~ Winter 2010/2011 Newsletter ~

Polar bears. Photo by Hugh Rose

Greetings from the Captain Dean

Hello All! I hope the fall of 2010 has been treating you well and you are tucked in for the winter, wherever that finds you. The cool autumn winds have recently brought snow to us here at 60° North latitude. Our daylight hours will reach their annual minimum with the Winter solstice on December 21st. Perhaps we should all celebrate that day, but I usually don’t notice the days growing longer and brighter until mid March!

My Montana Sojourn

The end of the Discovery season is always a time of transition for me, but that was more true than usual this year. After off loading the kayaks, skiffs, and all the other summer gear, I winterized the Discovery, packed a few things for fall traveling, climbed into the pickup truck with two dogs, and took to the road with fellow Discovery crew member Megan for her move south to Montana. We hit beautiful weather and scenery coming through Canada with unbelievable fall colors. I highly recommend the drive through the Canadian Rockies with stops at Jasper, Banff, and Kootenay National Parks on your way to or from Alaska.

Dean on a bridge in Kootenay
National Park, Canada
 

Dean at Moraine Lake, Canada
 

Dean helping to excavate ground

We then made our way to Eastern Montana, which is about as flat as a piece of paper. However there is a small section of Ponderosa Pines and rolling windblown sandstone mountains where Meg’s reined cow horse trainer lives. Yep, she’s a cowgirl when not on the Discovery. (What is a reined cow horse, you ask? It is a working horse that competes in an arena to show its skill in working a single live cow, performing specific maneuvers such as circling the cow, turning it in a specified manner, and performing a reining pattern. The purpose is to improve the quality of western reined stock horse and keep alive the early Spanish traditions of highly trained working cow horses.

The trainer has a beautiful 180-acre ranch with a new 20 horse barn in place, and I’ve been busy helping to build stalls out of recycled railroad ties, which have to be cut, stacked, drilled, and spiked together. Full of old gravel and rocks and weighing roughly 200 pounds each, these railroad ties are about the toughest building material I’ve ever worked with. However years of working with logs salvaged from Alaska's rocky, storm-ravaged coasts have prepared me well for this project. I am also helping excavate a large area (80,000 square feet) for a riding arena, and am having a blast driving a large CAT bulldozer. What isn’t there to love: – big power tools, horses whinnying at feeding time, and sunny Montana skies!

In between building the barn and trail riding horses, I am balancing my Discovery and Alaskan responsibilities. On the agenda for the Discovery this winter is new windows in the wheelhouse and possibly the lounge. We are looking at scanning the Discovery’s Guestbook (with pictures) to add to our website, while maintaining guest privacy by deleting last names. Your reviews are our greatest testament. (See the story on our recent problems with TripAdvisor). Reading the guest book makes me feel Discovery Voyages has done an outstanding job of sharing Prince William Sound with people from around the world. We’re not certain how much of it we can share without making the file size an issue, but we’ll send an email out to all when the guest book goes live.

Protecting and Enhancing Prince William Sound

I have recently been appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture (Yes, that’s the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture in Washington, DC) to serve as a board member on the Prince William Sound Resource Advisory Committee. This federal program looks at ways to enhance the 5 ½ million acres of the Chugach National Forest, the nation’s second largest National Forest, which surrounds Prince William Sound. So my job is really to help decide how to spend your tax dollars, though only a very few of them. The committee is tasked with evaluating and approving proposals that will best benefit ecosystem health, social impact, and restoration of watersheds, wildlife and fish habitat, among other values. I continue to serve as vice president of The Prince William Soundkeeper, a community-based, nonprofit organization that works to protect and enhance water quality in the Sound.

Trouble with TripAdvisor

The only fly in our ointment over the past year - and it has been a rather large one - is a problem on TripAdvisor.com. Discovery Voyages is one of hundreds of reputable businesses (there is a class action lawsuit being prepared), who have been damaged by malicious, untrue and defamatory comments posted on the online travel referral site. If you would like to read more about the controversy and how we are dealing with it, read the new page on our website, The Trouble with Trip Advisor. We have no problem with honest reviews. Our best advertising is word of mouth, and we are always happy when people who have actually taken our cruises share their experiences with others, whether it is on Facebook, TripAdvisor, or in person with your friends and family. Your kind words and genuine friendship mean a lot to us.

Heather and Hannah

My daughters Heather and Hannah Rand are growing into beautiful young adults, and are roommates in Anchorage. Both are on the Chancellors list at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). Heather is continuing work on her languages degree with the intent of entering law school, and Hannah is advancing in the automotive technology industry. That’s right Hannah, the fine musician and emerging chef, will also be a certified grease monkey! I couldn’t be more proud. They are combining their efforts this winter to restore a 1977 Corvette Stingray! Are they adult tomboys or what?

Greetings from the Crew

Chef Matt on the Discovery

Matt Tocchini

I made my way down to Seward to reconnect with my friends and the town I love. This being the year of the rain, I was pleasantly surprised by a seemingly endless string of warm, sunny days. It was one of the best autumns I have seen! I then drove south, eventually delivering Happy Dog to Montana and Captain Dean. We had wonderful northern lights, a brilliant full moon and more animals on the highway than you can shake a stick at! My god, wood bison are HUGE! I am now back in Oregon, and my fiancée Sam is happy to have me home. I have been working on not working, while also putting together a long anticipated cookbook, and a small business plan for our future. Sam and I are getting married in January, and we are trying to tie up the loose ends of planning a ceremony/honeymoon so that they come together in a nice tidy bow. It is proving itself to be harder than it looks...but we are happy and looking forward to our lives together!

Sarah Heck

Stylin' on the mountain

I am up to my neck in teaching! September was amazing (summer came!) and kept my mind off of skiing as I ran, biked, backpacked, and made up for rainy summer days. I hiked Kasugi Ridge in fall colors with Denali (Mt. McKinley) in full glory the whole time. More memories from that trip: a bull moose silhouetted at sunset, waking up to frost....amazing! But snowflakes have now landed, and I’m spending as much time as possible on my skis. I have backcountry ski trips planned to Valdez in February and Haines in March. I can't wait to put those beautiful ski track ribbons all over the mountains in Alaska!

Megan Ciana

A champion in the making?

I am nestled down in Montana this winter pursuing a lifelong dream of showing horses, and I couldn’t be happier. I have had two shows to date in Montana and Wyoming with the National Reined Cow Horse Association. There are shows all winter long, and with work and luck I hope to qualify for the World Championships in 2012! In the meantime, I am continuing my physical therapy work over the winter helping homebound and disabled individuals.

Hugh Rose

Bird palooza. Photo by Hugh Rose

Well it’s hard to believe that its already mid-November and the 2010 season has come to a close. There were many highlights to the summer of 2010, but I must say that the spring wildlife and photography trip continues to be one of my favorite trips. It was magical to return to Cordova in early May and watch as literally millions of migratory birds staged their annual stopover on the Copper River Delta and Prince William Sound. The birds need to rest and refuel after flying thousands of miles. For the lucky six people who joined us on this year's trip, including returning friends Kathy Richardson and Lorna Allan (all the way from New Zealand), we were all treated to the mind boggling explosion of life that this area experiences every May. There are other notable trips each year with fantastic photographic opportunities and great adventures, but it sure is hard to beat that first trip of the season.

After the Discovery season, my attentions shifted from Prince William Sound and the Interior to Alaska’s far north. As the tundra and boreal forest turned shades of red, yellow and orange and eventually to white, I’ve kept busy guiding trips to Alaska's mighty Brooks Range and arctic coastline in search of the aurora borealis (northern lights), polar bears and other arctic wildlife. We’ve been privileged to observe and photograph both the aurora and polar bears on every trip. Now I find myself sitting at the computer in my office reliving the summer as I edit and process the tens of thousands of images I shot throughout the 2010 season, while dreaming ahead to the summer of 2011 and beyond. Happy Holidays, and I hope to see some of you on a trip next year!

Happy, Hutch and Willow

Happy, Willow, Hutch on the ranch
with their buddy Carl

Wag Wag! All 3 canine crew members are thoroughly enjoying ranch life here in Montana. Happy is beyond excited to eat the various specialties found only around horses and cows. It’s not quite spawned-out salmon, but it’ll do. Hutch is crew foreman with the building of the barn, making sure nothing gets missed. He especially likes watching the sparks from grinding metal. If he keeps it up, he’ll have to wear a pair of safety goggles. And Willow has made friends with the local porcupine, skunk, and deer… without any dramatics so far!

Good energy and much love,

~ Captain Dean & family