got near the waterfall, the scale of my coming Alaskan adventure became clear.
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Tuesday, August 29, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #365 Tongass, #365: The morning after my plane flight, weather rolled in and our cove was in a deep fog, so instead of going back too bed, I threw my parka on over my pajamas and wandered out on deck to find the shoreline of trees steaming in the morning sunrise.
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Tuesday, August 15, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #364 Tongass, #364: I had never flown in a small plane, so Michael McIntosh thought I should as it would give me a very different perspective of the Tongass. I had never shot from an airplane either, so I would learn something new on this flight. Just a few minutes after we departed from Warm Springs, we flew over this high alpine lake, and I began to realize how very different everything looked from up in the air.
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Tuesday, August 8, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #363 Tongass, #363: As I near the end of this Tongass blog, I am going to repost a number of images that marked the best of my various trip experience over the four years I spent working there. I was commissioned to work in the rainforest by Barney McHenry who previously provided me with my Hudson River commission. Barney thought the best way to be introduced to the Tongass was aboard a Boat Company boat which was owned by Michael McIntosh, so he introduced us. Michael was happy to have me join the other members of the boat, and one of the first places we visited was the very small community of Warm Springs. Warm Springs overlooked a large, and raging, waterfall, which Michael wanted to fish. When he got near the waterfall, the scale of my coming Alaskan adventure became clear.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2023,
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Tuesday, August 1, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #362 Tongass, #362: Endicott Arm is a deepwater fiord that does not offer an anchorage, so our boat anchored in the shallower waters near the mouth of the arm and we took the smaller tenders to voyage up to the calving glacier.
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Tuesday, July 25, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #361 Tongass, #361: My kids and I had come to Juneau to board one of
The Boat Company’s boats for a tour of the fjordlands to the south. We had been into
Tracy Arm several times but not the adjoining fjord,
Endicott Arm, so that is what we would explore on this visit.
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Tuesday, July 18, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #360 Tongass, #360: After leaving our week stay at
Camp Denali, my kids and I took the train back to Anchorage where we overnighted, then flew to
Juneau the next day. Population-wise, Juneau is a relatively small city. It is also the last port for the numerous cruise ships before they head south. As you can see here, when three of them are in town at the same time, their collective passengers are nearly as great as Juneau’s entire population.
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Tuesday, July 11, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #359 Tongass, #359: After a week at Camp Denali, which included hiking every day, when we got on the train to head back to Anchorage, all the activities finally caught up with my kids, who then passed out cold for most of the trip.
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Tuesday, July 4, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #358 Tongass, #358: Another roadside attraction in Denali National Park.
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Tuesday, June 27, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #357 Tongass, #357: Another advantage of staying at Camp Denali besides the great field trips, is that the naturalists know some really fun things to do. After a morning hike, our naturalist that day took us to a ‘“special” place for lunch. We climbed a slope covered with deep, lush tundra, and at the top where we stopped to eat, we were afforded great views in every direction. Most assumed that was the point of coming to this location. However, when we had finished eating, our fearless leader informed us the view was not the point of our location, and with that, she threw herself down the hill rolling head over heels. She was “tundra rolling”. Of course that immediately set off the kids who threw themselves down the slope after her. Hysterical! That is my son, Travis, in orange, and he is doing it backwards.
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Tuesday, June 20, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #356 Tongass, #356: Here the
Camp Denali naturalist has my kids multi-tasking. Travis is using a spotting scope to watch a family of loons swim about on a lake, and Talja is picking berries for a little snack.
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Tuesday, June 13, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #355 Tongass, #355: On the opposite side of Wonder Lake, the shore is formed by a large dome called Strawberry Ridge. A favorite dayhike of
Camp Denali is to start at the far end of Wonder Lake, surmount the dome and hike back to camp. It is a long hike, but not difficult, and lunch is consumed along the way. As it is a nice warm day on this particular hike, after lunch both of my kids took short naps.
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Tuesday, June 6, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #354 Tongass, #354: While the tourists staying in the hotels outside the park ride in and out on the main road, guests staying at
Camp Denali get to explore the backcountry roads, and go hiking, something else the tourists never get to do. Here, on one of the dayhikes, the Camp Denali naturalist is teaching my children to identify various wildflowers.
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Tuesday, May 30, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #353 Tongass, #353: This is my daughter, Talja, kissing a moose sculpture at the Denali visitor center. Her lips have been busy on this trip, she kissed two whales in Seward, and another in Juneau.
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Tuesday, May 23, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #352 Tongass, #352: The morning routine at
Camp Denali evolves. Everyone has had breakfast and now the staff is delineating the various adventures we can choose for the day, after which we will all make our own lunches and then depart in the vans.
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Tuesday, May 16, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #351 Tongass, #351: The bus ride to the end of the road and
Camp Denali is 10hrs., so after you board at a nearly 1/2-way point, the bus stops adjacent the Toklat River and serves dinner. It is well planned and organized by the Camp Denali staff, even for the most inclement weather. The bus has a huge tarp on the roof, and all the meals have been preprepared family style, so a big table is set up under the tarp and everyone lines up for a more than hearty meal.
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Tuesday, May 9, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #350 Tongass, #350: Another point of amusing interest in Anchorage is this semi-psychedelic underpass. The street above is lined on both sides with many restaurants and several large hotels. There is a lot of foot traffic that crosses back and forth, but there are no traffic lights on the busy street, so the tunnel is the safest way to get from one side to the other.
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Tuesday, May 2, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #349 Tongass, #349: In the Tongass rainforest the
Tlingit is the largest tribe, and because they are surrounded by an endless forest of trees they express their art in their houses, boats, and totem poles decorated with very distinct, stylized designs. In the Bristol Bay region, the two predominant tribes work in a very different way. There is little forest to provide wood, so these tribes have chosen to work with things salvaged from the shore, and hunted from the sea. The mask above has many elements. The lighter objects are Walrus ivory, The mask and arms are wood, The face details are sea shells and abalone. The headdress are Raven’s feathers, and the two concentric circles that surround the face are whale baleen.
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Tuesday, April 25, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #348 Tongass, #348: On the various trips I made with my children to
Camp Denali, we would arrive a day or two before catching the train there and wander about in Anchorage. To me one of the most interesting aspects of Anchorage is that there are a lot of art galleries featuring Native crafts. Masks are one of the most common items, and this store has masks from dozens of different Alaskan tribes.
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Tuesday, April 18, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #347 Tongass, #347: Along with taxidermy animals, Anchorage hosts numerous galleries that sell Native Alaskan art, many of which are masks. There are more than twenty tribes in Alaska, and each tribe has its own style and designs. I always find browsing in these galleries interesting, and my home in Manhattan Beach is decorated with some fine pieces that I have purchased over the years.
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Tuesday, April 11, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #346 Tongass, #346: Travis is being stared down by this Polar bear.
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Tuesday, April 4, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #345 Tongass, #345: I spent a fair amount of time in Anchorage because I served on the board of the Alaska Conservation Foundation for 9yrs., so I knew Anchorage well. When I would take my kids to Camp Denali we would go by train from Anchorage and overnight there for a day or two, so everyone could goof around. There is no shortage of stuffed animals in town.
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Tuesday, March 28, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #344 Tongass, #344: Another great feature of touring the Tongass when aboard one of the
Boat Company’s boats is that they all have ship-to-shore tenders. These smaller boats carry guests ashore for day hikes, and serve as fishing platforms. They also allow for more intimate sightseeing being able to go where the larger boat cannot. On this particular day Talja, Travis, and I are watching a very active glacier calve. Our guide also knows that you will get cold without some activity so she has brought along several thermoses of soup and hot chocolate.
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Tuesday, March 21, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #343 Tongass, #343: It does not get more fresh than this. On days that you go fishing aboard any
Boat Company boat, you literally eat what you catch for your dinner. On this particular day, we got in some excellent salmon fishing, and now the chef is preparing the fillets that we will have for our evening meal. Yummo!
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Tuesday, March 14, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #342 Tongass, #342: Aside from Camp Denali, my other Alaskan experience that I love best is to be aboard one of the
Boat Company’s boats exploring the islands of the Tongass Rainforest. They operate three boats in southeast, all of which are about this size. There is generally a staff of twelve or so, which includes naturalist guides and a superb chef, that hosts about 25 guests on a 10-day trip. On board there is plenty to do, but every day you also go hiking, or fishing, or both. The particular pleasure of being aboard one of these vessels is, unlike kayaking and camping, when you have a day, or several days, of miserable weather, you are in a cozy stateroom when you sleep.
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Tuesday, March 7, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #341 Tongass, #341: My kids were with me on this trip, so at the top of the pass on the Richardson Highway I had some fun with them and challenged them to see who could balance on this rock with just one foot. I won. Hahaha!
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Tuesday, February 28, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #340 Tongass, #340: The view at the top of the Richardson Highway looks back down in the narrow Valdez fjord and offers an expansive overlook of the surrounding mountains, which in the winter months have become a favorite destination for extreme skiers.
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Tuesday, February 21, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #339 Tongass, #339: About halfway between Whittier and Cordova, a long arm branches off of Prince William Sound, and it terminates in the town of Valdez. Valdez is not as interesting to me as Cordova, but it gives access to a highway that is a pleasant drive and circles back to Anchorage. At the end of town, the Richardson Highway begins to rise rather quickly culminating in a scenic pass before passing through to the interior. I always stop at the top of the pass to climb the rocky knoll and take in the view.
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Tuesday, February 14, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #338 Tongass, #338: On the day I took my kids on the drive up the Copper River delta, it was raining hard and near the terminal bridge there was a good view of the glacier that entered the river from the other side (last post), so we parked the car and watched the glacier calve while we ate lunch. The glacier was quite active, I suspect stimulate by the rain, so we hung out for several hours At the time, it did not occur to me that all that water was making the river rise, but when we began our return to Cordova, we came to a number of sections of the road that were completely underwater as you can see here. Never a dull moment.
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Tuesday, February 7, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #337 Tongass, #337: Not far outside of the town of Cordova is the
Copper River delta. The Copper is the tenth largest river in the U.S., and the delta host a vast complex of braids that extend for miles. On
this map link the cluster of red tags to the left are Cordova, and to the far right you can see the delta. A gravel road runs out of town, crossing over the delta and then paralleling it to the east, terminating at the Million Dollar Bridge. It is an enjoyable drive where you often see wildlife, and when the salmon are spawning, the run up the Copper is astounding, and there is wide agreement that the Copper River salmon are the best tasting in the world.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #336 Tongass, #336: Just past Girdwood on the road that parallels Turnagain Arm, there is a short road that turns east and goes through a tunnel in the mountain emerging in the town of Whittier. I find nothing attractive about Whitttier, but I don’t go there to stay in the town. I go there to catch the ferry that will take me across Prince William Sound to a town I do like very much,
Cordova. Cordova is small in size but big on fishing, and besides a harbor full of boats, there are several fish processing plants at the waterfront Anywhere fish are processed there are a loi of birds and in the case of Cordova, thousands of seagulls as you can see here, flocking the water behind Travis and Talja.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #335 Tongass, #335: On the way to Seward and the Kenai Peninsula, you pass the town of Girdwood, home to the Alyeska ski resort. At the mouth of the Girdwood Valley is a bakery and restaurant that provides tasty Alaskan-sized meals. Talja ordered pancakes.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #334 Tongass, #334: No one lives on the far side of Resurrection Bay, so bears and birds are free to roam and feed, on the now dead spawned out salmon. Many people drive over to
Fourth of July Beach to see the bears and birds, but the rules of behavior favor the animals and not the humans. Travis and Talja know their mother does not like bears, so of course they wanted me take this picture so they could send it to her.
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Tuesday, January 10, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #333 Tongass, #333: When you are in Seward there is a good deal to explore, and when the salmon are spawning they are doing so in the many creeks on the far side of Resurrection Bay. at a place called
Fourth of July Beach. Once the salmon spawn, they die, and their dead bodies choke up the creeks and wash up on the shore, which attracts hordes of birds and also quite a few bear.
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Tuesday, January 3, 2023
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #332 Tongass, #332: Another of my favorite cities is Seward. It is easy to reach with a beautiful drive from Anchorage, and it is built adjacent to a huge bay that opens to the Pacific. Resurrection Bay is not only wide, but also quite long, nonetheless, in earthquake prone Alaska, because it is open to the pacific, it is not immune to tsunamis. In fact, the locals joke about the Great Alaskan Earthquake of 1964 which leveled every single building in Seward. As a consequence, many fires were started, and the joke is that the city would have been reduced to an ash pile had not a massive tsunami come in, sweeping over the entire city, and putting the fires out. Hahaha!
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Tuesday, December 27, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #331 Tongass, #331: Most of the industrial sites in Sitka are near the ends of the road and not in the central city. This little jewel is tucked discreetly in what was formerly a clearcut. Very attractive.
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Tuesday, December 20, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #330 Tongass, #330: Although Sitka is one of my favorite cities, it is large enough to support substantial industries as well, most related to logging and paper. As I said in a previous post, none of the industrial locations like seeing photographers taking pictures of their sites, and this one in particular has posted signs saying “no photographs allowed”. What are they afraid of ?
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Tuesday, December 13, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #329
Tongass, #329: Sitka is one of the larger towns in Southeast, and besides fishing, it is home to various aspects of the logging industry. I wanted pictures like this for my book, so every time I visited Sitka, I drove to the various industrial sites and snapped a few pictures before I was spotted. These property owners did not like seeing me with a camera photographing things like this.
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Tuesday, December 6, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #328 Tongass, #328: I often made the drive from Anchorage to
Seward because I really liked Seward. It is a relatively small town, but it has some great restaurants and small shops to explore. It also has a colorful, if somewhat disheveled marina with a lot of strange objects scattered about rather randomly.
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Tuesday, November 29, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #327 Tongass, #327: Many of the small towns in the Tongass have unique characteristics. They all have waterfronts that harbored numerous boats, but there are other colorful things as well, so I would wander around on the docks to explore all there was to see. This is quite a collection of floats, ropes, and wire baskets.
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Tuesday, November 22, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #326 Tongass, #326: Many of the islands unfortunately offer this disgusting abuse of their natural habitat. Not one of these logs comes into the U.S. to be used in American manufacturing, and supporting American jobs. Every last tree felled is shipped to Japan. And, look at the wasted wood left on the ground to rot. It is shameful that the Congress allows this to be done to our public lands. Stop the cut. Restore Roadless Rule. Tell Biden to do something about this.
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Tuesday, November 15, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #325 Tongass, #325: Some of the Tongass' diverse habitats are vertical. This is the fjord called Rudyerd Bay, a little south of Ketchikan, and as you can see, the walls are straight up and down, but that does not stop them from being densely vegetated.
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Tuesday, November 8, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #324 Tongass, #324: Over the last month I have been showing examples of how the many islands of the Tongass rainforest sport very differing habitats. Here is another example. Deep into the old growth of
Admiralty Island, there is a vast complex of blackwater swamps and acres of skunk cabbage growing in it.
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Tuesday, November 1, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #323 Tongass, #323: This island habitat is very wet and swampy, as a consequence there are not a lot of big trees, but there is a dense understory of ferns and the ever-dangerous Devil’s Club, whose every branch and leaf are covered with thousands of sharp spines. It is not a good idea to try and navigate this terrain.
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Tuesday, October 25, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #322 Tongass, #322: Here is an island at low tide, revealing several connections to what appear to be smaller islands at high tide. There is also a substantial kelp covering and a lot of exposed shellfish. Because many rainforest natives live a subsistence lifestyle, the Tlingit have a saying, “When the tide is out, your table is set."
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Tuesday, October 18, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #321 Tongass, #321: In the 17,000,000 acres of the Tongass rainforest, there are more than 1,000 islands. Some are very large, some are quite small. Most interesting to me, however, is that they are very different from one another. Over the next few posts I am going to show you how widely these habitats differ. In this image, I am on a relatively small island, the entirety of which is completely covered by a variety of mosses. There is no soil showing anywhere.
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Tuesday, October 11, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #320 Tongass, #320: On this relatively small island in the
Tongass rainforest EVERYTHING on the island is covered by deep layers of plushy moss, even the trees. This image is of a rock, buried beneath multiple layers of differing mosses each growing over the other. It is a strange, spongy world in which to walk around.
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Tuesday, October 4, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #319 Tongass, #319: On this island in the
Tongass rainforest it is very swampy with numerous blackwater ponds, and lots of moss growth. Some of the blackwater is so still you can walk into it without realizing that you have.
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Tuesday, September 27, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #318 Tongass, #318: Although there are about 17,000,000 acres in the
Tongass rainforest, spread across 1000+ islands, there are many different habitats that vary widely from island to island. This image was made on
Chichagof, part way up a mountainside where tundra meadows host small ponds, and lots of stunted trees. Quite a beautiful little microniche.
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Tuesday, September 20, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #317 Tongass, #317: Climbing down from the top of the rock dome on Chichiagof Island we encounter numerous, small tundra ponds, and verdant meadow complexes, all of it very squishy underfoot, like walking on a sponge.
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Tuesday, September 13, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #316 Tongass, #316: This is my wild child, pondering the landscape of the rock dome where we have climbed. I love the hair!
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Tuesday, September 6, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #315 Tongass, #315: Besides numerous kayak trips and river floats, the best way to get around in the vast expanse of the Tongass rainforest was aboard one of the small luxury yachts of The Boat Company. Carrying around 30 people, guests and staff included, the boats were capable of motoring into fjords and other places cruise ships could not go. On this particular trip, we anchored deep in the middle arm of
Chichagof Island’s Kelp Bay, where we did some fishing, and went on a couple of day hikes. In this image, we have scrambled up through some tundra meadows to the top of a rock dome. To Travis’ right, you can see our boat in the distance, and we got to the base of where we are now by using the much smaller shore boat.
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Tuesday, August 30, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #314 Tongass, #314: The torrential rain never let up, so dinner was a stand-up affair under the cover of our blue tarp. Water flowed off the tarp in every direction, and the roar of the rain hitting it was so loud, it was difficult to have a conversation. The ground upon which we were camped had become a 1” pool of water. When our meal was over, there was little to do, so we all crawled into our tents that, thanks to great tech, remained reasonably dry. The fierce rain continued throughout the night, and got even harder with the dawn of the next day. We were due to be picked up, but we knew that was not going to happen because it was raining so hard you could barely see the shoreline in front of our camp, and it was only about 20ft. away. Knowledgeable campers always pack extra meals besides those planned for the days of camping, so we had food, and little else to do but eat it to stay warm. The rain never let up, and we tired of standing around in camp, so we took a very squishy hike in the forest behind us. That night when we all retired, the rain was still pounding down, but sometime around midnight, it began to break off, and the next morning it stopped. Visibility was good, and we knew our friends with the boat would be coming as we were a day overdue for pick-up, so we broke camp, and had just finished disassembling the kayaks when they appeared. The ride back to
Petersburg was brief (and warm) and our friends informed us that it had rained 9” in the last 48hrs. We were all glad to have dinner in a restaurant, and a comfortable, dry bed to sleep in this night.
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Tuesday, August 23, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #313 Tongass, #313: The outgoing tide was sucking the ice pack with it, and because of the curvature of the southern shoreline of the arm, it offered us some relative protection from the flow of ice. We made fairly good progress, but when we rounded the walled shore to a place in the bay where you could see the glacial face, it was clear we were not getting much further. The Le Conte glacier was in VERY active retreat, and was calving massive amounts of ice which blocked the arm from shore to shore. Although we could see the glacier, it was still a good distance away, and there was no chance we could get through the ice cover and get any closer. So, we sat and watched for awhile, and had some snacks to keep ourselves warm, finding it amazing that the rain just kept getting harder and harder. During this down time, the tide turned, and began to flow back into the bay,..bringing with it all the outbound ice. Because we were watching the glacier, we did not notice this inflow for some time. When we finally did, it was almost too late as we were getting locked in, so we quickly turned our kayaks around, and got against the rock wall of the southern shore, where we could creep along slowly, and work our way towards the mouth of the bay. It took a good bit of time as navigating the ice had to be done carefully, but eventually we put most of the pack behind us, crossing the mouth of the arm, and heading back to camp. The rain was still relentless.
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Tuesday, August 16, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #312 Tongass, #312: Before our boat pick-up from Petersburg, we had planned one more day to explore
Le Conte Bay. It was a short paddle from our crescent cove camp, around the peninsula at the mouth of the bay, where we hoped to work our way through the ice pack and get closer to the glacial face. By the time we entered the bay, it was pouring rain, and the bay was REALLY choked with ice. We picked our way through the pack, trying to take advantage of any open holes we could find, and we found we had the greatest success by staying close to the southern wall of the arm.
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Tuesday, August 9, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #311 Tongass, #311: It rained really hard throughout the night, but was kind enough to break-off for awhile so we could have breakfast. Our plan for the day was to paddle around the crescent hook of our beach camp, and enter the mouth of
Le Conte Bay. Not long after breakfast the rain started up again, but that did not change our plans, so we geared up, and got into our kayaks, and set off on our adventure for the day. At the far end of
the bay there was a large, and actively calving glacier and it was filling the bay with an impressive amount of ice. Nonetheless, we planned to work our way through cautiously, and get as close to the glacial face as we could to see some calving.
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Tuesday, August 2, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #310 Tongass, #310: It had been relatively clear and sunny on the day of our paddle down the North Arm of the Stikine river, to our new camp at the mouth of
Le Conte Bay, and at dinner we were greeted with a spectacular show of late light (last post), and then a blazing sunset. We were enjoying the evening so much, we paid little attention to dark clouds settling in on the horizon. However, by the time we were ready to turn-in, they had moved over us and a light rain had begun to fall. During the night, the falling rain became a downpour that hammered away at our tents.
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Tuesday, July 26, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #309 Tongass, #309: The main branch of the Stikine river enters
Frederick Sound near the town of Wrangell. We had alternative plans, however, and we turned to float up the North Arm so we would have a chance to explore
Le Conte Bay Following two nights of camping at the mouth of the bay, we have scheduled a pick-up from some of our fishermen friends in St. Petersburg, a little further to the north. There was plenty of current in the North Arm so it was an easy transition, and about 3pm we merged into the waters of the sound, and the iceflow out of Le Conte Bay. We paddled through the ice to reach
a beautiful beach cove on the north side of the bay, where we found a flat, protected, and very comfortable place to pitch our tents at the edge of the high tideline. This is our view from camp as we prepare dinner.
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Tuesday, July 19, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #308 Tongass, #308: On this particular evening, there was just enough moisture in the air, that when the sun dipped below the ridgeline of the mountain, a faint spectral rainbow appeared, and lasted for about half an hour.
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Tuesday, July 12, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #307 Tongass, #307: Here is one of our evening camps. The huge tree trunk has become our gear bench, and a table for our “kitchen”. If you look, in the distance you can see a portion of the river, and it is worth noting, that we have carried our kayaks up onto our sandbar, a considerable distance from the water, taking no chances that a fluctuation in the river might reach them.
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Tuesday, July 5, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #306 Tongass, #306: Because the Stikine river volume grew during the warmth of the day, and then shrank in the cool of the night, the immediate shoreline was regularly transformed. I walked those banks in the early mornings before the flow would come up, and found many graphically beautiful designs created by the current, and things it deposited.
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Tuesday, June 28, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #305 Tongass, #305: Another feature of the Stikine river environment is the river constantly changing its elevation. On some cold days the fluctuation is negligible, but on hot days it may be significant. On this particular day, we took a break from our float to hike up to a glacier. Our camp was on a sandbar in the middle of numerous braids, and when we left for the hike in the morning, we walked through very shallow water to get to the shore, and go inland. The water was never close to our boot tops. The day was hot, and we lingered at the glacier to have lunch. On our hike out, we arrived at the same place where we crossed that morning, to find everything had changed. The flow of the river was much faster, and the water was significantly deeper. All of these changes occurred because the heat of the day dramatically increased the melting of the many glaciers that feed into the river, adding to considerably more volume. Because we were wearing packs, we needed to proceed as cautiously as possible, so to steady ourselves we got some sturdy debris branches. What was previously was ankle-deep water, was now thigh-deep, and flowing with enough force to sweep you off of your feet, so the branches allowed us a supportive tripod. Once we reached our camp sandbar, we had to remove our boots, pour the water out, and wring out our socks. A portion of our sandbar was now underwater, also.
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Tuesday, June 21, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #304 Tongass, #304: As you can see here, this is the remains of a very large tree with a massive rootwad. Once this debris was grounded, the river piled tons of silt around these collected logs, and if you look past this, you can see that further down on this same sandbar, many other log jams are embedded similarly. Within the myriad of braids in the Stikine, the shores are lined with hundreds of these river-created landscapes.
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Tuesday, June 14, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #303 Tongass, #303: The Stikine river meanders widely, undercutting tree-lined riverbanks, and dropping those trees into the river. Carried along by the swift current, they are tumbled, broken, in some cases, literally shredded, and many then get lodged in shallow water where sandbars begin to build around them. They also capture other logs floating by, and a damming effect is created. Some of these sandbars are huge, broadening to hundreds of yards wide, and extending for great lengths along the riverside. When we would camp on them, I spent a good deal of time exploring the many features of this landscape.
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Tuesday, June 7, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #302 Tongass, #302: In the last post, I said we had a nice big fire every night while floating the
Stikine River, fed easily because there was so much driftwood available, so I thought you should see this to know that I am not kidding. You could have a fire every night of the year and not exhaust supplies like this. OMG!
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Tuesday, May 31, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #301 Tongass, #301: Sandbars are everywhere on the
Stikine River, and they literally line the banks. There were no accessible forests to camp in, so we used the sandbars every night. They offered lots of room to spread out, made for comfy, flat tent floors, and we could safely have a big fire every night, which was easy to do because there was so much driftwood available.
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Tuesday, May 24, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #300 Tongass, #300: After our multi-day visit to the Thunderstorm homestead, our merry band of adventurers assembled our kayaks and began our float down the Stikine River. The Stikine is wide, and fast flowing, with a
gazillion braids, and lots of debris. Choosing the right channel to stay in the deepest water is critical because lots of the lesser braids are laced with shallow sandbars, and getting a heavily loaded kayak stuck is a nightmare.
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Tuesday, May 17, 2022
THE TONGASS: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #299 Tongass, #299: Off the mountain, we hit the road leading back to the Thunderstorm homestead just as it got dark. Shortly thereafter, we had another good meal, and then went to bed early because the next day we would assemble the kayaks, and begin our float down the
Stikine River, With kayaks prepped, and packed, Carey is making last minute adjustments to her paddling wardrobe, and then we are off. The river has a strong, fast current, so we move right along, but it will still be 10-days before we reach the Tongass, and southeast Alaska.
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