Fox Creek, Shaw Island & the Inian Islands
Early risers this morning were treated to a lovely light show, morning sunlight glowing through patches of fog. The day turned bright as we made our way to breakfast. It was getting hard to remember we are in a rainforest, where normally there are only a few days in a month without precipitation.
This is the most productive part of the year, with long hours of daylight, warm temperatures – for Alaska – birds fledging from nests and salmon returning to streams. The evidence was all around us on our morning explorations. Hikes at Fox Creek started with a beach walk, where some sampled salty-lemony beach greens or oyster plants or even edible seaweeds.
The meadow fringing the beach was a painter’s pallet of colors: delicate white strawberries, yellow coastal paintbrush, pink willowherb and shooting stars, and many more. In the forest, it was time to do some tracking. We found evidence of animals using the area: deer tracks and short-tailed weasel tracks in the mud, and a path that big coastal brown bears had made by walking time after time in the same place, putting their feet down in the footsteps that bears before them had made. Walking on all fours in the giant bear footprints was a challenge best met by the young and agile in the group. Chattering northern red squirrels greeted us near some of the spruce cone piles they had made, and songbirds flitted and called overhead. Beyond a grove of giant spruce trees a peat bog shone in the sun, and those who climbed its slopes were rewarded with the delicious scent of bog orchids, a look at all the wildflowers blooming there, and finally, a beautiful view from the top.
Kayaking around Shaw Island rounded out the morning for many. Kelp beds are home for many creatures, but paddling through them can be difficult, and for those who ventured in, the return to open water felt like coasting. It was easy to envy the ease of the harbor seals and harbor porpoises that swam so gracefully nearby. The second round of kayaking was invigorating, as the wind started to blow. Some of our young people chose to stay at it anyway; they’ll be going home from Alaska with some new skills.
A zodiac cruise had the kids in charge for a while, and they managed to direct their driver to a beautiful bald eagle show and lots of harbor seals. The gentle cruises were a chance to sit and take it all in; even after days surrounded by tree-clad slopes, high mountains, rocky shores and colorful intertidal zones, we found our capacity to take it in undiminished. Perhaps as we use it, the sense of wonder increases.
The afternoon brought us low clouds, fog, and an incredible experience in the Zodiacs. The Inian Islands are located at the mouth of Icy Straits, a relatively narrow opening where twice a day the high tides of the Gulf of Alaska pour in to fill the Inside Passage. This means the currents can be strong, and where you get a seafloor with varying depths and strong current you get nutrients upwelling toward the surface. That means a productive ocean, lots of fish, and lots of wildlife. Today, as they say, the joint was jumping.
Flocks of kittiwakes, cormorants, gulls, and sandpipers graced the skies. We saw some of the great divers: marbled murrelets, pigeon guillemots, and puffins. Bald eagles perched in trees or soared overhead. Sea otters were seen by some of the boats. The stars of the show, though, were undoubtedly the Steller sea lions. The “boys” seemed as interested in us as we were in them, swimming right up next to the boat, lifting their heads and looking. Being that close to an enormous, curious, boisterous, playful powerful animal is a very vivid exciting experience.
“We felt”, someone said, “like we were IN a National Geographic special.”
