Week 1 Day 6, July 7
The day started with Steve leaving on an adventure to hike a Forest Service trail on George Island to view an old WWII cannon put there in 1942 by the Navy to protect the area. Unfortunately in the process of testing the canon with the 4th test shot a gun mount sheared and the gun jumped back several inches. The gun was out of commission for the rest of the war. Catherine, Mark, Olivia and Tori also did the same tour, but with a different guide.

Luckily Steve returned from his hike adventure in time to join Sharon, Beth & me on our afternoon skiff tour around George Island piloted by Captain Dano. This was a wonderful surprise, we had no idea Dano also piloted skiff tours.

As usual it was another sunny day in Alaska and the water was calm. We had a beautiful view of a glacier from out in the skiff.

One of the many curious things about nature is plants/trees growing out of rocks, everywhere you looked, you found something surprising

As we puttered around the island looking at the landscape, the sky, the water, etc. we came upon a short cut through the island. It looked narrow and barely passable, but our able captain piloted us through it with no problem. I have a feeling it wasn’t the first time he’d been through there…

(Thanks, Beth, for sharing these last two photos)

Once on the other side, we had another gorgeous glacier view.

The water was gorgeous in some areas.

And, oh look, the canon that Steve hiked up to see, even more visible from the water!

There was a disturbance in the water and suddenly these little fish were everywhere.  There were also seals and some otters in the area.

Here’s another shortcut the Captain was considering, but the wind had picked up a bit so we didn’t try it. I think we could have made it!

It certainly was a memorable skiff ride!

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Thank you, Kathy for sharing one of your favorite Skiff Rides.  I think we will see some more photos of this ride in a future guest blog … wink, wink.  

Click Here to see what dangers lie in wait for our intrepid travelers.