Wrangell, Thursday Sept 28

Wow, this turns out to be the best day so far! We arrive and dock at Wrangell on time, 10AM, after some early morning scenic cruising which wasn’t too scenic. The rain and fog continue to plague us.  We have a jet-boat tour later this afternoon. Given the weather and the fact that we do not see much to attract us to the shore, we spend the day on board until tour time.

Our tour is provided by Alaska(n) Vista. We board an aluminum boat that will seat 16 plus the pilot and guide in a covered, heated cabin. It also has an open deck at the back for photo opts.  It is powered by two, big diesel engines using water jets as propulsion. It is raining lightly and we enter a fog bank soon after leaving the dock. After some joking about not being able differentiate the land from the sea in a sea of many Islands, the captain assures us he will get us around safely!
      

The crew of two, one a native and one a local, both either a biologist or a naturalist, give us a feel for what we can expect to see and the history of the area on our “three hour tour.”  The boat, for its size, is state of the art with impressive radar and GPS navigation. The course is already laid in and showing on the screen as we enter the fog bank. All the pilot has to do is stay on or near the red line unfolding on the screen. We can see nothing but white!

We are entering the Stikine River delta and the river is in flood stage, 12 feet out of its normal wide and meandering banks and unusual for this time of year. There is also a very strong current. The water almost looks like syrup it is so choked with silt from an extremely heavy rain a few days ago; "water you can eat!" We begin to see a lot of trash in the river, like huge, 80-foot trees, as the fog dissipates. We also see River Otters rafted up on a sand bar. There must be 20 or 30 of them in a very small area. The Captain tells us they are hauled out to conserve energy until the water clears up some and they can feed.

We stop every 15-20 minutes for more information as we explorer the sloughs and side tributaries. We see a juvenile eagle in a tree near his birth nest as well as floating, hunting cabins. It is elk season and the hunters are out. We also explore a fresh water salmon stream. The change from muddy to green is the joining of the stream to the river.

We end up in Shakes Lake which is dotted by floating and grounded ice from Shakes Glacier six miles up the lake. The icebergs are beautiful with their display of “glacier blue” color.  We get close to the glacier, about 700 feet away. It is not very tall, 60-80 feet, as compared to 100-300 feet for some we have seen. But it is very deep and the captain says the big ice bergs come mostly from poppers coming up from under the water.

It is a 45 minute run back to the ship and we retrace most of the route we took into the glacier.  We are told that the round trip is approximately 75 miles and it has gone quickly.  It is a great tour, well worth the rather high price of $279 each.

It is the returning guest's cocktail party tonight, but we are very tired and go to dinner in the restaurant as soon as it opens and then retire. Tomorrow Misty Fjords!