Unknown Speaker 0:03 The following is a production of wild idea media. Unknown Speaker 0:09 Welcome to the wild idea podcast, where we are exploring the intersection of wild nature and our own human nature. As you may have noticed, we did not start this special episode with our usual theme song from our friends with railroad Earth. But instead we were treated to the the Unknown Speaker 0:29 variety of sounds coming from South marble island from Glacier Bay National Park, which is both a Unknown Speaker 0:36 rookery for a number of bird species, it is also a haul out for stellar sea lions. So you think they could tell the difference between me and you? I'm glad you made that absolutely clear to our listeners, because some may have had trouble distinguishing those belching and barking sea lions from our normal yapping. And we've actually had the chance to do a lot of yapping this trip. It's been a great trip so far, not, not, least of all, because of all the yapping, I think, no doubt, no question, it's been a wonderful trip. So if, if you've not caught up with what we're doing, Anders and I are just wrapping up 10 days sailing in southeast Alaska, six of those spent in Glacier Bay National Park on an amazing sailing vessel called the Bob with our friends Blaine and Monique from sound sailing. And first of all, welcome. Welcome to the wild idea podcast, both of you. Thank you. Happy to be here. Great to see you again, Bill, yeah, it's great, and it's been so much fun sharing this with Anders and Kathy and Rob and Laura. And we just said, Gwen, we've just had a wonderful time. And we thought we wanted to sort of share, like, how people it's just, I think it's an amazing way to experience Southeast Alaska. I think it is, frankly, the way to experience Southeast Alaska. And so I'm going to start with a question for you two, either one of you want to take this, or both of you want to take this. So two backgrounds. Tell me if I get this wrong. Blaine, you're just a grizzled old trail dog, if I recall correctly, yeah, and Monique, a professional designer and an architect, and yet, you come together for this life in wild Alaska. That's not just your life, but it's your business. I want to hear a little bit about how that happened. Unknown Speaker 2:16 Well, the lack of better options, I guess. Unknown Speaker 2:20 We were looking for something to do, and we moved down from Anchorage, and we had sort of established some professions and had some careers up there, had a house and all that, and we decided a sailboat was in our future. So about a sailboat, and took about three years to bring it back up to Southeast Alaska from Seattle area. And we settled into Sitka, Alaska, incredible little town by the by the Open Gulf of Alaska. And we were looking for things to do. Monique was a landscape architect, so she had some skills. I just built trails, and I was looking for something else to do. As I got a little bit older, and this just fell into our laps. We found a boat and a business for sale. Weren't exactly looking for it, but we're like, Hey, that sounds pretty good. Sounds like a great way to make a buck. So first of all, I should start by saying it has been so wonderful spending the past 10 days with the two of you. You've made this boat feel like home and like a great place to be among friends, and I'm really, really grateful for that. I'm hoping you can tell us a little bit more about Southeast Alaska, as Bill mentioned, we just spent six days with you aboard the Bob among the wildlife of the public lands and waters of Glacier Bay. And here I'm talking about humpbacks and orcas and bears and puffins and sea lions and porpoises and otters and mountain goats and seals and bald eagles. But I imagine you offer tours of some equally mesmerizing landscapes outside of Glacier Bay across Southeast Alaska. Tell us about some of those and maybe give us a few highlights your favorites. Well, thanks. It's so wonderful to have you on board and see your energy with all your colleagues as well and talk about wild ideas. So we're really lucky in southeast Alaska to have a lot of public lands basically as our backyard, and Unknown Speaker 4:19 seeing them by water is probably the best ways what a lot of people like to do, but we're definitely partial to being able to sail around these waters. And the biggest part of the backyard is the Tongass National Forest, and it's about 18 million acres. And then we're also lucky to have a concession or contract to be in Glacier Bay National Park, which is definitely one of a kind. In Southeast Alaska, we're characterized by a lot of rain forest and old growth forests. But there's, you know, a whole range of ecosystems along with that, you know, there's the higher peaks, there's glaciated fjords, you name it, bogs, rivers and. Unknown Speaker 5:00 Sparsely sprinkled throughout that are some great trails built by the National Forest to allow access for the public. And of course, there are some cabins if you were to make your own trip by going through little doing cabin to cabin by boat support, yeah, or by flying. There's a lot of float plane ways to see Southeast Alaska, you know, we just mentioned the six days in the park, and while we were witnessing, you know, Alaskan brown bears shopping the shoreline and humpback whale surge feeding our home, the Bob here that we're sitting on for this interview provided this beautiful platform, and you guys enabled us to just sort of take it all in and to absorb sort of Alaska while it felt like we never noticed it, but underneath the surface, feverishly, you guys were making sure the experience Anders and I were talking about this. It's sort of like underneath the surface of Glacier Bay. There's a lot going on, but underneath the surface of us just out there gawking and AWing over the splendor that is Southeast Alaska. You guys did all this work, and I'm just wondering, like, how long was it to find that rhythm? Because you guys also are out there with us, sharing in that awe, even though you've maybe seen, you know, a whale for the 1,000th time this summer, like you're sharing in that same awe with us. How hard was it to find and I guess, keep that rhythm. Yeah, folks, sometimes, sometimes ask, does it get old? And there's absolutely not. You know, every whale is spectacular, and around every corner can be something we've never seen before. And you know, part of it is keeping it fresh for ourselves, seeing it through the eyes of others that have never seen it before, and that's why we got and that's why we got into this, is to bring people into Southeast Alaska to see this incredible ecosystem and to experience Alaska from the water. And I think we've succeeded in 14 years. We've got an incredible number of returnees that come back year after year. It's just a really special place. And I would say, you know, the first five years, we were definitely very nervous. We we eased into it. There are times, of course, being on the water when crazy things can happen, and you got to be ready for those so, yeah, it does take a while, I think, before you get comfortable enough up here, let's talk about that a little bit. This trip has me thinking a lot about scope. We've been cruising through some vast and wild landscapes. They're actually really hard to capture unless, like Bill, you've brought a telephoto zoom lens. On the other hand, on my hikes with Mo, she's pointed out some very small and intricate vegetation and fungi, things like artist conch and bird's nest and dozens of berries, some that we made into scones, which was a highlight of the trip for me, that macro, micro dynamic must be on Your mind a lot as you balance the everyday needs of your guests and the boat against the grander conservation ethos at play in your work. Do you think of it that way? How do you achieve that balance Unknown Speaker 8:13 curiosity? I think we're still curious about what's out there, and sometimes it's hard to take it all in. It's almost overwhelming, but then you can sort of take in those small things, you know, whether it's doing a little tide walk at low tide, and seeing what little creatures live under the water normally, that are just exposed at certain times of the tide, or like what you and I did when we walked the forest and then started get down on our hands and knees and look at some of the smaller things that just are important parts of the ecosystem. But yeah, I think on our side, it's we're curious, and we used to, from when we moved to Alaska 25 years ago, carry around different guidebooks with us. And if we didn't have our guidebooks, bring back samples and look it up. And so that just culminates with knowledge building. Every time you go outside and Anders, you definitely got right into it. You jumped in and 46 degree water. And I think you immediately realize, yeah, more you're in an exciting new place. And of course, wanted to get out really quickly. But yeah, that's one of the, one of the ways that we, like folks, to experience the cold too. And Unknown Speaker 9:27 I would say it's life affirming to do something like that, but it's also pretty life affirming to step into an old growth forest. Look up, you know, see the mushrooms on the forest turn over some rocks. It's, it's good stuff. Yeah, I think one thing I love about trips with you all, and for the record, this is the fourth time Laura and I have been on the mob with Blaine and Monique, and we've seen a little more of Southeast Alaska. This is our second time to go into Glacier Bay with you all. But the one thing I love about trips with you all, just from my heart, you really help your guests go beyond. Unknown Speaker 10:00 The Grand vistas and the exciting wildlife like you help them understand the nuance and the function of the place, and why do you think it's important to do that for your guests? Well, neither of us are trained in interpreters, so a lot of this just happens organically as we're having conversations and we are smallish boat, so it's definitely family living. And so we kind of get the sense of what people are interested in and use that as a jumping off point. Well, did you know if you're interested in that, you know, X, Y, Z, and it just happens naturally and organically. And we find that most people want to be here and learn these things. I'd say it's very rare that we would have a guest on board who isn't interested. You know, with anything, you can usually find something that they're interested, yeah, but it is interesting over time, what people, like some people just are all in on the bugs, and we've learned a lot about bugs from them. Do you find yourself having to do a lot of education about public land along with that, like, I'm sure some of the interest in forest and in bugs and, you know, marine mammals comes along with maybe a lack of understanding about the federal estate that's out there that all of us own and share. Yeah, very much so. And you know, we definitely talk about our public plans. This is your public plans. This is your National Park. And we have learned that we need to do an even better job of that. Sometimes, you know, the end of the trip, it's it's not clear that we've been traveling through a national forest or a national park. And we really want folks to know that, that the opportunities that they had, the incredible VISTAs the old gar forest, the whales are also very dependent on that public land. I Unknown Speaker 11:46 wonder if you could speak for the one voice that can't speak for itself. Tell us about the Bob. What people need to know about the vessel that is the Bob. We've talked about the business that is sound sailing, but tell us a little bit about the vessel, because it's just been such an amazing gift to be able to use this platform to see because it'd be hard to see Southeast Alaska, not from the water, right? Tell us about the about the Bob. So we're sitting here in the salon of the bob around the table, and it's 50 foot sailboat. It's got four cabins. All the cabins have their own shower and head. But the Bob is a, you know, heavily built fiberglass sailboat, and it's been doing what we do for, oh, probably 25 almost 30 years up here in southeast Alaska. So the Bob itself is a veteran of many forays into Glacier Bay and other places. We were just counting up the number of days we probably spent inside Glacier Bay. It's over 365 Unknown Speaker 12:47 days, and there's still places we haven't seen but yeah, the Bob is a mighty vessel. We have kayaks, we have a paddle board, we have a skiff that we can get to shore on and buzz around, put out shrimp pots, crab pots. We do fishing along the way was great. We caught a halibut, we caught some salmon, we caught some shrimp, some crabs. Yeah, we've eaten very well as well. And we put down a hydrophone when we were in with the whales, and were able to listen and hear their calls and grunts and groans and yeah, and none of us thought to record it. Yeah, I should, should have grabbed that audio for the podcast. That's for sure. I mean, we had that experience the first time we went with you guys. We got into a group of humpback whales that were bubble net feeding, and we were listening to the song, and we started to figure out in the song when, when they were start to create their curtain of bubbles. And yeah, that is Bob. Has its own set of ears too. I can't believe that Bob has survived four trips with you. That's three more trips than most people can survive. So I it deserves some sort of certificate of recognition. And you too as well. Unknown Speaker 13:57 I want to ask you about changes in Glacier Bay, changes you've educated us about, and changes you've, I'm sure, seen for yourself. There's a tendency to think of geologica or ecologic changes as happening over almost unfathomable stretches of time. But you know, only a few 100 years ago, the glaciers that are receding today were actually advancing at a rate fast enough that native tribes like the Tlingit had to leave Glacier Bay. Today, the park is actually gaining elevation because of the reduced weight of glacier ice, and the Park Service is trying to better incorporate the story of the Tlingit. What can you share with our listeners about these and other changes? Well, that's a great question. Anders and you through our conversations this week have made me think about that a bit more. And I think I'll point out a couple of things, like one, the Park Service, the Glacier Bay National Park, is celebrating 100 years this year, 2025 Unknown Speaker 14:56 and that's not a long time when you think. Unknown Speaker 15:00 About in the scale of glaciers. So that's pretty cool, but it also gives me pause to think the amount of change that we're seeing is happening so rapid. What is glacier gate Blake? What is Glacier Bay going to be like in the next 100 years? Certainly it's not going to be about the glaciers, but what has changed significantly is the recolonization of those of these deglaciated areas, and then the wildlife that moves in. And we've been personal witnesses to how the salmon have found these new streams. As the glaciers recede, there's these new new streams that pop up, and the salmon are colonizing those for the first time. And then we see the bears find that. And it's really cool to actually witness that change, the whales moving way up into the glacier areas and finding, obviously, plenty to eat up there, because we see them every trip now. And so that new landscape is kind of kind of exciting. It's a bit shocking to go into the Tidewater glaciers and see how much they have retreated back every year. They're still spectacular. They're still calving. They're still doing, you know, really wonderful things. But to see them sort of march back is in just in our lifetimes, is sobering. So we talked about the Bob as a boat. We talked about your all's journey to be in the caretakers of this part of the Bob's life. The Bob is also a business. We've talked about your all's you know, ethos of making sure you share the story of the landscape that you're sharing with people. There's actually a response, even like a legal responsibility. Could you talk a little bit about how the relationship with the agencies works like, you know, you talked about there are a limited number of boats that get to go into Glacier Bay. It's not like you're sharing it with hundreds of other boats, but that comes with responsibility, right? Well, it does. You know, we have a 10 year contract where we have to jump a lot of hoops and hurdles and get through stack of paperwork every 10 years in order to keep that, keep that up. There's also licensing, there's insurance requirements and all that other boring stuff. But I think we've really tried to build Unknown Speaker 17:23 a trust relationship with the agencies as Unknown Speaker 17:29 and we found in that they've also, you know, trust us more through that. There's a lot of operators who will, or folks who are thinking of doing charter boat operations. And they come to us and they say, Can you give us some advice on permits? Can you give us some advice, you know, on doing this and that? And they start wading into what it's going to take to get into it. And it's daunting. It really is. There's so much of that to get started that folks just really don't often have the patience to do they want to get in the boat, they want to run people around, they want to do the fishing all that. But it really is the behind the scenes stuff that keeps it going. But I do think that that trust with the agency by sharing observations, by Unknown Speaker 18:18 sharing your perspective on things, by getting things in on a timely basis, all that really helps and establish a personal connection with with the actual agency helps out immensely for all sorts of purposes. I could call up the wildlife biologist and say, Hey, have you seen wolves lately, you know? And she just might tell me, those are some of the, you know, more secretive things that it takes a long time to find yourself, and sometimes, you know, going through the the experts out in the field is a lot quicker. Yeah, to me, we had, we had a real world example of that today. And going through my images from yesterday, I took a photo series of photos of a humpback that I thought was surge feeding, but in looking closely at the images, we got caught that, hey there, there's actually some sort of fishing gear caught up on the sump back, and your first instinct was to grab that image and make sure you shared it immediately with the biologist in the park. So I love that that data sort of flows back and forth with you all. Yeah, it does. We they do soundscape monitoring in Glacier Bay. They do other work in the in the forest as well the National Forest. But any opportunity we can do to kind of do our citizen science, to help contribute is also value added for our clients on board, because I can send them a little email, Hey, by the way, that whale that we saw, turns out its name is, you know, eolian, or something like that. And we, you know, send out all of our whale tail photos to place called Happy whale.com and they get back to us on this, you know, this whale was actually a Baja whale, or this whale went to Hawaii, and we get to see, it's a little bit. Unknown Speaker 20:00 More information about their life history as well, and that's great. That's wonderful to share with clients. Unknown Speaker 20:06 Your business depends on intact ecosystems. No one comes to Alaska to see clear cut forest or fouled waters. Glacier Bay gets 800,000 visitors a year, 96% of which arrive via a giant cruise ship. Tell us about how wildlands are important to your business. Yeah, we're and all sorts of other small businesses out there dependent on an intact ecosystem. You know, no one comes to Southeast Alaska to see clear cuts or roads. You know, they want to see the wildlife. They want to see the old growth timber, even if it's from a distance, and without that, we certainly can't provide the quality experience that we that we try, we strive for. They're not only the 800,000 come Glacier Bay, but there's also millions more that come up on cruise ships. So don't actually go into Glacier Bay, but travel around the waters up here, as well as hundreds of small charter operators, ecotourism operators, walking tours, people that when they do get into town, they go and take an excursion with a local operator to watch whales or to go on a hike, and that is, that is the basis of the economy in southeast Alaska. Unknown Speaker 21:27 Monique, you got a chance to share a really special experience for us when we went to our one sort of protocol, if you will, of Huna, and you took us and introduced us to Gordon, and they were working on a totem pole, for those of you who don't know, before the last surge of the glaciers, the valley that is now Glacier Bay was just a valley. It wasn't even carved out. It was had a river running down through it, but it was the home of the Huna Tlingit. How important is it for you guys to also tell the human history on the landscape, while also having to be important about the functioning ecosystem that is Southeast Alaska, right? And about eight years ago, there was a grand opening of this very landmark partnership with the National Park Service and the Huna tribe, and they built on National Park Service property, Unknown Speaker 22:18 the Huna shukahit, which is a culture house, and it's available for all visitors who go to the Bartlett Cove area, the front country part of Glacier Bay National Park. And we realized that a lot of people wanted to have the connection to the native aspect of Alaska, of Southeast Alaska. So we've started going to who know quite regularly where this Carver, Gordon, is carving a totem pole, yet shares his time answering all manner of questions by Taurus, and some are just pretty hilarious, but he's always patient and understanding, and he talks a lot about his tie, even though he personally didn't grow up in Glacier Bay, his ancestral people did, and there is that strong land connection that the natives have to that ancestral homeland of Glacier Bay and the National Park Service has really been working hard over many years to form a really strong partnership, because there's Obviously dissatisfaction on both sides how the land is managed. Oh, I can't have access to do the things I wanted to do. So it's a very difficult thing to navigate. But it also, I think, brings up the question of there are other national parks around the US where they were homelands to other ancestral people, but that story might not be being told. And so I think what Glacier Bay has accomplished is very landmark, because it does start the conversation for some other place. Yeah, and you helped us go full circle with that too, because we got to talk to Gordon, and then he told us the whole story of building the Culture House, and then we got to go visit it, because then we stopped it at Bartlett Cove on our way out of the park, and got to see the building from the outside. And I just, I think it's a magical experience that, you know, you guys put so much thought into the ecosystem that is Southeast Alaska, but the cultural history that is on this landscape. I'm gonna ask Anders, I'm gonna ask you a question real quick. Were you expecting that our dinner was literally gonna come from the sea most nights that we were on the boat? Unknown Speaker 24:19 I, you know, I I anticipated there would be some food on my plate that had been in Glacier Bay earlier in the day, but I don't think I was prepared for, like, the bounty of what it was like. Someone can tell you how big a halo it was, but until you see a friend of yours struggle to haul it on board and think, oh, man, we're gonna be eating that the next couple of nights, and it tastes great. I mean, as long as I'm riffing, this has been a once in a lifetime trip for me that I actually hope I can take maybe twice, three times in a laughter. But I You guys have been such wonderful hosts, and you've shown us so much. Unknown Speaker 25:00 Much. And, you know, I listed off the wildlife earlier, but it's also just been about, you know, the company, feeling like you're in a comfortable place, on board and somewhere safe and among friends. So thank you guys so much. Thank you. We've really enjoyed it. Yeah, the fact that you could trap Anders and I in a 50 foot space for 10 days, and that we didn't kill each other, says a lot about the platform which you provide so somebody wants to come see Southeast Alaska, Tell us. Tell our listeners how they find you and what they should think about when they're wanting to book a trip with sound sailing Alaska. Sure, we're at sound sailing.com and we've got website there. We've got our rates and dates page. There's some trip itineraries on there. We on a few of the social media sites, or you can just get a hold of me. Unknown Speaker 25:48 Can I do a phone number? Sure, 907-887-9446, Unknown Speaker 25:53 Captain bling. Unknown Speaker 25:56 So thank you, Monique, thank you, Blaine. Just such a wonderful, amazing, additional 10 days in southeast Alaska, we started out with the sounds from South marble Island and Glacier Bay National Park, with the Steller sea lions and the waterfowl and the birds the rookery there, and we're going to leave you on this episode with the quiet sounds of us Unknown Speaker 26:19 maneuvering our way around Glacier Bay under sail. And we hope you enjoy these quiet moments in your life, and we look forward to catching you up on the next episode of the wild idea. Unknown Speaker 26:33 The wild idea is a production of wild idea media and hosted by Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds, production and editing by Bren Russell at podlad Digital, support by Holly wilkoszewski at daypack digital. Our theme music Spring Hill Jack is from railroad Earth and was composed by John skeehan. Our executive producer and ringleader is Laura Hodge. You can find the wild idea wherever you listen to or download your favorite podcast. If you have a minute, please take a minute to give us a rating, and if you really like us, we hope you'll Subscribe. Learn more about us at the wild idea.com you Transcribed by https://otter.ai