August 6 - Whitney Island to Thomas Basin

 

August 6 – Whitney Island to Thomas Basin

 

Morning – Jim went fishing – 3 more Silvers landed; he has the touch.  Crab pots were checked.  Spirit Bear, Sea Jay, Sea Life, Magic were all zip!  Noon Balloon hit

the jackpot with 5 keepers. 

Once everyone was up and toys stowed, we started out headed for Thomas Basin.   Just outside our anchorage two whale were spotted not far off our starboard, no photos were obtained, and no further sightings of these two. 

Today’s cruise was roughly 44 miles.  We pulled into Spurt Cove in Thomas Basin.  The cove is small and protected on three sides and contains one of the forest service cabins, unused this weekend.  We looked at anchoring in Scenery Cove closer to the glacier but it was not as protected and it was cold due to the wind coming down the hill from the snowfield above.  Spurt Cove was quite warm, but still has the icy blue green water from the glacier. 

We took two dinghies (Magic with 4 and Sea Life with 2) and went exploring the Baird glacier and did the hike to the Cascade Creek water fall.  Sea Eagle followed with six aboard.  Mike and Bryan stayed behind to read and do chores.

Glacier – The Baird glacier terminus is basically on land now, as it does not drop burgs into the water but its ice flows out onto a long section of glacial debris – rocks and silt.   We managed to find the main outflow and followed it up as far as we could.   We got to the same place we did in 2013 and beached the two dinghies and went ashore. Climbed up the hill side and were able to see across the valley of mud, silt landfill, and both white and dirty (rock filled/covered) ice.  Looks like one is on the moon.  The water is very cold – duh, it is melted ice; and it is very silty.  One cannot see thru it and the depth finders cannot either. 

 

Cascade Creek – there is a forest service cabin there which did not seem to be being used this weekend.   The waterfall is as beautiful as ever.  A large amount of water crashing down and out into the bay.   The trail however has had some major changes.  They have removed all the wood boardwalks, much of which had been logs or split logs with netting or cut marks across the tops for a non-skid surface. They removed the log ladders and steps, and basically replace everything with a large sized gravel path with medium to large rock steps up the hillside all the way up to the wooden stairs and bridge over the river and upper falls.   At the main falls viewing area they have moved some of the huge boulders around and placed a large log creating a sitting area, so people can sit on boulders or the log to rest and view the waterfall, while getting sprayed by the mist from the falls.  A lot of money went into this project.  It looks like it was done earlier this summer based on the lack of any real vegetation around the steps etc… and the large pile of tarp-like material bags.  One would guess that they airlifted in these large bags of gravel and rock and carefully lowered them thru the trees at various spots along the trail.  My guess is that since this basin is becoming a place where the smaller cruise boats come on a routine basis that that industry had something to do with pushing for all this trail work.  They have made it much more user friendly for most ages.

Some of the group walked up about a quarter mile past the bridge and reported that the trail work had continued up there as well.  Who knows maybe they did this work all the way to the lake which is 4 miles from the shoreline. 

We heard from a Petersburg local that there was no Forest Service money used to do all this renovation.  The cruise ships companies (not the huge ones) that go into Thomas Basin had gotten together and come up with a plan and fully financed the trail renovation project.  It is not yet completed but will be completed before the end of this summer.  The project cost was reported to be about $350,000.

 

We got back to the big boats about 7pm and skipped the appy’s and went straight into dinner prep.  Tonight’s menu was – Grilled Sesame Ginger Chicken, grilled Caesar salad, steamed broccoli with peppers, fresh carrots, broiled tomatoes with parmesan cheese, and Oven toasted garlic bread made from yesterday’s fresh baked French bread.