When Michelle Eshpeter first told friends she was planning on paddleboarding in Glacier Bay, they were skeptical. Most people she knew who\u2019d done trips there were kayakers. A paddleboard, they wondered? How would that work?<\/p>\n
But she was sure she could do it.<\/p>\n
When she first started thinking about it, Eshpeter, a yoga and fitness teacher in Whitehorse, Yukon, was taking a class in paddleboard instruction. The idea of paddleboarding somewhere in Alaska was originally the instructor\u2019s.<\/p>\n
She asked friends who\u2019d kayaked here about their most memorable paddle. Almost everyone she spoke with told her Glacier Bay. But her original trip partner couldn\u2019t go when she planned, and then there were the negative reactions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still felt pretty confident I could do it, but it made me feel less confident about doing it on my own,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t end up going with the instructor, but with good friend Lee Paskar, a beginning paddleboarder.<\/p>\n
They packed up inflatable paddleboards 10 feet and six inches long and around 33 inches wide.<\/p>\n
Though the user stands up on them, paddleboards are a lot more stable than they seem, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great for going backcountry, which lots of people haven\u2019t experienced yet, or haven\u2019t witnessed,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just feels really versatile to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
If people ever get in over their heads, they can always come down to their knees and lower their center of gravity, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can paddle almost anything on your knees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
They started out at Bartlett Cove and spent two days getting to the northernmost Beardslee Island. The fourth day, they planned to get picked up at South Sandy Cove, which meant the third day they had to cross Beartrack Cove.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople had told me if you\u2019re going to get rough water, that\u2019s kind of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When they got to Beartrack Cove, the radio told them the swell was four feet, with 20-knot winds. Since her friend didn\u2019t have much experience, they decided to change their route.<\/p>\n
They still had to get drinking water, though \u2014 and that meant either paddling eight hours round trip back where they\u2019d come from, or crossing the cove. So Eshpeter crossed the water herself as her friend watched, concentrating on paddling so much she didn\u2019t notice the humpback whales around her.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe ended up having quite the show of me going through the rodeo,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The fourth day, they got picked up and went to McBride Glacier for some photos. Eshpeter plans to start offering boat-supported paddleboarding tours in Glacier Bay, Sitka and Juneau next year, as well as hosting women\u2019s retreats that involve paddleboarding, so she wanted some pictures to help with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe water\u2019s so deep you\u2019ve got that huge water heave (when the glacier calves,)\u201d Eshpeter said. \u201cIt ended up being such a cool water condition to have this giant wave that\u2019s not at all threatening go by. And all the icebergs in the water, bobbing up and down, twisting\u2026 it was just so lively.\u201d<\/p>\n
When they were traveling, she and Paskar put their things in dry bags they cabled to the front of the board. All together, she estimates they paddled between 35 and 50 kilometers, or 22 to 31 miles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were being pretty conservative with our total distance that we were trying to go, because my friend was an inexperienced paddler,\u201d she said \u201cAnd it worked out really nicely\u2026 it was a nice amount of distance to cover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eshpeter\u2019s website is http:\/\/missmewellness.com\/.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact Juneau Empire outdoors writer Mary Catharine Martin at maryc.martin@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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