Posts by andy
… to Glacier Bay, Alaska
“FROM THE BOTTOM (from the Glacier Bay National Park website) of the deepest glacial fjord to the summit of its highest peak, Glacier Bay encompasses some of our continent's most amazing scenery and wildness. It is a land reborn, a world returning to life, a living lesson in resilience. If ever we needed a place to intrigue and inspire us, this is it.
“Glacier Bay is a homeland, a living laboratory, a national park, a designated wilderness, a biosphere reserve, and a world heritage site. It's a marine park, where great adventure awaits by boating into inlets, coves and hideaway harbors. It's also a land park, with its snow-capped mountains, spectacular glaciers, and emerald–green forests. From the summit to sea, Glacier Bay's wildness is remote, dynamic and intact.”
From Kenmore, Wash …
WE’RE LEAVING FROM KENMORE, on the north end of fresh water Lake Washington, bright and early on the morning of May 31, in Osprey, a 22-foot C-Dory Cruiser. Osprey’s skipper Andy Ryan will be joined by four old friends (one at a time, each for about two weeks) on the 3,000-mile journey from Kenmore to spectacular Glacier Bay, Alaska — and back.
For centuries, the Sts’ahp-absh (a subgroup of the Duwamish and Sammamish tribes) lived in winter longhouses at the village of Tl’awh-ah-dees, where the Sammamish River joins Lake Washington. Most tribal members left the Sammamish River region after they were stripped of their lands in the infamous Point Elliott Treaty of 1855.
Non-Indian history in what would become Kenmore progressed rapidly after the acquisition of land by lumber moguls in the 1860s—followed by construction of a mill and settlement by squatters. Until the old growth forests ran out, logging was king here.
Since 1946 the city has been home to Kenmore Air, one of the best-known seaplane operations in the world, with scheduled flights to various locations up and down the Salish Sea. Andy’s wife, former Seattle Times reporter Marla Williams, grew up here. The old bent cedar tree she sat on at Kenmore Elementary School, is still there—bark rubbed smooth over the years by hundreds of little bottoms.
Departure date: May 31, 2019