Jakalof Bay
Jakalof was a small beach surrounded by Sitka Spruce and snow-capped mountains. Dune grass and cow parsnip grew from the ground while lichens hung from the branches of trees. Small islands surrounded the beach, some of which became accessible by foot when the tide was low enough. We unloaded the kayaks and then carried them to the bed of dune grass where they would stay for the night. After setting up our first campsite in the backcountry, we had a lesson on foraging and being mindful of what we were taking from the land. We collected dandelions and spruce tips for tea, only taking what we needed and thanking the plant after for providing us with a part of itself. The tea had an amazing flavor and warmed our bodies as it began to rain.
The rain eventually stopped, but the clouds continued to loom above us. We ate dinner and enjoyed Oreos for dessert. My role of the day was kitchen clean, which meant that in addition to cleaning my own dishes from our meal, I also washed the pots and utensils that we used to prepare it. Being in the backcountry now, we washed our dishes in the ocean and used rocks or seaweed to scrub away any food particles that remained. No running water, no soap, no towels! This was being in the backcountry away from civilization. After dish duty, it was already around 8pm but being in Alaska during the summer, the sun never really sets and something like darkness only comes around 1am. The group and I went off to explore! I had only known these people for three days, yet we already felt so close. Between discussions, bonding, and laughter, we sampled the blades and stipes of bull kelp, watched bald eagles fly between spruce, and flipped over rocks to find crabs, mussels, sea stars, and eel-like fish called gunnels.
The next day, we woke up early so that we had sufficient time to make breakfast, pack up camp, suit up, and start our paddle at low tide so that the current would be in our favor as we left Jakalof and paddled to the next bay over. But we would soon reach our first and probably biggest challenge of the entire expedition: death mud.
With six people on each side of the kayak, we started carrying the boats down to the tideline which was at least 250 feet away from us. The tide was now on the tail end of going out and the start of high tide would arrive in about an hour, not exactly ideal. “Zero!!” announced the person in the front of the kayak. We gently lowered the kayaks to the ground. “My shoes are getting stuck in the mud!” she continued as she tried to pull her leg, now past ankle deep, out of the mud. We looked down to realize that we were all slowly sinking. “Keep going! Come on team, we got this!” The motivation was great, but the mud was unforgiving. We had to turn back and find another way to get these kayaks to the water. “There’s a shallow channel of water over there that’s draining into the ocean! Maybe we can use that to push the kayak downstream?” It was worth a try, but the channel wasn’t quite deep enough to ensure that the kayaks wouldn’t get damaged by rocks. We brought the kayak up the beach and restrategized.
About halfway down the beach now, the other half of the group who were lifting another kayak to the water had stopped and were struggling to get out of the mud too. Both hysterically laughing and utterly horrified, we watched the five minute battle with the quicksand-like sediment. Everyone had been able to free themselves except for one person: Maya. Now knee-deep in mud, we watched as Emily (one of our instructors) tried to pull Maya out. It wasn’t enough. Another instructor, Laura, quickly yet carefully arrived at the scene. Together, they practically air-lifted Maya out of the mud to free her. We all cheered, but had to quickly get back to work moving the kayaks.
Between lifting heavy kayaks and getting swallowed by death mud, everyone was now pretty tired out, but we had to keep going if we wanted to beat the tide. Crossing the death mud was not an option, so we decided the only way was to carry the kayaks around the beach at a small incline over rocks and barnacles. We now had ten people on one kayak, with two people cheering on and motivating the ones lifting the boat. In order to not strain our arms and backs, we rotated positions every time someone got tired or subbed in one of the motivators. Seven kayaks later, all of the boats were now lined up at the tideline. We were sore, but very impressed with ourselves and each other. Now came the 5 mile paddle to Arch Beach.
*Inspiring Girls* Expeditions welcomes cisgender girls and transgender, agender, Two Spirit, nonbinary, intersex, and genderqueer youth