Saginaw Bay & Cruising
For the first day of our journey exploring Southeast Alaska, nothing stopped us from investigating the temperate rain forest and to discover its shorelines by kayak. A cloudy day, with rain that came and went, honored the name “temperate rain forest”. This rain is exactly what fuels the life of the Tongass Wildlands.
Saginaw Bay on Kuiu Island, was the place where we first got to experience the marvels of this magical place. To begin the day we offered walks through the rocky life-covered shoreline that led into the old growth forest. Large Sitka spruces stood as proud elders welcoming us into their dwellings as we entered their magical world.
At this time of the year, the forest is just waking up from a long winter. We could see the plants wearing their brand new leaves, and a few of them showing off the first flowers of the year. Some evidence of what most likely was a black bear, told part of the story in which bears wake up from their winter dormancy and travel down to the meadows to feed on sedges. This evidence was bear scat, which was found surrounded by sedges that had been foraged upon.
We spent the afternoon sailing through the vicinity of Admiralty Island. We scanned the shorelines for coastal brown bears. This island has the highest density of brown bears, with about one bear per square mile. Suddenly, everything started happening at once. A brown bear was seen on the shoreline, a pod of resident orcas surfaced in front of the ship, a number of humpback whales were seen off in the distance and not too far from the ship, and a couple bald eagles were perched on a small islet right between all of the above!
What a spectacle of the wild, and there we were, witnessing all of this wildlife that is exactly what makes this place one of the healthiest ecosystems on our planet.
For the first day of our journey exploring Southeast Alaska, nothing stopped us from investigating the temperate rain forest and to discover its shorelines by kayak. A cloudy day, with rain that came and went, honored the name “temperate rain forest”. This rain is exactly what fuels the life of the Tongass Wildlands.
Saginaw Bay on Kuiu Island, was the place where we first got to experience the marvels of this magical place. To begin the day we offered walks through the rocky life-covered shoreline that led into the old growth forest. Large Sitka spruces stood as proud elders welcoming us into their dwellings as we entered their magical world.
At this time of the year, the forest is just waking up from a long winter. We could see the plants wearing their brand new leaves, and a few of them showing off the first flowers of the year. Some evidence of what most likely was a black bear, told part of the story in which bears wake up from their winter dormancy and travel down to the meadows to feed on sedges. This evidence was bear scat, which was found surrounded by sedges that had been foraged upon.
We spent the afternoon sailing through the vicinity of Admiralty Island. We scanned the shorelines for coastal brown bears. This island has the highest density of brown bears, with about one bear per square mile. Suddenly, everything started happening at once. A brown bear was seen on the shoreline, a pod of resident orcas surfaced in front of the ship, a number of humpback whales were seen off in the distance and not too far from the ship, and a couple bald eagles were perched on a small islet right between all of the above!
What a spectacle of the wild, and there we were, witnessing all of this wildlife that is exactly what makes this place one of the healthiest ecosystems on our planet.
