Behm Canal & Rudyard Bay
“The Ties That Bind”
“Of all the questions which can come before this nation… there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us…”
- Theodore Roosevelt
Morning ushers in reflective conversation. Remembering. Where we heard the news or watched the pictures eight years ago, which still uniquely bind us. There is a certain quiet that echoes along the edges of our stories. Perhaps here in the Behm Canal, where wilderness towers in all dimensions, we see ourselves as a part of the world, rather than the center of it.
Sailing provides time on National Geographic Sea Bird. On the bow, bird watchers identify pacific loons, marbled murrelets, and Thayer’s gulls. Dall’s porpoise forage along the very edges of the waterway. Geology presents itself all around us. The rocks do speak, just not aloud. Pete does. We marvel. Water falls. The winds that built the seas in Clarence Strait are noticeably missing from our expedition this morning. This more leisurely pace we use to tie our friendships.
We share photography as a common language on this expedition. Connections between shutter speed, aperature, ISO, and exposure compensation increases the complexity of discussions. Analyzing images. Comparing histograms. Exchanging ideas. Capturing a fraction of a moment. Yet it is light that binds us, that draws our eyes to see a “picture.”
We took to water level in Rudyard Bay where steep sided granite walls and misty fjords are the centerpieces. Zodiac tours and a kayak expedition through the narrows made for beautiful images. A mother brown bear and her 2 cubs in the meadow fishing, bald eagles soaring above the towering red cedars, and harbor seals basking lazily in the sun on a floating log connected the waterfalls and streams in this majestic forest. Perhaps, though, it is beauty that binds us.
Misty Fjords National Monument is a national treasure. It is part of one of the largest temperate rainforests, and one of the last. These expanses of untouched wilderness and coastlines are the cathedral where we look up and out together with awe and hope, inspired by wildness.
“Misty Fjords speaks for itself. All you have to do is listen.”
- Ken Dent, Guest onboard National Geographic Sea Bird
“It is only in thoughtful reflection and in hopeful action that we will be able to pass on to our children’s children a world worth keeping.”
We’d say the cost is more than worth it.
