Sitkoh Bay & Hanus Bay
Warm airs and calm water greeted the low tide morning meadow hikers in Sitkoh Bay on the southeast corner of Chichigof Island. Green light filtered through the leaves of red alders arching across an overgrown road, forming a canopy for us to walk beneath.
Munching on salicornia and tracking the huge coastal brown bear that lives in this stunning place, we wandered across hillocks dotted with red Indian paintbrush and the delicate lavender flowers of the northern geranium, stopping to marvel over the awesome footprints left by the master of this place. We checked out half inch long hermit crabs, waded through the stream and watched a mink undulate across the intertidal plain.
A bit later we stopped to admire some especially large specimens of Sitka spruce. Intertidal kayakers brought us stories of voracious sunflower stars grazing on the beautiful blue bay mussels and the joys of paddling in calm clear water.
Following Flip Nicklin’s splendid presentation on his incredible adventures traveling the world and photographing whales for National Geographic, we set out to explore Hanus Bay, on the Baranof Island side of Peril Strait. It is new moon and the tides have been extreme. Today’s range was seventeen feet and the afternoon high offered us an opportunity to paddle and Zodiac into places simply not accessible at low water.
At high water, the small outlet stream at Hanus Bay hosts a small bay filled with bald eagles, harbor seals and leaping pink salmon migrating upstream to spawn. The salmon season is just beginning and all this week it has been most exciting to witness the first of these heroic animals moving back into their natal streams to spawn.
In the Tongass National Forest, the return of the salmon completes the circle of life. They bring nutrients to the bears, the eagles, the ravens, sea lions, seals, and even the streamside trees. Without their amazing journey and yearly input of food and nitrogen, this remarkable wild place would be forever changed.
