Launch Point

Max Difficulty:

Paddle Length/Time

Tide/Current Station

Destination

Special Notes

Description

I arrived 3 days before our paddle and met our one paddler who took the ferry.  We had a day paddle planned for the following day.  I received my camping/wilderness orientation and filled out our back country permit (no fee).  I had rented a kayak from Glacier Bay Kayaks and they delivered an Easy Rider Eskimo 17 Kevlar for my use.  The other 7 paddlers rented boats from them also.  We had 3 doubles, all were Easy Rider Belugas.  The Easy Rider boats are very stable boats and do well as rentals.  I did miss my Nimbus Twelka!  The day of my arrival was the first rainy day.

Day paddle.  I checked out my rental boat and proceeded to set it up adjusting the foot pegs and getting the seat sorted and tightened up. The Easy Rider is a good boat, its stable and it rides through the water well.  The two of us headed out into Bartlett Cove, the plan was to just paddle around and get comfortable in the kayak.  We ended up paddling 4.5 miles in the cove.  We did see a humpback whale in the cove surface and then re-submerge about a 1000’ from our boats.  We waited to see where it was heading and after a few minutes of watching, it suddenly surfaced about 15’ in front of my boat.  A bit of a surprise and definitely not enough time to grab my camera.  A nice start to this trip.  We headed back in and stored the boats for Monday’s departure.

Day 1: 

We are up early since we need to pack up our camp and get all our gear down to the Day Boat.  We used one of the NSP wheel barrows to help us get all our gear down to the dock.  We staged all of our kayaks the night before and we are all ready to load them at 6:30.  Loading begins promptly with us working with the crew to stack all of our kayaks on the bow of the Baranof Wind.  We haul our camping gear in and store it at the back of the boat.  It will take about 4 hours to get to Blue Mouse since the boat also carries sightseers to the glaciers prior to dropping us off.  We use the opportunity to look at our route and scout out potential camp sites. We are all very excited about getting on the water.

We arrived in Blue Mouse at about 1:30, we were fed a nice lunch on board, and have moved all our gear to the front of the boat for offloading.  The Baranof Wind eases itself onto the beach and we start the unloading process.  The boat is picking up 2 kayakers who help us off-load boats and gear and then we help them load their gear on board.  The weather has turned sunny and there is no rain in the PM.  The fun now begins with trying to fit everything into the boats.  I am carrying 5 bear canisters since the one Epic on the trip does not have a hatch big enough to allow loading a bear canister.  We finally get loaded and get ready to depart Blue Mouse for Queen Inlet - we have a 12.7 mile paddle planned.  We depart and paddle out of Blue Mouse into the main channel for crossing only to find a stiff wind of 15-20 kts, with wind driven waves of 12-18”.  We continue with the crossing, a planned 2.7 miles.  We soon find that we are making little headway, down to around 1 kt or less at times.  The Easy Rider takes a lot of water over the bow since it is a very flat bow.  I also find that I have loaded my boat tail heavy making it much harder to paddle.  This is not a great way to start!  We battle the crossing for over two hours… and end up getting blown back 2.2 miles from our intended crossing point. After making it ashore, we pull out and rest. We decide to abandon the idea of getting to the end of Queen that day and after an hour rest, we paddle around Gloomy Knob and plan to camp at the first suitable site.  We see mountain goats on the lower levels of Gloomy Knob - a nice treat on a rough day.  The wind continues to blow in our faces and the water is a little calmer with <12” wind waves.  After about an hour of paddling we reach what looks like a nice beach with a small cove.  We pull ashore and walk it to see if it is suitable.  The site is a good campsite and we unpack and set up camp. We eat a late dinner on the beach storing our bear canisters about 75 yds. from the tents.  Everybody is tired and will sleep well tonight. 

Total paddle distance 7.1 miles and it took us 5+ hours!

 Day 2:

Some of us rise early and are treated to a gorgeous sunrise as the sun finally gets above the mountains east of us.  The sun lights up the Fairweather Range to the west of us, it is an amazing site.  We have breakfast on the beach and discuss our options: we decide not to paddle all the way into Queen and instead pick up our day 2 route into Rendu Inlet.  Once breakfast is done, we start to pack up our campsite when a bear wanders to within 50 yds of us!  One of our paddlers was on the far side of the bear and used her air horn to scare the bear… luckily the bear ignored the air horn, otherwise it would have scared the bear towards where we were standing. The bear ambled off, taking care of its needs, leaving us to quickly pack up and load the boats.  Just before we launch - the bear, or a cousin, reappears down the beach giving us some urgency to depart.  It is a glorious sunshine day, there is no wind and the water is flat!  We are soon underway stopping frequently for photo opportunities.  We paddle along shore toward Queen so that we could at least get a good look into the inlet.  We come across the Sea Wolf, a kayak mothership, and stop to see if we could get an updated weather report.  Unfortunately, even with the Sea Wolf’s stronger radio we can’t get an update.  We continue on, turning north to skirt the east side of Composite Island. Heading for Rendu, we come across a couple of river otters playing in the water chasing each other.  Quite a sight!  Checking out Composite, it looks like there are some potential camp sites on the north end of the island.   We cross over to Rendu Inlet entrance and find a beach to pull out at for lunch.  It’s a nice rock which has soaked up the sun’s heat, making a great place to sit and have lunch.  There are some great looking wild flowers on the slope above us.  We proceed on after a nice stop, the weather is quite warm, and we are all enjoying this much better than day one.  About a mile into the inlet, we spy a small waterfall at water’s edge and opt to land and refill our water bags.  The water is clear and a bit warm.  Talking to other paddlers prior to our departure, we found that they all drank the local water with no ill effects, but we are carrying steri-pens and plan to use them. We continue up the inlet enjoying the steep hills on both sides with numerous waterfalls.  We start seeing small ice chucks floating down the inlet. It’s our first encounter with ice.  Two of us paddle all the way to the end of the inlet to check out Rendu glacier (which is a retreating glacier.)  Conrad decides to test the moraine by walking on it and soon finds himself sinking 2-4” inches into the fine silt mud!  We soon turn and paddle down the far side looking for a suitable camp site.  We pass up our first camp site to look at a better one just ½ mile down.  The beach is good and there is a stream flowing here.  We land and perform a recon. There is bear sign, belly holes and foot prints, but after discussion we decide to risk it since pretty much every site we have seen has bear sign!  The site has a nice natural shelf that we use to place the tents.  We set up our kitchen as far away as we can across the creek and we have another nice meal enjoying the sunshine.

Total paddled 16.2 miles, trip total 23.3 miles.

Day 3:

The clouds are back.  The clouds are hanging on the hills and we are hoping the rain holds off as we eat breakfast and pack our campsite.  We are treated to a harbor porpoise feeding just off shore as well as a sea otter or two.  We head out toward Russell Island.  We paddle down the inlet enjoying the views and soon round the point out of Rendu and head toward Russell island.  We stop for lunch and a potential campsite.  The beach looks good for camping, as usual, but there are bear signs although we see no recent activity.  The site is about 1.3 miles from the point.  We watch a cruise ship come down the main channel (west of Russell Island.  There are normally 2 cruise ships a day in the bay.  They are limited to 10 kts speed but still throw up quite a wake.  The clouds/fog hang in the air but there is no rain.  We continue on after lunch heading over to a series of small islands just south of Russell Island.  We paddle past them enjoying the myriad of birds present.  We reach Russell Island and start looking for a suitable campsite.  We settle on an area adjacent to Russell, connected at low tide.  There is enough space for our party and we quickly set up camp.  We set up our dinner shelter, the Noah Tarp 16, so that we’ll have a dry place to sit and eat.  It starts sprinkling not long afterwards and then it begins to rain hard.  We sit under our tarp and enjoy our meals while staying dry.

Total paddled 15.2 miles, trip total 38.5 miles

Day 4:

We wake up to low clouds and fog, it is chilly.  We have breakfast and quickly pack up camp, the rain has let up considerably.  My tent floor is wet as rain has gotten on top of the footprint.  I use my towel to get it as dry as possible.  We get all packed up and head for Tarr Inlet, home to two of the largest glaciers in the park: Margerie and the Grand Pacific.  As we begin paddling north the rain starts again, it is cold and wet.  I am glad I invested in a dry suit!  My hands are chilled, I am using NRS neoprene fingerless gloves, and they provide no warmth in the cold rain.  I switch to full fingered gloves later, still no warmth.  Everyone is getting chilled and I am concerned for two of our group that do not have dry suits. We paddle into Tarr, it is a 16.6 mile paddle to Grand Pacific and a potential camp site.  Landing opportunities are limited.  The weather stays miserable for the rest of the paddle.  After a few hours we reach the head of the inlet where the campsite is indicated to be on the right side of the inlet, but the river has shifted and we cannot reach our intended destination.  We stop at a small sliver of a beach across for Margerie for lunch as we have not eaten yet.  No sooner do we get ashore than we start getting pounded by waves being generated by ice falls on the glacier!  We quickly launch our kayaks and get off shore, some of have our lunches out and quickly eat on the fly.  We break into two groups at this point, one of the paddlers in a double is extremely chilled and they opt to head south and find a camp site.  The other group opts to paddle over to Margerie.  I follow the Margerie group since those paddlers didn’t have dry suits and we wanted to keep a radio with them.  We are only able to get within ¾ to ½ mile from the glacier when our way is blocked by ice.  We paddle the face of the Glacier and head south to catch up with the rest of our gang.  We paddle on and soon catch up with the group.  They have located a camp site on the west side of Tarr Inlet.  The beach is OK, with some big rocks, but there is plenty of space for tents.  We quickly get all our Noah’s Tarps up, we use them to set up our tents beneath and keep them somewhat dry.  We set two tents under each one, except the eating area, the tarps provide a dry space for accessing the tents.  The group tries to warm up and those who haven’t eaten get a bite to eat.  This was a miserable day, very wet, very chilly.  That evening we have dinner.

Total paddled 18.4mi, trip total 56.9mi

Day 5:

The rain has turned to mist in the AM, we eat breakfast and discuss our options.  I am concerned about hypothermia with a couple of our paddlers, especially if the rain continues.  The temperature is OK as long as you are paddling, but you cool off quickly just sitting, plus our two without dry suits are just cold and wet.  We have one team member ready to bail. We start paddling, heading for Johns Hopkins Inlet.  The good news is that we will be staying there for 2 days, and we are also close enough that we can get our team member to Ptarmigan Creek pick up if we need to.  We paddle south and slowly the clouds begin to lift, the fog disburses, and the mist stops.  There may be hope.  Today is a short paddle of about 10 miles.  We soon are rounding the corner out of Tarr and into Johns Hopkins. We start looking for our campsite which is located about 2.4 miles from the start of the inlet.  The sky continues to brighten and we can almost see the sun.  The clouds are not very high and I have high hopes for a little sun in the PM.  We continue up to our campsite when we spot a nice spot just short of our intended destination.  The beach looks good and after landing, we verify good tent sites and see that it is protected on 2 sides from any potential wind.  The beach is OK, if a bit steep.  We quickly get our tarps set up, including our eating area.  The weather continues to improve and we have sunshine by later in the afternoon.  We use the opportunity to hang gear up to dry out!  We have a great view of both the Johns Hopkins and Lamplugh Glaciers. Our spirits improve with the weather and we enjoy the late afternoon sunshine while having a quiet dinner.  We have the thundering of both the Johns Hopkins Glacier and Lamplugh Glaciers calving all night. We have a day paddle planned for tomorrow - no packing up!  A nice break.  Later in the evening we watch a large male orca swim down the inlet.  His vertical fin had to be at least 8’!  Quite a sight.

Total paddled 11.5 miles, trip total 68.4 miles

Day 6:

We wake up to sunshine!  The Fairweather Range is all lit up by the morning sun.  Everybody is feeling better.  Amazing what a little sun and warm temperatures will do!  We have breakfast and pack our lunches for the paddle to Johns Hopkins Glacier.  We are soon underway and the sun is on our backs.  We paddle up the south side of the inlet enjoying the views.  We have large ice floating in the inlet, mountains run right down to the water with few beaches for landing, and we enjoy all of the waterfalls along both sides.  We enjoy the paddle west, playing in the ice and the waterfalls where we can.  We spot a boulder tumbling down the mountain and watch to see if it will reach the water - luckily it stops on a shelf about 1500’ up.  The area is still pretty unstable and one needs to keep an eye out.  We see many bald eagles as we paddle up to the glacier.  After a couple of hours we are about a mile from the glacier paddling in the ice.  What an unusual sight.  We enjoy ourselves!  The temperature cools off about 5-10 degrees as we get closer to the glacier.  We see the Baranof Wind coming up and we paddle up to see if we can get some beer, no luck! But it was fun seeing the crew that dropped us off.  We decide to take a lunch break on the beach by Chocolate Falls.  Chocolate Falls is a river that comes down on the north side of the inlet being fed by Charley Glacier.  This river falls down a steep slope and then has about a 150-200’ drop at the end of it.  The water is milky brown from all the silt.  We have a nice leisurely lunch and then decide to explore as close to the glacier as we can get on the north side.  We’re only able to get about ¾ of a mile before the ice packs up and we don’t want to take a chance of damaging our boats.  We watch several calving events while we are hanging out at the glacier.  It is all very impressive.  Too soon it is time to head back down to camp.  We are downwind as we paddle east and with the sun out, we are soon cooking in our dry suits which entails several stops to shed layers.  What a difference from 2 days ago!  It was good to get back into camp!  We had a pleasant evening and enjoyed the company and views.  Just after sunset I had to make one more trip to the water’s edge and was treated to one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen as all of the large peaks at the end of the valley were bathed in the setting sun, glowing brightly.  It was a breathtaking sight… made the trip worth it all.

Total paddled 17.5 miles, trip total 85.9 miles

Day 7:

We woke up in the morning to a high layer of clouds.  We had a nice breakfast and then packed up camp - we have a 13 mile paddle planned.  We have one paddler still not feeling well who wants to be dropped at Ptarmigan Creek for pick up by the Baranof.  It is on our route and we can easily reach it before the boat gets there.  We head out and cross Johns Hopkins Inlet to Lamplugh Glacier when we see a cruise ship about 5 miles out heading toward the inlet and increase our pace so that we are clear of the ship. We stop at a waterfall and replenish our water and, unfortunately, my 2^nd and last water container is dropped and broken.  The Seattle Sports water keg is not designed for this environment.  Dromedaries are stronger and better suited to this type of paddling. We play around in front of Lamplugh which is a grounded glacier and at low tide is totally exposed.  We land on the north corner and walk around on the silt just to say we did it!  This is the last of the major glaciers we will see.  Soon we are heading south and there is a potential camp site just at the south edge of the glacier. We do not explore the tent sites although we had spotted a couple of tents there while on the Baronof.  We watch the cruise ship and they watch us… wonder how many tourist pictures we are in!  We soon leave Lamplugh behind.  It does not take long to reach Ptarmigan Creek.  We have contacted the Baranof to let them know we have a paddler for pick up and it turns out that there are quite a few paddlers there waiting for pick up.  We dropped our team member off and repacked a double so we could send a single back with her.  We then hung out at the beach, waiting for the boat, hoping to get another crack at acquiring a few beers!  Fate intervened and it started to rain so we decided to get started for our next campsite.  We head along the shore and reach Reid Inlet, where there is a nice spit located at the entrance that looked very good for camping.  This is also the site of two cabins ever build in the park.  The cabin is mostly gone now, but these early settlers did plant fruit trees here that are still growing.  Reid Glacier is visible at the end of the bay.  The group has a discussion and we decide to head on...  as we close in on our intended campsite, a decision is made to continue.  We now have a steady rain falling.  I do not like getting off plan - it tends to cause problems down the road.  We continue on to the Skidmore Cut, you can paddle through this at a 15’ high tide, unfortunately we only have an 11.3 tide and crossing would involve a portage.  We decide to not make the portage after exploring the cut.  The length of the cut is about .7 miles and we were able to paddle into the cut about 500-600’.  We did not explore any further since the high tide, 15’+, would occur at 10:30 PM.  No one wanted to stay up that late.  We ended up at the far south end of the beach by the cut, it was our worst campsite of the trip.  We quickly got our Kelty’s up and set up our tents.  Our easy 13 miles had ended up being a 17.3 mile paddle.  We had dinner in the rain with no dinner tarp.  Talk of heading in the following morning was discussed.

Total paddled 17.3mi, trip total 103.2mi

Day 8:

It was still raining in the AM, so we had breakfast in the rain and quickly packed up our tents and gear.  We paddled around the Gilbert Peninsula which has few stopping places and is usually avoided by the locals because the water can be rough.  We were no sooner underway when we started encountering 12” waves off our left quartering bow.  The boats handled it well but it did make paddling a little more difficult.  About 2 miles into our paddle one of the doubles broke its rudder blade.  This was a first, and it was also non-repairable. The doubles continued on picking up their pace, this left the singles behind.  The Epic struggles in rough water (it does great in flat water) and with chop its speed quickly falls off.  The two singles paired off and continued on behind the doubles.  The water continued to get rough and soon the waves were approaching 2’. Luckily, the wind was not a factor blowing at about 10 kts, and  this was only a 7.3 mile paddle!  We pounded on through the waves, the Easy Rider did very well in this water and I was impressed.   Our final challenge was the entry into Blue Mouse Cove where the quartering seas turned into a following sea... never fun, but soon we were far enough inside to be protected from the waves.  The group decided to head in.  We had two optional days of paddling planned, but everyone was wet and chilled.  We prepared our boats for pickup, set up our dinner tent and waited for the boat.

Total paddled 7.3mi, trip total 110.5mi

 Conclusion:

This was a great trip and I would encourage other paddlers to go and see this magnificent wilderness for themselves.  You need to be prepared with a good paddling plan and good equipment.  I hope this report would help anyone planning on doing this paddle to get organized for the trip.