Pavlov Harbor
An early wake up call invited everyone to jump out of bed to see killer whales this morning. A group of at least seven orcas traveled slowly through Chatham Strait, right along the shores of Catherine Island. We stayed with them for about an hour as we observed behaviors like tail lobbing, rolling over and slapping the water with one pectoral fin and then with the other, and sudden bursts of energy that propelled them fast through the surface for short distances. It is hard to tell what these enigmatic creatures were up to, but certainly it was a magnificent sighting to start the day.
Pavlov Harbor, a nice inlet on Chichagof Island, was our next destination. Here we intended to lead some hikes of different lengths. Our plans suffered a change, when a young brown bear appeared right in front of where our trail was leading. Long, intermediate and short walkers got all together, observing in awe how this bear gently moved around feeding on grasses and sedges. We kept our distance, but we got great looks of the bear’s behavior as it smelled the air to recognize us and then went right back to its feeding.
We chose an alternative landing for our hikes and for our kayak operations. From the water we could see the bear as we paddled. The hikers could explore the forest and the intertidal one more time.
Back onboard, we spotted more six-foot tall dorsal fins in the distance. More orcas were spotted. The sun intermittently shone and then hid back behind a rain cloud. The wind picked up, but we still managed to stay with these wonderful animals for a successful amount of time.
Shortly after that, our shipboard historian gave an interesting talk about the purchasing of Alaska by the United States. When the talk concluded a humpback whale showed up. We stayed with the whale, until we decided to check out some brown bears on shore in the distance. Eight more bears! Since the bay was shallow, we used our scope to get a better view of these mysterious forest dwellers.
An early wake up call invited everyone to jump out of bed to see killer whales this morning. A group of at least seven orcas traveled slowly through Chatham Strait, right along the shores of Catherine Island. We stayed with them for about an hour as we observed behaviors like tail lobbing, rolling over and slapping the water with one pectoral fin and then with the other, and sudden bursts of energy that propelled them fast through the surface for short distances. It is hard to tell what these enigmatic creatures were up to, but certainly it was a magnificent sighting to start the day.
Pavlov Harbor, a nice inlet on Chichagof Island, was our next destination. Here we intended to lead some hikes of different lengths. Our plans suffered a change, when a young brown bear appeared right in front of where our trail was leading. Long, intermediate and short walkers got all together, observing in awe how this bear gently moved around feeding on grasses and sedges. We kept our distance, but we got great looks of the bear’s behavior as it smelled the air to recognize us and then went right back to its feeding.
We chose an alternative landing for our hikes and for our kayak operations. From the water we could see the bear as we paddled. The hikers could explore the forest and the intertidal one more time.
Back onboard, we spotted more six-foot tall dorsal fins in the distance. More orcas were spotted. The sun intermittently shone and then hid back behind a rain cloud. The wind picked up, but we still managed to stay with these wonderful animals for a successful amount of time.
Shortly after that, our shipboard historian gave an interesting talk about the purchasing of Alaska by the United States. When the talk concluded a humpback whale showed up. We stayed with the whale, until we decided to check out some brown bears on shore in the distance. Eight more bears! Since the bay was shallow, we used our scope to get a better view of these mysterious forest dwellers.
