Qilak sails through Prince William Sound.

Julien Giradot photo

It was here where I took my first step ashore for a hike in the wild. We walked on a rocky ground covered with a thick moss that was heavily saturated with water. The moss permeated the landscape, from tree trunks to rocks. For a moment I felt like Alice in Wonderland, but I quickly brought myself back from fantasy to pay better attention to the surroundings. This is the land not of the Cheshire Cat, but of grizzly bears and brown bears after all. 

On the other side of the island, during another hike in the pouring rain, we observed from a distance a scene from a Jack London novel. The whole world was soggy and I was soaked to the bone, but as I looked up I watched a brown bear feasting on berries. Wild animals are very shy, so the meeting was brief, but it made the cold hike worth it.

The excursion was filled with such pleasures. Vast expanses of untouched nature interspersed with share moments between species. All too soon, my two-week voyage was nearly over.

But before heading to Whittier, we hitched up the Harriman Fjord that leads to the Blackstone Glacier, a massive shelf of ice embedded between two cliffs. In this submerged valley, it was easy to lose perspective. There are more than 10 glaciers of all kinds, huge cedar forests and huge waterfalls. The sun lit up the mountain tops at the peak of the glacier, and a black sand beach dotted with tree stumps lay at the foot. 

As the end of the day approached in the last week of June, the sun dipped below the horizon around midnight before rising again around 4 a.m. I found a spot on the bow for a moment of meditation, and looking out over the dark blue water, forest and rocks, it did not resemble night. This was the 60th parallel, with the Arctic Circle only 6 degrees to the north. At the heart of this clear night, the reflections of the calm waters of Prince William Sound captivated me and I got lost in my thoughts before falling asleep peacefully.

Forest dropped me off at Whittier, a fishing town of 200 people where I spent a night in a hotel that looked like it could be in the movie “The Shining,”  but it turned out to be cozy and comfortable. With soft jazz playing in the background, I grabbed a pint of beer in the restaurant overlooking Passage Canal. I watched as Qilak headed off toward Kodiak, south of Prince William Sound, savoring my final moments in the Last Frontier. 

For more information, visit www.qilak-expeditions.com.

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Julien Giradot photo