The Umiak

The Umiak

Oh man, so many things I could have named this post, including: Drinking and Boating, It will be easy, 1 to 1, no problem. You'll see why. This long story starts with my homegirl, Karen. We guided together last year for Spirit Walker. Any who, she came back from a trip to the Hubbard Glacier (LUCKY) and wanted to go on a trip with our other friend, Jeffie on his boat, The Umiak. A little background on the Umiak is this: 

The umiak, umialak, umiaq, umiac, oomiac or oomiak is a type of boat used by Eskimo people, both Yupik and Inuit, and was originally found in all coastal areas from Siberia to Greenland.^[1] First arising in Thule times, it has traditionally been used in summer to move people and possessions to seasonal hunting grounds and for hunting whales and walrus.^[1][2] Although the umiak was usually propelled by oars (women) or paddles (men), sails, sometimes made from seal intestines, were also used, and in the 20th century, outboard motors. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umiak)

Okay, I'll try to make this short, but basically I didn't want to go, because I was tired. I had been working since I got here and we had a week long Teacher's Trip leaving in a couple of days. Karen convinced me that this trip would be "easy" and that they really NEEDED me to go because you can't paddle the boat with only two people. I realized that I didn't really have a good reason not to go and that this was kind of a once-in-a-life-time opportunity and this boat was BAD ASS. So reluctantly, I agreed. 

Fast forward to the trip, it's kind of tricky. We were headed up into Glacier Bay into the Beardslee Islands and to get up there you have to "make the cut." Which means that you have to make it through this narrow passage at high tide OR there won't be enough water. In a kayak you might be able to portage but not in this boat. When Karen was trying to convince me to go in the first place she explained that high tide was at 1 on Sunday and 1:30 on Monday so we should be back to the commune by 2:30, latest. 

Okay, so on Sunday, we load up the boat, which was ridiculously heavy, but totally awesome and we get on the water by 1 or so, plenty of time to make the cut. Whew, so about an hour after we get on the water (after making the cut), we decide to break for lunch and drink some wine and then we started paddling/rowing again. Did I mention that I was tired? I end of falling asleep while paddling, at which point, Karen is like, "Hey, maybe we should all take a nap." And Jeffi and I were like, "yeah" and then we were all sleeping (in the boat)  within like 45 seconds of her making the suggestion. Who knows how long we were asleep/drifting, maybe a half an hour maybe 45 minutes, any one's guess. At some point we wake up, reorient ourselves on our map and continue paddling. To our surprise, we found Secret Bay much sooner/closer than we were expecting, and we decide to camp for the night. Okay, everything is great. We sleep for like 10 hours Sunday night. Awesome

Wake up the next morning around 10 or so feeling rested, in plenty of time to make the cut back to Bartlett Cove. We have a nice leisurely breakfast with coffee and then we load up the Umiak and start heading back to exit  Secret Bay. Once were on the water, we are all a little confused as to where exactly we are. I mean, we knew where we were, but the map just didn't correlate. At any rate we paddle for about two hours toward home...it should be noted that while this boat is badass (it's made with ballistic nylon) it is not fast. In fact, it takes quite a bit of strength to paddle, we probably should have had a fourth person in the boat. Any who, after a couple hours of paddling we realize that we don't know where we are, LUCKILY we happened to see two Park Service Kayak Rangers (BEST JOB TITLE, EVER). We flag them down and they informed us that we were in a completely different part of the islands and that we were in fact paddling in the wrong direction of the cut. F! By this time it's about 2, almost high tide. So we hightail it, backtracking to right where we came from, only to get to the cut by 5 O'clock....three hours after high tide, with less than 9 feet of water in the channel and NOT enough water for the Umiak to make it through. At this point, I can literally see Bartlett Cove Dock where we launched the boat. FRUSTRATED! Mind you, we didn't pack food or water for an additional day, but what eves, we're out there, and waiting for the tide, about six hours. We decide to just stay up and try to make the cut at 1:30 am, which is exactly what we did. Luckily it was a full moon so we had plenty of light. Oh yeah, at one point I started to drift off to sleep, only to be awaken by Jeffi, screaming, "Hey Guys, there's a bear in camp!!!" So then I jumped up and we scared off some bears....this included Jeffi chasing them. This was actually pretty funny.

The moral? DON'T DRINK AND BOAT...you're likely to end up lost. But not all was lost, I actually had a great time and am glad that I went. Another moral? Don't trust Karen, nothing is ever fast or easy with this chick. 

 

"The Cut" and Bartlett Cove Pilings in the back ground