Guided sea kayak

Finally, today was our guided sea kayak tour. We originally planned to go sea kayaking earlier in the visit, so that we could learn the area before we went kayaking on our own. However, the schedule didn’t work out for us, so we went on the guided tour today, our last full day at Glacier Bay.

When we go kayaking ourselves, it’s pretty informal: we get out our kayaks, don some gear, and start our trip. It takes about 20 minutes to get onto the water. Sea kayaking is more involved: more gear (like spray skirts, rubber boots), more complex kayaks (rudders, bailing pumps), etc. It took about an hour for everyone to get ready. While we waited, we learned that one guide grew up in Redmond WA (about 15 minutes from our home in Bellevue), and the other guide lives next to our RV camp and saw Greg running all week. It’s a small world after all.

The trip was scheduled for low tide, so we couldn’t explore the Beardsley islands like we did on our solo kayak trip the day before. However, this gave us a great view of the cut we kayaked the day before. It was amazing to see it completely filled in at low tide!

So we explored Bartlett Cove, where the Glacier Bay dock is located. Around the halfway point, the guides got really quiet and pointed towards the shore. We first saw a bald eagle, not on the treetops but at the waterfront. Nearby, a coyote was walking back and forth on the beach. Maybe the eagle and the coyote were fishing together.

When we paddled back, we saw some sea otters on Bartlett Cove. The guides directed us to give them space - they were very respectful of the wildlife. We were glad to go on the sea kayak tour, but we enjoyed our solo kayak trip more. We took a short walk along the beach, then had a restful afternoon. Well, it was restful for Amy while Greg was making plans for the next few days.