Day 36 – Berg Bay to Sandy Cove (all Glacier Bay)

∞Well the fam arrived yesterday around 5:45PM amidst the absolutely pouring rain. We loaded everyone up and left immediately for our anchorage for the night in Berg Bay. Visibility was terrible, completely socked in, radar was spinning. Berg Bay was a new stop for us in Glacier Bay and it was serene and beautiful and very protected. I’m sure it was surrounded by snowy hills but we couldn’t see higher than 100’! Entrance is narrow with a big rock but once you navigate past that all is well. We were the only ones in the enormous harbor.

∞After a leisurely (rainy) morning and 2 pots of coffee, some quiche and fruit, we pulled anchor on Father’s Day in Berg Bay and found our way back to Sandy Cove again for the afternoon and overnight. Again, no visibility, ceiling was practically down to the deck, and once again radar spinning. Thankfully not a lot of traffic in Glacier Bay. We had periods of clearing, followed by another fogbank, off and on all day.

∞We had told everyone about the black bears we had previously seen on the beach in Sandy Cove so all eyes were peeled and binoculars focused on the shoreline as we arrived looking for the bears. It was Spencer and his eagle eye vision that spotted a wolf on the shoreline way far off, so after the anchor was set all of us immediately piled into the whaler and slowly putted out his way hoping to get an up close view of this elusive creature. We were able to get fairly close to him and he was a beauty with a gray/brown fur coat that blended into the low tide rocks that were of the same colors. Apparently the wolves also feed on the tiny shellfish and crabs that appear with the low tide. He didn’t put up with us for long though, growing increasingly wary of our presence so he hightailed it back into the woods. This was definitely a first for me and probably the last time I will ever see a wolf in the wild. As we motored back to the boat, we had a glimpse of a black bear on the shoreline back by our boat, but he too made his way into the woods.

∞The boys went fishing this afternoon and John Sr. caught a small halibut which we will cook up tomorrow night – first halibut of the trip! They all caught various strange bullhead looking fish as well but threw them back. I put out a crab pot just to see if any were around even though the ranger told us that the otter population and cleared them out. Ranger was right. Not even a nibble. Father’s Day dinner was tenderloin steaks, baked potatoes with all the fixings, pan roasted brussels sprouts with shallots, and berry crisp for dessert.