Unfortunately, after Tracy Arm, Glacier Bay was a big letdown. The glaciers have been receding for 200 years and are now more than forty miles from the entrance, so we spent most of our time just getting there and back.
Got up at four a.m. and walked down to the Baranof Hotel, where a bus picked us up at 4:45 and took us to the airport. The plane was supposed to leave at 5:30 but didn't leave until nearly six. The plane was a nine-passenger Piper Chieftain, with an excellent pilot, who set her down so gently we scarcely knew we'd landed.
The flight took about twenty minutes. Then a bus took us over a flat dirt road to the lodge, where we boarded the boat. They have fantastic tides here, sometimes as much as 32 feet, so they have to have very long gangplanks. It was low tide this morning, so the gangplank was at a 30-degree angle. It was also wet and slippery. I did a little dipsy-doodle at the beginning, but no harm done.
The boat had a 400-passenger capacity -- a far cry from the luxury yacht we were on Monday. More importantly, we lacked the sense of intimacy with the glacier that we'd had on the smaller boat.
We went up the Tarr Inlet to the Queen of the Pacific and Margerie glaciers. The Queen was ugly black with dirt, but the Margerie was bluish and had lots of jagged peaks. A few little chunks fell off while we watched. There were some small pieces of ice floating around, but nowhere near as many as at Tracy Arm, and there weren't any seals on them.
A multi-million-dollar U.S. yacht was anchored near Margerie Glacier. Its tender was taking a bunch of people around to look at the glacier close up.
Lunch was crummy. They had about 100 sandwiches left over, which they handed out to anyone who wanted them, so we took some for supper tonight and lunch tomorrow.
The boat stopped a couple of times to let backpackers off at remote areas. The boat went right up to the beach and lowered a ladder.
We saw eagles, whales, sea lions, a couple of bears, and a mountain goat.
Flew back on an Alaska Airlines jet. It went up, and then it came down. We were in Juneau before we had time to think about it.
Had no problem getting beds at the hostel again, even though our three-night limit was up two days ago.
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