No ordinary Joe
- jkdrury
- 20 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Phyliss and I had made good progress up the Alcan Highway and were debating whether to make more miles north or spend the night in Teslin, Yukon. Teslin, a village of 239 hardy souls, was established by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1903. It’s also home to the Teslin Inland Tlingit First Nations.
After passing through Teslin we would be on our way to Whitehorse and any chance of visiting my old friend Joe Ordóñez would be gone. Joe has lived in Haines, a small village in southeast Alaska which is hard to get to by car, for around thirty years. We had decided that driving down the 300 mile dead end road to Haines was just too far out of our way. At the last minute I decided to shoot Joe an email to see if he was in a part of Alaska closer to us. I hadn’t seen him since 2004 but we had spent many days outdoors together and I was hoping there might be a way to connect with him.
I asked if there was any chance we might cross paths. To my surprise he wrote back immediately letting me know that he too was on the Alcan on his way to Haines from Washington
Then I said, “We’re in Teslin heading to Whitehorse. Where will you be tonight?”
He responded, “Teslin!”
Serendipity strikes again.
Joe and his daughter Sapphire
When I first met Joe he was 13 years old and I was 24, nearly twice his age. In 1974 he came on a one-week canoe trip I led, and five years later I attended his high school graduation and heard him give his valedictorian speech. My memory of Joe was of a bright kid, with a black belt in Karate, and a love for music. He played the trombone as a kid and is also very capable playing the flute and guitar. I saw a video of him once sitting on the back of a raft with clients, a giant glacier calving in the background, while he played a wistful tune on his flute.
In 1980 Joe was a student on NCCC’s 33-day Wilderness Practicum. As a college freshman he showed great promise as a wilderness leader and I wasn’t surprised when he graduated from Western Washington University in 1983 and soon headed to Alaska where he’s lived off and on ever since.
Early in his career Joe worked on cruise ships in a variety of roles. He has served as naturalist, historian, expedition leader, zodiac driver and cruise director. He still enjoys working as a stand-up guide for bus tours visiting Haines and as a private photography guide and naturalist.
Joe lives with his wife Edie, and daughters, Stella and Sapphire, in their hand-crafted cabin that you have to walk a half mile across a salt-water marsh to get to. I wouldn’t say it’s remote, but if you catch the tide wrong it's over a mile around the bay to get to their home.
Joe’s outdoor career has taken him to all seven continents and he has operated Rainbow Glacier Adventures since 1992. Joe and his staff of 24 at Rainbow Glacier Adventures provide guided tours throughout the Haines and Skagway region. Tours feature the Chilkat Bald Eagle preserve, not only the home of one of the greatest concentrations of bald eagles in the world (it hosts over 3,000 eagles during the fall and winter months), but also moose, wolves, brown bears, and the ever present salmon.
Rainbow Glacier Adventures contracts with the various cruise lines to provide small group tours of the most iconic sights in the region. His tours are different. Instead of traveling in a bus with fifty or more people, he takes six to fourteen guests in small vans and they get to see and learn about the land from local experts, up close and personal.
One of Joe’s many accomplishments is the writing of the book, Where Eagles Gather. Illustrated with Joe’s photos, it tells the story of the Chilkat Eagle Preserve, how it came to be, and why it needs to be preserved. Joe’s an award-winning photographer and the book is a marvel and should be on everyone’s coffee table.
Despite all his accomplishments as an entrepreneur and guide there is one skill I appreciate the most. I can’t take credit for him being such a fine outdoor guide, a fine naturalist, an excellent businessman, or outstanding father. But according to Joe I was the one who introduced him to Robert W. Service, my favorite poet. I should say the only poet I read regularly. I first heard Robert W. Service poems when I was about twelve years old when my brother brought home a phonograph of his poetry. I was mesmerized by The Cremation of Sam McGee and The Shooting of Dan McGrew. By the time my English teachers had us reading these poems in high school I was already a Robert Service veteran. It’s why, when we drove through Dawson City I had Phyliss take a photo of me in front of Service’s cabin.
Joe quickly learned that any guide worth his salt has to memorize The Cremation of Sam McGee. Joe’s taken it to another level. He recites it forward, backward, to the tune of Jingle Bells, and told me that he and his daughter recently won first place at a festival for reciting it to the tune of The Star Spangled Banner.
There are Robert W. Service festivals in Canada, and every bar in the state of Alaska has some resident barfly that recites his poetry. Back in the fifties if an American house had only two books they were a copy of the bible and The Best of Robert W. Service. Regrettably, today in the lower forty-eight few have ever even heard of him.
Even worse, Robert W. Service’s birthday isn’t an official holiday in either Canada or the U.S….
But it damn well oughta be.
Learn more about Joe at:
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