OPPOSITE LEFT—This small rock slab and tidal area became our bivy site for the night with high tide lapping at our toes. ABOVE— Measuring the wind at 20 knots gusting to 25 knots, shortly after crossing Behm Canal on glassy seas.


wolf. A couple days later, we finally pulled out of “wolf bay.” Our next move was Wrangell Narrows. Rowing against the


narrows’ 5.5-knot current would be impossible. To go with the flow, we needed to be on the water at 2:45 a.m. Zooming along at nearly seven knots with easy strokes on the oars, we watched the full moon rise over the mountains and the day began. We arrived in Petersburg in time for breakfast. Petersburg,


population 3,000, was the biggest town I had visited in eleven months. We arrived just as the whole town was celebrating their Scandinavian heritage. Little Norway Days was the event of the summer. Te main-street was cordoned off for a parade, com- plete with Viking ship, and a herring toss competition. We talked our friend in Petersburg into joining us for the next


few days of our journey as we explored the icebergs of Leconte Bay. Leconte Glacier is the farthest-south tidewater glacier in North America. We would miss the rugged beauty of barren rock and ice as we traveled south. Traveling with Carolyn in her kayak made us remember the


pluses and minuses of having a slightly larger boat. Occasionally, we could have sailed much faster, but just as oſten she made bet- ter time than us by traveling in the eddies close to shore. We crossed dry flats and the huge sandy mouth of the Stikine


River on the flood, successfully avoiding another stranding experience. As we approached Wrangell, I peered through bin- oculars looking for a place to land near Petroglyph Beach. One tiny section of an otherwise boulder-strewn coastline, provided


SMALL CRAFT ADVISOR


us a safe landing. Eight thousand year old petroglyphs were etched into boul-


ders strewn randomly across the beach. Even though this was a state historical park, visited by thousands of people each sum- mer, finding each ancient etching felt like a personal discovery. Once on shore looking out to sea, I realized all the large rocks had been removed by hand from our landing area. We had landed on an old Tlingit canoe ramp. One evening we heard a splash. A bear was swimming across


the bay. Tis was not, in itself, an unusual event. Tis was the twelſth bear we had seen this spring. Brown bears and Black bears share territory on this section of the mainland coast. A distinctive shoulder hump, rising well above the water, let us know this was a Brown bear. What was unusual was that this bear had no interest in us. She was not aggressive. Yet neither did she yield to our attempt to establish our territory. We let her eat the grass she came for, while she remained on


the other side of our small cove. When she ambled around the end of the cove and started toward us, we assertively told her to leave. She finally liſted her head and wandered into the woods. However, grunts and ripping sounds emanating from the forest, let us know she was not happy with the situation. Tere would be no sound sleep for us on that beach. At 8:30


p.m, we packed camp and shoved off. Te last rays of sunshine lit up the cliffs as we rowed around a spectacular headland. By midnight the last light was fading and we were installed in a


21


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