Northern Exposures

Aboard the first skiff of the season to approach Dawes Glacier, we wove our way between nature-made ice sculptures in glacial colors – clear, blue, and white. Harbor seals periscoped their heads and necks up from the water, getting a look at the all-women skiff skimming by in the cool springtime air. “We’re explorers,” expedition leader Sarah Sinn-White said gleefully. “Not pioneers, who come after the explorers. We’re first.” Skiff captain Cherese Taggart cut the motor and Sinn-White leaned way out over the edge of the skiff on her belly, selecting a pineapple-sized chunk of ice. We passed it around, feeling the glassy smoothness on one side and the honeycomb texture of another, licking it to taste the pure glacial water.

This is kind of experience passengers can expect from a trip to Alaska with UnCruise Adventures. My recent voyage included only 48 passengers and 30-some crew. We left out of Juneau for seven nights exploring the wilderness in places like Endicott Arm, Kuiu Island, and Glacier Bay National Park. Days went by when we didn’t even see another boat. Each day brought kayaking, bushwhacking, and skiff riding. For wilderness lovers who can sacrifice fashion for rain pants – but still want good food and a comfortable bed – you don’t get a better vacation than this.

Special fitness and yoga cruise

I joined UnCruise for one of their specialty fitness and yoga cruises aboard the SS Legacy, a replica 1898 coastal steamer. Passengers were mostly married couples, plus a few solo female travelers, two friend duos, and two sets of cousins, including my cousin Julia and me. The average age was around 50.

Every morning started with optional yoga at 6:45 a.m. with guest instructor Alex Schimmel, who also offered after-dinner yoga nidra sessions. Personal trainer Tessa Foss gave nutrition talks and led afternoon workouts incorporating the limited fitness equipment on the ship, plus creative use of the third deck for jogging, skipping, and sidestepping laps.

Being aboard a ship is that rare scenario that gets me to yoga class early in the morning six days in a row. I just had to set the alarm 15 minutes before class so I’d have time to put on my layers. Our yoga area up on the fourth deck was covered and had a plastic windbreak. But it was still springtime in Alaska, which meant more hats, gloves, and thick socks than you usually see in yoga class. Doing sun salutations while cruising by glaciers more than made up for the chilly air and occasional rain splatter.

Adventure activities

Despite being billed as a yoga cruise, the bulk of the day was the same as other UnCruise Alaska itineraries: wilderness adventures. Each day brought similar choices of bushwhacking, kayaking, or skiff tours, with a couple of chances to take out a SUP or do a mellow shore walk.

We only had one chance to hike on a trail during our cruise. That was on the one trail in Glacier Bay National Park, a park so remote – reachable only by boat or plane – that we saw nobody else on our hike. Otherwise, our land adventures required bushwhacking to penetrate the forest. Our guides led us down soft, mossy game trails, identifying moose droppings and bear scat. Which meant, of course, that those noble yet dangerous creatures were never far away. Guides called out to bears, warning them of our presence. Omnipresent cans of bear spray were Plan B. Sitka spruce and western hemlock trees towered over our heads while our boots sank in bogs called muskegs. Our guides pointed out forest features – pungent yellow skunk cabbage, tiny fungi called fairy goblets, and a yellow gel fungus called witch’s butter, which looks like gummy candy but is tasteless. The fiddlehead ferns and deer heart lettuce had a little more flavor. I drew the line at licking a banana slug, though I did pet it and found its slime strong enough to glue my fingers together.

On each bushwhack, we reserved a few minutes for quiet time. Those were some of the best moments: Lying in moss or perching on a rock with my new shipboard friends, listening to a grouse or raindrops, so far away from my everyday city life.

Much as I enjoyed bushwhacking, my favorite activity was kayaking. The Legacy tows a smaller boat called the Sea Dragon, which carries a fleet of kayaks. Some passengers had never kayaked before and were a bit intimidated by being launched backward off the Sea Dragon in frigid, 1,000-foot deep water inhabited by whales. I tried not to think too much about any large creature surfacing beneath my kayak and knocking me into the hypothermic brine.

Fortunately, nobody fell out of a kayak on our trip. I saw lots of otters, seals, and mountain goats while paddling. One group of kayakers viewed a humpback whale and another group witnessed a swimming bear – both at a safe distance. My favorite kayak outing skirted low cliffs thick with blood red sea stars, sea cucumbers, and anemones. We saw a giant purple and white sunflower sea star. I grew up tide pooling in San Diego but had never seen anything like those hundreds of fat anemones hanging like gelatinous udders.

Food

“Is this a fitness cruise or a fatness cruise?” my cousin asked when it was time for yet another delicious meal. UnCruise offers three choices for most meals, including one vegetarian option. They’re happy to work with special diets, and beautifully accommodated my vegan request. It would have been fairly easy to stick to healthful eating if I’d confined myself to the entrees, which involved lots of vegetables and quinoa, and inventive dishes like puff pastry with apricot, vegan cheese, and charred broccoli. But it’s hard to resist when the ship’s pastry chef was constantly churning out delicious desserts just for me, from churros with three different dipping sauces to vegan pistachio ice cream or a dish of fruit and coconut cream.

Dress code

This isn’t one of those cruises where people pack gowns for their night at the captain’s table. Instead, the biggest fashion statement was probably my hot pink rain pants. Except for dangerous conditions, such as high winds, activities go on rain or shine. Occasionally I saw somebody wear a blouse and skirt at dinner, but for me dressing up meant wearing normal pants and trading my rainboots for sneakers. Practical clothing is appreciated more than looking pretty at UnCruise. As expedition guide Kalyn Holl put it, “On this ship, we get to leave and go on adventures. We come back muddy and disgusting, and that’s awesome. We’re going around and exploring the world, as opposed to just looking at it through the window or the top deck.”