Sincerely, Denise

SNUG COVE TO FORD’S TERROR

Friday, June 12^th

Happy Birthday John! Another trip around the sun and so happy to share it with you!

Well, here we go! Left Snug Cove right on time at 6:45AM for our 5 hour run up to the entrance to Ford’s Terror, where we await the slack for safe passage. When John pulled the anchor up the chain got wrapped around the plow which caused a minor delay, but he was able to reach down and untangle. As we motored out of Snug Cove we saw a Humpback feeding solo right on amongst a group of exposed rocks so very shallow. Couple hours later in the middle of Stephens Passage a pod of dolphins was feeding nearby. A good wildlife day so far. It’s John’s birthday and I am hosting the group tonight for his favorite dinner – steak, baked potatoes, and wedge salad – with German Chocolate Cake for dessert. Forgot to buy ice cream or candles but he made me promise not to make a big fuss about his birthday. I can’t help myself though, I grew up in a family that celebrated everything in a big way. We had another relatively smooth ride up Stephens Passage to the turnoff to Endicott Arm where we made our way down to Ford’s Terror. Endicott Arm is a long channel and large cathedral of tall snowcapped mountains, with the occasional iceberg. The cruise ships come down here to go to Dawes Glacier at the very end of Endicott but as I said we are turning off at Ford’s Terror. The sun was out, blue skies with fluffy white clouds and the most stunning peaks, the cruise today couldn’t have been more beautiful! But wait, there’s more. We hit the narrows at Ford’s Terror at exactly Juneau high slack thinking we’d have to wait for absolute slack in the narrows. After investigating through the binoculars that no white water existed we decided to go for it and motored through without difficulty, maybe a few swirls here and there but nothing dangerous. Over a sandbar and charted rock. The lowest water we had was just under 14’ which for us is 14’ below the lowest part of the boat, so probably more like 19’ of water. Once inside it was frame after frame of more show stopping beauty. Waterfalls everywhere of all shapes and sizes, sheer granite peaks rising 1000s of feet into the air, topped with snow. Glacier bowls which are basically a lazy, concave, bowl with waterfalls tumbling down from many directions above to meet in the middle to form a massive waterfall. It is truly God’s Country here, the most beautiful place I have ever been in our Alaska boating travels, I truly felt emotional seeing this with my own eyes. As we neared the back of the bay where we planned to anchor, I jumped in the tender to do a depth sweep as this is another place where it shoals up quickly. We settled into 140’ of water and set the anchor, the other two boats rafting up to us. In the process John spotted a brown bear on shore so I quietly motored over there to see if I could capture some photos but it was shy and went back in the woods. It did come back later though and I was able to get some pics. I am writing this post on the morning of June 13, and have been trying to come up with the right adjectives to describe this place but no words nor pictures truly do it justice. We are anchored next to one of those glacier bowls with multiple water falls coming down the face. In front of us to the left is another very powerful waterfall coming off another smaller mountain. To the right appears to be the outlet of a stream coming off the other side of the hill. Behind us is an enormous bulbous granite face with an even larger snow covered peak behind it. Giant waterfalls flowing off of both. Our favorite one is a waterfall that gathers in a granite bowl, then spills off the side as though someone were pouring from a pitcher. We sat outside last night soaking up as much sun as possible because tomorrow the weather will change, and because the peaks surrounding us are so tall the sun will go behind hours before sunset. We had a simple dinner that I described in yesterday’s post, and I made a German chocolate cake for John’s birthday dessert. The frosting in a can barely covered the cake with a thin layer so I decided to whip up some chocolate ganache, which I learned how to make at my Barcelona cooking class! It turned out amazing and I slathered a thick layer over the entire cake then sprinkled with coconut and toasted pecans. Wow was it good. We tried to play 5 Crowns but it was so painfully slow that we bailed on it after a few hands, calling it a night. Fell asleep to the sound of waterfalls, just the best organic white noise one can imagine. Feeling very humbled by nature, and so very fortunate to be here.