Tuesday, June 24, 2025
It’s my birthday! It’s
Ashley’s birthday! Yes, I am birthday twins with my stepdaughter, if only I was
32 like her and not 64, where did the years go? Happy Birthday Ash!!! Anyway,
still standing and lots to be grateful for! Today’s adventure is to cruise up
Toba Inlet which is a very deep, long fjord carved by the glaciers eons ago.
The result is a landscape of high peaks with spectacular waterfalls and glacier-runoff
greenish blue very deep waters. We were hoping to see some bears on the beach
but alas no luck. Seems like when we go looking for bears we don’t find them,
but when we least expect it there they are! Like last year when we had a bear
ease into the water just ahead of us and swim across the channel right next to
us! Anyway, we did a slow cruise out of Pendrell Sound 30 nautical miles up to
the head of Toba. The waterfalls weren’t as plentiful this visit, but we did
come across one very spectacular one among all the smaller ones. The water was
glassy smooth and as I mentioned – no bears. We pulled into Toba Wilderness
marina for the night around 2PM and were warmly greeted by the relatively new
marina managers. They gave us a spot where we could back in so the view out the
back of the boat was spectacular! John, Beth and I went for a hike on the
trails with bear spray and a bull horn in hand. The marina managers require all
guests to be armed with both, as bears are prevalent here – including (right
now) a mama Grizzly and her two cubs. Don’t want to run into her! The hike was
pretty vertical and these muscles and lungs compromised by our recent bout with
Covid were struggling just a bit….but we made it up to the View Point which was
stunning. Dinner tonight was our harvest of clams and oysters with warm
sourdough bread. I made a mignonette sauce for the raw oysters, and steamed the
clams two ways – one being the traditional wine, butter, garlic and herbs, and
the other a thai red curry preparation. Both were delish! My grandkids all face
timed me today which was the highlight of my birthday, I just love all those
little people! Emma (2 years) kept asking me to show her the cake, which at the
time we didn’t have (nor had we even thought of one), but after the call Beth
and I were then inspired to make one! We whipped out a recipe from my
sister-in-law Cindy for a lemon cake with lemon glaze that you pour over the
cake and let it soak in for a delicious moist dessert. We shared our shellfish
and cake with neighboring boats who were thrilled with the bounty!
The view looking back at the head of Toba Inlet as we are cruising up
The glacial water is so gorgeous!
View from Toba Inlet marina grounds
View from the lookout on our hike
Not sure if this will upload but this is a waterfall video
Our view from Toba Wildnerness marina tonight
Great adventures, keep the blogs coming.
ReplyDeleteWe returned today from Livermore, 4:05 flight time. Uneventful and living room smooth at 16,000’, and didn’t have to go thru the clouds until out descent over Whidbey Is. Lovely here, enjoying the late sunset, much later than we got in CA.