~ We had been surfing at the Inlet for several days. The wave is very predictable and you can count on it arriving every 12 hours as the high tide peaks. As a surfer, I have never known such reliability when it came to predicting the arrival of a swell or, in this case, a single wave. Every day, like literal clockwork, the wave arrived. For days, during the peak high tides, I would arrive and wait for the wave to appear. It never occurred to me that there could be ‘off’ days but, one day I showed up to terrible surface conditions and it was then that I understood that just because a predictable wave arrives, it does not mean that perfect conditions would accompany it. I knew that there would be no surfing that day as the prevailing wind was making havoc on the water’s surface.
I decided to drive home. On the way home there is a small Café. I stopped in for some breakfast.
Opening the door, I walked inside. There were a few people there and as I walked toward a table, they looked at me. The looks were familiar to me. The look was one mixed with a few meanings. It is a look of indifference, a look that says, ‘I don’t really give a damn who you are. I don’t know you and I couldn't care less about some recent blow in from the Outside.’ These people have put in some time and are responsible for blazing the trails that I am now taking advantage of. One can feel a bit of resentment from them and I can understand why. Again, I get to freely use what many of them paid a lot to create for themselves. These people deal with the freezing cold, the long Winters and the all day darkness that comes with it. They really are tough and they can tell that you, no matter what it is that you think about yourself, are not.
Sitting down at a table, the Waitress came over and took my order. I could tell by her look that I should not ask for any modifications to what the menu offered. I ordered eggs. It was either that or pancakes. There were no fancy kinds of coffee drinks or any other frilly things. Eggs. Pancakes. Coffee. If you want a smoothie or some kind of vegan, this or that, well, you can piss off back to cushy Seattle for that. ‘Here, we don’t go for that’, is the silent message that reads loud and clear.
I sat and waited for my eggs. My camera sat on the table and kept me company.
Cameras, as I have said before, have a way of getting people’s attention. People, it seems, have a way of seeing people with cameras. Many just think you are a Tourist but, I don't really look like a Tourist so, I think my camera piques some curiosity and folks want to know why I am carrying it or what am I going to shoot with it. It has opened up many conversations between strangers and myself. Over years of time, I have gotten many photos of these curious people. Inside of this Café, I got the impression that nobody wanted to sit for a portrait. No, they were there to eat, talk shit with one another and that’s about all.
The eggs came and I thanked the waitress. “That’s my job.” was her only reply. I ordered scrambled eggs and was given fried. I said nothing about it and shook some salt and pepper on them. Anyone that knows me well, knows that I cannot stand fried eggs. I like them scrambled…only.
The door of the café opened and a guy walked in. He addressed everyone there with a nod and they all seemed to nod back at him. Obviously, he was a known member of this breakfast club. He sat down at the table next to mine. I said hello to him and he nodded at me. The waitress came to his table and poured him some coffee. She told him his order would be out soon and he thanked her. There was no looking at the menu, there was just an unspoken order that had, from the looks of it, no need of any spoken words. His breakfast would be out soon. I had the feeling that if he wanted, he could have asked for any modification that he wanted from what was offered. He did not pull out a phone and begin scrolling through it. He just looked at me and my camera.
“What do you shoot with that?” he asked. I told him, looking at his holstered gun, “The same things you probably shoot with that,” I said, again, looking right at his gun, but from a safer distance. I like shooting photos of wildlife and Alaska has no shortage of opportunities to do so. Here, there are Bears, Wolves, Moose and Eagles and, everyone of them can hurt you. His gun and my camera sought the same target but for altogether different reasons. My tool provides me with entertainment and his provides him with protection or a meal…sometimes both with the same shot. I told him that I was beginning a project that would be taking me around the coastlines of the world. I said I was going to photograph surfers and surfing from as many different places as I could. He seemed ok with that. I showed him a few shots that I had recently gotten from some of the surfing that Pete and I had done. He knew Pete and I think that helped a little. Green as I may be, Pete did add a little to add some validity to my being there.
His food came and there was a lot of it. He dug into it and we kept talking about things. He arrived in Alaska in 1973, the year that he graduated High School. He had been given a job and drove up all the way from Sacramento, California. Upon arrival, he went to work. A month into working, a coworker invited him on a Moose hunt. They were to fly into an inland lake, make camp and look for Moose to shoot. They shot one pretty quickly after getting there and they cleaned it, packed it into the plane and the coworker and Pilot flew back to Anchorage to drop off the meat. One cannot simply have meat outside in Alaska. The smell of meat is way too attractive for any nearby bear or wolf pack to resist. So, in this case, the meat was to be flown back to town and then the coworker and Pilot would return to camp to continue hunting. There was only one problem; The plane crashed on the way back.
By the third day, it was clear that something had gone wrong. The man explained to me that he knew he should stay put. Within a week, he began to wonder how he was going to get out of the wilderness and get back to civilization. He was able to easily survive on all of the available food that surrounded him but he knew he couldn't stay there. He built a fire from logs that had been felled by Beavers. He lit it and kept feeding it until a plane flew down for a closer look and saw him waving his arms. The plane landed on the water and brought him back to safety. He was 18 years old then. When I was that age, I was basking in the warm Hawaiian sun and surfing in bubbly, blue, tropical waters. Survival to me meant not dropping in on a massive local. Here, massive locals take on an entirely new definition. Here, massive locals weigh over 1,000 pounds and can easily make you their next meal. “You are nothing but future Bear shit out here,” I was once told.
The waitress came and poured him more coffee. She asked me if I was ready for the check. I was given the distinct feeling that her and I were probably not going to have dinner later that evening. Before answering her, she put the check on the table beside my camera. There was no smiley face on it, there was only a six dollar charge for the 2 eggs that were fried instead of scrambled.
The man and I kept talking. He was actually a very nice guy and he introduced himself to me as Lex. I told Lex that my name was Michael. He called me Mike. I didn’t correct him. Lex was bearded and big. His beard, like most men here, looked like it took years to cultivate. It was thick and I am sure it kept his face quite warm. His hands were tough and had obviously done their share of work. He was pleasant and told me about his family, how much he loved his daughter and son in law and how excited he was to be a grandparent. I listened and had little to offer him that I thought he would want to hear.
Things were winding down and I asked him what he might suggest I do seeing that surfing was off the table for the day. Lex told me that I should visit a particular Glacial tunnel that he knew about. He thought that I could get some interesting photos there. He gave me directions and told me to bring extra clothing and waterproof boots. I thanked him and we shook hands. “Good luck,” was all he said to me as I got up and left.
I made my way back to the cabin and grabbed my things. I hopped back in the truck and headed out along the Inlet until I got to the road that Lex told me to take. I turned and followed it deep into the woods. Eventually, I headed high enough that the trees gave way to the Glacial field. I parked the truck, grabbed my bag and began the walk uphill toward the mountain peak. There was nothing to see but big rocks, a dark gray landscape that extended to an ice covered peak and a river that consisted of melted, glacial ice. Everything was pretty bleak and desolate. I was the only person around and I had a bit of concern for myself. I ignored the concerns and began walking in the direction of the peak in front of me.
Walking uphill for about a mile, I still had no idea where the entrance to the Glacial cave was. All that I could see were rocks, gigantic boulders and nothing else. Climbing up a hurdle of boulders got me to another level of ground and I could see a gaping hole in the side of the mountain face. I walked toward it.
Approaching the hole, I could see that it led to an underground ice tunnel. The opening was big enough to fit a home inside of it. Large boulders led to the entrance and even they looked small when compared to the cave’s entrance. I stood before it and looked inside. I could see the river pouring from it and water was raining down inside of the cave from the glacial ceiling above.
I had been in Glaciers before but this one was different. On a different trip to a Glacier, I was much more intimidated by it. The other glacier was unstable and I could hear millions of tons of ice moving. The moving ice groaned and squeaked and made all kinds of scary sounds. It was an intimidating place to be. I was also alone when I experienced it and I remember taking a selfie and recording a message on my phone that I left outside the entrance, in case I didn't come out. I shook with some real fear as I entered the icy chamber. Once inside, I was treated to a world that I could have never imagined. It was well worth the experience despite the danger.
This new glacier was altogether different. The entrance was huge and open and the entire place seemed stable and inviting. I was intimidated but not scared as I had previously been. Still, I was surrounded by unstable ice and could see a lot of evidence of such instability. There were huge ice chunks that had recently fallen all around me. I added my rain gear to my warm clothes, put on a pair of gloves and began to walk inside.
Inside was a world of incredible wonder. Intense light was reflecting all around me from the outside light bouncing off all of the ice facets. Dark streaks of minerals embedded in the ice from millions of years of movement, spiraled in contrasting stripes of color toward the back of the tunnel. It was a surreal world of frozen beauty. As I followed the river within the tunnel, I was stunned by the color of the water. Again, the minerals lent a hand in creating a water color that looked like bright blue paint. The water was as clear as Gin but it shined with a blue radiance that seemed like it was from another planet. I had never seen nature produce such a color.
Further inside and still along the river, I rounded a corner and looked into a place of such extreme beauty that I could have been in a dream. Above me was pure white ice with spiraling streaks of dark minerals. Below me, was a river of clear, blue paint like water and, directly in front of me was a 10 foot waterfall…underground…pouring the most beautiful blue colored water down to the river below. It was beyond imagination. It was nothing less than a living hallucination of magnificence.
It was freezing cold and I couldn’t have cared any less. I was in a trance and I just sat on a rock and enjoyed the incredible splendor surrounding me. I had reached a pinnacle in my life and I knew from that point on that I would have to really seek something that could top this moment. In a life that has been nothing short of experiences, this moment sat above them all. It was a wonderful feeling to be in such a state of mind and beauty. I was happy.
I stayed on a little longer before I noticed how cold I was getting. I was, after all, deep underground and surrounded on all sides by nothing but ice. It was time to go. I snapped a few photos before I made my way back to the outside world. I hope you all enjoy seeing them as much as I had enjoyed shooting them.
I wish you all the very best. With Aloha, mm