John Muir was convinced that the beauty of his beloved Yosemite Valley was the result of glacial action, and to find support for his views he travelled to Southeast Alaska three times—in 1879, 1880, and 1890—to explore the active glaciers that spring from the Alaska Coast Ranges and flow into the inside passage. He paddled through ice filled fjords, bush-wacked through tangled spruce forests, camped in pouring rain with little more than the coat on his back, and picked his way across crevasse-streaked glaciers to find support for his view. His reflections on these travels include evocative descriptions of the cloudscapes of long summer evenings, of sunlight on the quiet waters of the inside passage, and of the power of summer storms, as well as careful observations of native culture (if not particularly deep reflections on the impact of European infiltration of their ancestral lands). There are a few tedious lists of natural features, but these are worth plowing through to reach the gems in Muir’s prose and to relive the quiet tension of his fearless exploration. This was the perfect preparation for and accompaniment to my own (much more comfortable) exploration of the inside passage.
I read a hard copy of this book.