Dan Watt and Dennis Pulsipher's Alaska Fishing Trip
(July 05)
Day 1: July 22, 2005 (Arriving at Juneau)
The first day we flew to Alaska. We (Dennis
Pulsipher: a friend from work, and I) started by catching a Delta Airlines plane
from the Salt Lake Airport which left around 8:00 am. Arriving at
Seattle's SEATAC airport we had a few hour layover in Seattle. We then took an
Alaskan airlines flight to Juneau. The fight was in the day time and the views
were beautiful. We saw glaciers, Fjords, and endless inlets and
Islands on the coast surrounded by ocean. The views were truly spectacular. I
had my new Garmin 76CS GPS and I was using it to track our route to Juneau. Our
top speed was 554 Miles/hour, then I found out that
GPS
were banned from use on Alaska Airline Aircraft when I was boldly told to turn
it off and put it away. Regardless, we
arrived at Juneau and after checking in to our hotel, we decided to take a tour
of the town. We took a shuttle to downtown (if you can call it that). Juneau is
mostly set up to cater to the cruise ships that come into dock. We saw
several during our stay. We were privileged to see totem poles and Dennis Pulsipher a
friend of mine from work and I went down through some of the tourist shops.
He
looked at Ulu knifes in a local knife shop, but determined that they were too
expensive. Next, we spent sometime in a fly fishing shop. At the shop I
bought a Fleece vest with Juneau embroidered on the chest for $40.00
dollars. Overall it
was an enjoyable day.
Day 2: July 23, 2005 (Touring Sawyer's South Glacier)
On the second day, Dennis and I had booked a tour to
Tracey's Arm to see the Sawyer Glaciers. It was an long trip to the Arm, of
about 3 hours or so southeast of Juneau at about 20 mph traveling speed. We saw spectacular vistas, which included
pine covered mountains, steep cliffs that went straight into the ocean. We found
the water to be a bright turquoise green, and their were fish jumping around the
boat at regular intervals. 
We
enjoyed the ride as we started up the Arm and began to see Icebergs stranded on
the shore due to low tide. They were a spectacular blue color. This Iceberg was
stranded on the shore at the entrance of the Tracy Arm Fjord at GPS Coordinates:
N 57 47.272' W 133 39.328'. The boat we were on went around the berg 3 times so
that we could take pictures. Here is a picture of the Ice Burg stranded on
the shore.
We saw several water falls along the walls of the Fjord called Tracey's Arm.
When we got to the glacier the two small boats in our tour slow worked their way thought the ice, pushing smaller Icebergs away and avoiding the larger ones. Finally after a long ride we arrived at the face of South Sawyers Glacier (GPS Coordinates: N 57 50.605' W 133 07.015'). I was amazed as I watched the Captains move around their boats in an effort to keep an eye on the Ice burgs and the general flow of the Ice. They were always looking for a route out of the Ice trying to make sure that they did not get trapped, or that their ship did not get damaged.
Once we arrived at the glacier, the captains turned off
the engines so that we could hear how noisy the glacier truly was. We listened
as the glacier made
thunderous
sounds like cannons being fired or machine guns firing in rapid succession. And
all this noise occurred with out any visible change to the face of the glacier.
The area was so beautiful and looked like a little secret peaceful cover where
one could come to enjoy the beauty of Alaska. However, this glacier was anything
but peaceful, and one certainly gained a quick appreciation for the tremendous
forces at work cracking and pushing the glacier forward. Then infrequently
during our watch chunks of Ice would break off of the face of the Glacier and
plummet towards the water below. It was necessary to closely watch the glacier
face or one would miss seeing it, because being half a mile away from the face
by the time we heard the sounds many times the movement of falling ice had
already finished. When these chunks of ice would fall the noises that would
follow were thunderous, such as the sound of the loudest thunder when it echoes
through a small valley, but this sound was louder and more continuous. I
watched as the sun would come out from behind thick clouds and I expected the
sun to warm the Ice and cause it to break apart during the exposure to the suns
rays. To my disappointment, the breaking free of the ice was not directly
related. After watching the glacier for about an hour we moved away from the
glacier and started back to Juneau. On our way back to Juneau we saw our first
pod of Humpback whales for the trip. They were simply spouting in the distance
at GPS Coordinates: N 58 04.750' W 134 04.711'.
Day 3 (Arriving a Doc Warner's -- Sunday July 24th 2005)
On Sunday, Dennis and I woke up, anticipating
going to Sacrament Meeting in Juneau. When we went to get our continental
breakfast in the hotel lobby, we met Doc Warner and his wife Linda. There were
very cordial and offered to take us to church with them if we wanted. We agreed
and went to church with the
Warners,
and he spoke in Sacrament meeting. After Sacrament meeting they told us that due
some unusual circumstances that they needed to stop by Costco to buy lettuce and
other perishable that they needed back at the lodge. After that they dropped us
off at the Airport to wait for the other lodge guests to arrive. We helped them
register their guests and then we all got on a catamaran to go to the lodge. We
arrived at the lodge and they gave us some instructions, fed us and then later
in the evening they had Sacrament meeting for the LDS members that were there.
Dennis and I had already been to church that day so we simple went to bed early
so that we could be ready for a intense day of fishing the following day.
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