24 Aug MOVING FURTHER UP
The day began foggy… real foggy. As we had about 5 hours to go by boat, starting out in this kind of weather was not the first choice, especially not knowing the possible ice pack conditions. It was a time to stay put. Sam didn’t seem too concerned however, and figured that things would likely clear up by early afternoon based on what he saw. And it did.
With that delay behind us, we threw our stuff in the boat and continued our journey up the coast further, looking for the mouth of Sam For Fiord. Calm waters make for easy going, and when the fog did get thick again, the GPS unit that Tommy had sent along came in handy, plotting our course when cutting through the thick patches while crossing the open mouth of a bay. After a few hours I felt the boat make a more permanent turn to the left as we officially began our entrance into the fiord. Water conditions were still nice, but with every passing kilometer, the waters began to build, and the winds became stronger. It was as Sam had told me earlier: it’s always windy in Sam Ford Fiord.
Along with the rougher waters though came the pay off. The fog that persisted broke here and there, and revealed the most incredible rock walls. Solid rock rising out of the ocean, thousands of feet high, with every shape of peak imaginable, many set off by glacier that spawned waterfalls pouring back down into the ocean. Unlike the previous glaciers that I had seen, there were few moraines here. The granite walls were so hard, that many of the glaciers seem to just sit right on top, with little sign of erosion. I has the fellows do a little back tracking with the boat for more photos and filming, but with the wind only getting stronger, I sat down and let Sam drive us through the whitecaps to the safety and quiet of a beautiful sandy beach tucked in a bay that he knew of further into the fiord.
Evening light graced the surrounding peaks as the winds blew up the fog out in the open water. With the incredible new scenery all around being lit up, I raced around for a few hours until I was ready for my sleeping bag.
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