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Saturday | July 23

Ketchikan

“One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am—a reluctant enthusiast—a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious and awesome space…” –Edward Abbey

Tlingit speaker Joe comes aboard and entertains our guests with a talk in the lounge. He gets a lot of laughs and applause for his discussion of Tlingit family life. He is from Saxman Village (just a couple of miles from downtown Ketchikan).

This is the site where an assemblage of totems are on the forested grounds, a photographers delight. An interpretive center and sales area is an attraction for tourists.

Joe tells us it is highly recommended to “spend all your money here in Ketchikan”, and learn more about the dynamic, vibrant culture of the Tlingits.

After working for InnerSea Discoveries since mid-April, today is my going-home day. My buddy Randall Tate also has time-off and we celebrate with our first sip of alcohol—a pint of beer--since early May.

We are amazed at the good taste of the brew at the Arctic Bar. We laugh and give a toast to the ship that happens to be just a “par 3”, or about a “5-iron” shot away from our table. We enjoy our freedom knowing that our fellow crew members are scurrying about for the impending arrival of the next group of intrepid travelers.

We hop aboard a small motorboat with an eccentric man behind the wheel. He is eating a messy Burger Queen burger and fries as we make our way across the Tongass Narrows to the airport. I ask him if he was for or against the “Bridge to Nowhere” that became famous when Governor Sarah Palin was in office. He was obviously against it as he has a thriving business as a water taxi driver.

I’ll be visiting family and vacationing before returning to Alaska in August to finish the summer season guiding folks in “the Great Land”.

where is gmack now? innersea discoveries expedition week 11

It has been an exciting week on the InnerSea Discoveries Expedition Click Links Below to read daily updates from Week 11 of the Trip:

July 10 - July 16, 2011

 

Sunday | July 10

“Kayaking, Sauntering, Kelp-Bugling”

Monday | July 11

"Totems, Plankton, Weather"

Tuesday | July 12

"Invertebrates and Our Sister-Ship"

Wednesday | July 13

"Phantasmagorical Seascapes"

Thursday |July 14

"Tidal Ebb & Flow"

Friday | July 15

"Killer Whales"

 

Saturday | July 16

"The Capitol City of Juneau"

 

 

Monday | July 11

Klawock

“The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers. What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, we would die from a great loneliness of spirit…for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of earth.” --Chief Seattle, Puget Sound Suwamish Tribe 1854

More sunshine! We awake early and enjoy the slow cruise and docking at the pier in the town of Klawock, located on the windward side of Prince of Wales Island.

Our Tlingit hosts take us on a walk to see the totem-carving shed.

We also see the longhouse that holds the newly carved and painted totems.

A ¼-mile away behind the local shopping mall lies an empty lot that has dozens of old totems lined up in a row, exposed to the sun and rain. On the 1-mile walk back toward the ship, we visit the totem park at the center of town. Celebrations and pole-raising will take place in early August for 5 or 6 totems. Years of hard work and carving have gone into these amazing totems.

I have a couple of volunteers help me with a plankton tow on the pier. The pier lies in the middle of an estuary, where the river meets the sea. We can see the bounty of life floating beneath the ship including schooling fish, ctenophores and the lions mane jellyfish.

Back aboard, I set-up two stereoscopes and pour the contents of the plankton tow into specimen dishes for observation.

In the afternoon, we are back in Sea Otter Sound. Our wildlife spotters are able to find a couple of sea otter rafts. An announcement from the bridge alerts guests about a small-craft advisory in effect. Therefore, we won’t be crossing Chatham Strait over to Baranof Island.

As a result of the small-craft warning, we’ll be looking at an itinerary change that we all will be excited about. It sure is appreciated when folks on an expedition-style voyage have a flexible attitude, adapting to different circumstances!

The unknowns on any trip add to the excitement! Our expedition leader and captain spend hours pouring over the charts to determine what would provide the most interesting alternative (to sea-sickness and possible damage to items on the ship).

where is gmack now? innersea discoveries expedition week 10

It has been an exciting week on the InnerSea Discoveries Expedition Click Links Below to read daily updates from Week 10 of the Trip:

July 2 - July 9, 2011

 

Saturday | July 2

TURNOVER DAY = SWABBING THE DECKS

Sunday | July 3

GLACIER CALVING, SEALS & WHALES

Monday | July 4

HAPPY 4^TH OF JULY, EVERYBODY!

Tuesday | July 5

MOOSE PELLETS

Wednesday | July 6

CHIEF SHAKES LODGE

Thursday |July 7

SNORKELING AND BANJO PLAYING

Friday | July 8

CLAM-EATING BEAR

Saturday | July 9

“WE NEED THE GREGgle APP!”

 

 

Wednesday | July 6

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” --Aldo Leopold

Onboard the vessel right after breakfast, we have a couple of Tlingit guests give an informal lecture with songs and a “show and tell” session in the lounge.

We learn many fascinating things about the dynamic Tlingit culture that has thrived here for a very long time.

This is followed by excursions to see petroglyphs, a performance at Chief Shakes lodge and jet boat tours up the diverse Stikine River.

Many folks make the trip to the Nolan Center and purchase natural and cultural history books in the bookstore, among other gift items.

Monday | June 13

Good birding day in town as we explore totem park and carving shed.  Some of the bird friends we saw and heard in the small town town today:  barn swallow, violet-green swallow, orange-crowned warbler, song sparrow, pine siskin, red crossbill, mourning dove, and lots of eagles and ravens.

Sidney, the young teenager niece of Les our guide leads an informative tour along with James the wood-carver.  We hear a lot of “learning by doing” from lead guide Les.  Les is very animated and says that a Tlingit speaker that has his hands tied behind his back does not have the ability to speak since they like to do so using their hands.

Monday | May 30th

We visit the town of Klawock, south of El Capitan Passage on the windward side of POW Island. Our host, Les, takes all of our guests on a tour and has his niece Sidney and a young totem carver named James accompany us and interpret the Totem Park, totem-carving shed, ceremonial house and totem “graveyard” along the way.

After dinner, Lee our pastry chef made me a special dessert that I ate without any hands. Crew got a good laugh…it’s not the first time I’ve made a fool of myself.

Saturday | May 14th

Ketchikan on another sunny day. Head off the ship to the Cape Fox Lodge for a talk by Tlingit speaker Joe Williams who does a marvelous job of describing clans and marriage and customs of the culturally rich and dynamic Tlingit who have been living in the area for 10,000 years.

We visit a cave  that has produced the archaeological evidence that shows that not all of Alaska was beneath ice during the Pleistocene, some areas were ice-free and early peoples thrived.