What to do for Memorial Day weekend? Zack suggested Marcus Baker -
after playing that game of Russian Roulette a few weeks ago, I was not ready to risk getting stuck in a snowcave for a week. We considered skate skiing across the Harding Icefield. Wasting good weather on flat snow seemed a bit of a sin.
We settled on a kayak around Aialik Bay. First, Andalyn and I needed to reserve rental kayaks for the weekend. This would involve convincing the staff at Miller's Landing that we actually had a chance of doing a wet exit and rentry. Fortunately, the person I talked to was a new hire and knew even less about kayaking than me. They seemed to think that field hydrology in small arctic streams would carry over to flailing around in freezing water next to a calving glacier. Maybe it does?
By 6 AM on Saturday, the new employee had done a thorough enough job bungling our reservation, that the last thing the water taxi was worried about was whether or not we could safely operate a kayak. So, there we were, on a deserted beach on a beautiful morning in Aialik Bay.
We paddled across the bay towards a white sand beach. The glassy morning water bent and stretched with big rollers from the Gulf of Alaska. The only disturbance to the surface came from whales spouting in the distance.
Reaching the white sands we hopped out, took a nap, then Andalyn and I went for a walk. Meanwhile, a black bear strolled past Zack and Khalial as they slept in the warm sun. What a great start to an adventure!
Refreshed we jumped back in the boats and continued up the bay. At Holgate Arm we turned left and paddled towards the glaciers.
