Thomas Bay, Cascade Creek & Petersburg

With a partly cloudy morning and the slightest sprinkle of mist from the sky, we set out this morning on the trails at Cascade Creek in Thomas Bay. On the edge of the forest were brilliant pink shooting stars, dramatic punctuations of color in a verdant green landscape. Within the shade of the forest canopy and in the damp still pools stood screaming yellow exclamation points of skunk cabbage flowers, gently munched on and crawled upon by pollinating beetles.

The smell of damp earth was invigorating, as well as the vertical orientation of the trail. Heart rates rose as did the mist from the beautiful falls of Cascade Creek. A few heavy footsteps in the mud also brought a flavor to our walk as mud spatters made it into a few open mouths. The forest tastes very earthy and has a bit of a gritty texture.

A rough skin newt was found wiggling in a dark pool of water. This small creature has a toxic slime on its skin, which seems to protect it from predation. It had nothing to worry about from us as our appetites were oriented towards drinking in the beauty of the forest, not licking random newts.

Dr. Fred Sharpe of the Alaska Whale Foundation met us in Thomas Bay and rode to Petersburg with us. He spoke to us about the Foundation, his current research and included video footage taken by a critter cam, a camera temporarily suction cupped onto the back of a humpback whale. The footage gave us an underwater perspective of the dynamics of bubble-net feeding, which included whale behavior such as fin flashing, blubber bumping and a cacophony of calls and vocalizations. The herring they feed on must be terrified.

This afternoon our options of flightseeing, bog walks, bicycling, guided dock walks and checking out the hardware store and bookshop in Petersburg kept us busy. Today was the last day of the Salmon Derby and entrants were still bringing in their fish to be measured and weighed. The potential winner thus far may be a 59 pound king salmon.

For the evening we tasted the bounty from the waters surrounding Petersburg. Dungeness crab was the dining room’s main event and shells flew while the sweet meat of crab was added to our growing list of sensory experiences in Southeast Alaska.

Later, as we snuggled into our beds, we dreamed of humpback whales, so near the ship you could hear their explosive exhalations and then silently slipping into the water as they raised their flukes to the low gray clouds. Or was it just a dream?