Multi-sportin’ it ~ Kayaking & Skiing Blackstone Bay

We’ve been scheming for years to do a combo kayak/ski trip. This definitely seemed like the year to do it with the colossol amount of snow we still have. And the good news is my ski boots fit perfectly in a 20 liter dry bag in my back hatch!

The crew. Eva, Dan, and Sabrina dorking it up.

We headed out in the rain Friday for what I expected to be another soggy weekend in Prince William Sound. Luckily, I was wrong, and the gloom and doom clouds and rain turned into another amazing (and mostly sunny!) weekend in PWS. 🙂

Cool ice in front of the Beloit Glacier.

 

Sabrina is all smiles with the change in the weather.

Eva and Dan.

Eva and Dan.

An Extratuff approach.

Sabrina skiing the summer snow, which suprisingly was pretty good.

This was our compromise to getting two pairs of skis on the tandem. We  put my skis up front and Sabrina’s skis in the middle. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get her skis on back without them interferring with the rudder. Luckily, it wasn’t too long of a paddle from 17 mile beach to where we skiied.

We lucked out with calm waters in Blackstone. It wasn’t until we got close to Decision Point that we got a little bit of wind, but the waves and chop really picked up. It seemed like waves were coming from about five directions. We camped at Squirrel Cove and the next morning woke up to sunny skies and calm waters in Passage Canal.

Love my view.

 On our way back to Whittier, Dan sneaking in a beer while Eva paddles. Pure winning! 🙂

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Kayaking Icy Bay

Nothing beats a day on Prince William Sound in the sunshine and flat calm. Add lots of wildlife and good friends = perfect kayak trip. We lucked out and it didn’t rain a drop the four days we spent in PWS (although a few times the skies threatened to). In the end, we got bits of sunshine everyday, that turned into a beautiful, hot, sunny last day of perfect paddling. We got dropped off on a beautiful, small peninsula full of icebergs between Nassau Fjord and Gaamaak Cove that, although buggy, made the beautiful camp. Within view of camp we had a pair of eagles nesting on one side, crows on the other, and could hear the kittiwake rookery.

Forest chillin’ on an iceberg in front of camp. We quickly set up camp, jumped into our boats, and headed to the kittiwake rookery in Gaamak Cove. Forrest, with his eagle eye, spotted some kittiwake chicks.We then headed away from camp, up the Icy Bay coast to check things out. I stumbled upon 4 baby river otter pups sitting on some rocks, which was an amazing find!Shannon and Deb had found a hidden waterfall earlier, so on the way back to camp Cathy and I decided to head in and check it out.

Our second day, we paddled into Nassau Fjord and Chenega Glacier. 

Shannon and Deb in front of a cool chunk of ice.Shannon and Deb watching Chenega Glacier.Gulls taking off an iceberg in front of Chenega Glacier.We saw quite a few seals on the iceflow on our way back to camp. This guy was pretty friendly.Oystercatcher.Our third day we had a young visitor near camp.We moved camp the third day to Dual Head, where our water taxi would pick us up late the next day. We needed water, and here we found two beautiful waterfalls and a crystal clear little inlet where we got water and purified it.Our campfire at Dual Head. We had an beautiful night there. We made smores over the fire, Shannon led us in some yoga stretches on the beach, then we got treated to two otters just barely off shore at high tide, diving down for food and chomping away for about two hours. They seemed just as interested in us as we were in them. You can barely see the dot of one of them above the bigger iceberg and to the left of the smaller iceberg. This was before they came in closer.Sunset with iceberg from Dual Head looking across to Verdant Island.Our last day paddling was pretty freakin’ sweet. Glass & hot.Forrest taking a snoozer 🙂My token shot of my boat & the scenery. The end of an amazing kayak trip.