"Glacier Bay" from Inside Passage Terry Kelly (c) 2004
Glacier Bay is a special place. This song was inspired by a ten day kayaking trip I made to Glacier Bay in the Summer of 2004. A friend and I took the ferry from Bellingham to Juneau and then joined four more friends for an amazing trip full of glaciers, whales, sunsets and dramatically carved fjords. Many people talk about the place in sacred terms, and there is little reason to wonder why. Kayaking in Johns Hopkin Inlet, a seven mile glacier fjord with 4000 foot walls and numerous hanging and tide water glaciers, makes you feel like a small part of some bigger plan. I'm not particularly religious, but even I could not help but wonder how the processes of nature alone could create places of such staggering beauty. The Bay is truly sublime-- beautiful and awe inspiring.
The nature of Glacier Bay gave me pause for some serious existential reflection about myself and how I fit into the larger plan of things. This song captures some of the conclusions I reached on that trip.
I sailed north to find my way
Through my inside passage
And the days
Seem so long
But there's something about open space
Rock and ice that shows you your own place
And who you were meant to be
MUSIC