Canadian adventurer Frank Wolf and teammate David Berrisford have finished a 720km sea kayaking expedition through southeastern Alaska. Originally planned as a 900km circumnavigation of Prince of Wales Island, the pair had to change their route due to heavy spring storms.
“We had to sit out two of the first six days due to heavy southeast storms,” Wolf reported. “We adjusted to our Plan B route…that would give us more cover for the 25 days we’d budgeted.”
The trip marked the first Alaskan kayak expedition for both paddlers. Wolf has extensive experience along the British Columbia coastline, but Alaska was an entirely new challenge.
Photo: Frank Wolf
Their adapted route involved several open water crossings ranging from 8 to 14km, with strong currents and waves.
While the route changed, the rewards remained. The team paddled through temperate rainforest coastlines, camped in old-growth forests, and saw brown bears, orcas, humpback whales, porpoises, sea otters, and elk.
Brown bears along the shore. Photo: Frank Wolf
A nine-day storm
As the team neared the end of their journey, a series of powerful storms hit them just 90km from their final destination of Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
“We were pinned in just above Cape Fox in Alaska, where the entire fury of the notorious Hecate Strait slams,” Wolf reported. The strait is known for producing some of the largest waves in the world.
With time running out and no transport options available across the Canada and U.S. maritime border, the pair eventually asked members of the Nisga’a First Nation to pick them up during a brief break in the weather.
The final adjusted route. The team had originally planned to loop around Prince of Wales Island. Map: Frank Wolf
“There is no ferry or other transport service over the border, so in the end only the Nisga’a…could get us,” said Wolf. The Indigenous group has special status, allowing them to move freely over the borders.
Photo: Frank Wolf
