Mist

This is Prince Rupert, B.C., or so I believe. And yes, it was named after Prince Rupert of the Rhine, cousin of Charles I and his principal commander during the Civil War. After the Restoration, Rupes returned to Britain along with the new king, and invested heavily in the Hudson Bay Company, getting so much money and clout that a large area of southwestern Canada became known as “Rupert Land.”

While we were very lucky to have sunny and warm days for most of our trip, I could have done with a little more mist. It’s romantic and pretty and prone to stimulate the imagination. I remember stepping out onto the balcony in the early hours of the morning, seeing the mist lying heavily on the water and hearing the foghorns go off every five minutes, with the echo coming back in a long rush, like a wind in a forest. The still water was rushing past in near-silence. I could imagine the ship traveling to worlds far away, or to a magical kingdom named Rupert Land.

We traveled to the Misty Fjords, which John Muir thought was the second most beautiful place in the world, after Yosemite. The geology is very similar to Yosemite, both being a product of the interaction between volcanoes and glaciers— in fact it looks like Yosemite if Yosemite had an ocean.

We transferred into Zodiacs for the trip. I was a little worried about my mobility issues climbing in and out, but the worry was misplaced, and I navigated just fine. We zoomed up the narrow fjord, and viewed eagles, seals, and zombie salmon— the zombie salmon deserve of a post of their own, come to think of it.

I never got a good picture. There were nine people on the Zodiac, and one or half-a-dozen of them was always in the way.

I thought the Misty Fjords could use more mist— it was another bright day, and while the fjords were picturesque, I didn’t feel the enchantment that so entranced John Muir.

The whole trip was kind of an experiment. I’ve had problems with pain and balance since blowing out my knees during Taos Toolbox last year, and I wanted to go on a trip with a degree of safety built in. If I couldn’t handle the Zodiacs and the catamarans and the piers, I could stay on the MV Imperial Shadow and order another in a long series of cocktails.

In the event I handled the Zodiacs, etc., perfectly well (along with the cocktails). I got stronger, what with doing more walking than normal, but I didn’t get any better. My knees have stubbornly refused to heal over the last year, and I’ve reluctantly concluded that replacement surgery may be in my future. When you consider that my last joint replacement led to six years of chronic pain, you can maybe understand my reluctance to face this.

So the Imperial Shadow will probably be my last long trip for a while. Time to devote a year or so to recovery.