Retired Nomads - Part 2 : Whale Watching & Dogsledding on a Glacier

I booked a whale watch tour with Chris at Rum Runners who was willing to go out for a 7:00a tour on his 6 person boat joined by 2 other Cruise Critic couples. Highly recommend his company! There were only 6 of us on the boat with Captain Chris and his mate a nice young guy who was very informative. Oh, and his adorable dog Autumn Moon who seemed to know when the whales would surface. If the dog ran to a side of the boat we knew that's where the whales would be. (even before the birds rushed to the area to grab fish as the whales came up out of the water)

We arrived about an hour before the other boats started arriving where the whales were, so we had a long time with them by ourselves. The "cattle" boats arrived with just tons of people packed on them. We really appreciated having a small boat with just the 6 of us. No one else would go as early as we needed to go in order to fit in our helicopter ride to a glacier for dogsledding.

We were lucky enough to watch a pod of Humpbacks bubble net feeding. A group of whales working together will dive under schools of herring, one whale will swim in a circle while blowing bubbles under the herring. When the bubbles rise they form a net and scare the herring into a tight ball in the center. The whales then come up through the middle with their mouths open, capturing large amounts food. Just awesome! Saw lots of mouths open, tails, dorsal and pectoral fins and spray from the blowholes. We estimated there were at least 11 whales doing this and we saw a few single whales as well. After watching this for some time he took us to see some Steller Sea Lions hanging out on a buoy. We saw 3 eagles on the ride. Hated to see it end, but as promised Captain Chris got us back to the dock in time for meeting our next excursion.

walking to meet Captain Chris

on his boat

Autumn Moon in downstairs cabin

view from back deck

Captain Chris

bubble net feeding

"cattle boat"

Steller Sea Lions

Martha & Don, Faith & Neil & Moonie, us!

seriously, I have to pose at the end of EVERY tour?

drive to town

walking around town

Knowing we didn’t have much time between excursions we made some sandwiches from the buffet the night before and put a few cookies in a baggie and we ate those on the bus ride to the airport.

We had a little time to walk the town before meeting the van for ERA helicopter and dog sledding adventure. I must say they run a fine operation and it was fun to watch the helicopters take off and land 6 at a time taking off or landing right after the other. Scenery was breathtaking! Then it was time to land on the glacier and we could see these dots down there that eventually turned out to be the Dalton Gang dog camp. They have about 150 dogs that rotate doing the tours. There was plenty of time to interact with the dogs before embarking on the dog sled ride. Each of us got a chance to stand on the back and help work the brakes and then switched to ride in the seats of the sled. Interesting perspective from both of the positions. More time to pet the dogs and talk with Dave Dalton about sledding and racing. On the flight we saw many glaciers including Taku the largest one in the Juneau Icefield. We saw a seal in the water and 9 eagles. Another awesome experience! We even purchased the picture they took up on the glacier. We had a bit of time before boarding the ship and we walked down to the Red Dog Saloon where Greg sampled more of the local beers. Fantastic day in Juneau! As a side note, the medication the doctor put me on made me sun sensitive. After the river float in Talkeetna I was burned and my lips were blistered. When we got to the glacier, I buried my hands in the snow to cool them off. Back in town I looked for some cooling gel for my hands, face and lips. OUCH!