Grenville Passage & Chatham Sound, B.C.
Another day beneath the shaggy slopes of the Great Bear Rainforest that tumble into long fingers of the sea where green is more than a color, it’s a texture. We learned to wear the rain, tell stories in the rain, and even had good laughs in the rain (laughing at ourselves) as we climbed over logs and followed makeshift trails and paddled kayaks on still reflecting waters.
This morning at Nettles Basin, in the secluded back of Lowe Inlet (off Grenville Passage), we spent three wondrous hours getting wet and grateful for our warm clothes, and a little contemplative as well while adrift in our colorful kayaks quietly watching harbor seals, river otters, goldeneyes and gulls. Others among us enjoyed a leisurely cruise in a Zodiac. In the forest, we heard the long chattering calls of winter wrens and the cries of bald eagles. A muddy, root-twisted trail took us to an impressive waterfall that foamed with whitewater.
Northbound in Chatham Sound, we beat our way into building seas and found our sturdy ship a capable mariner. Gray clouds brought the sky down as we approached Alaska, the so-called “Last Frontier,” an exciting destination for the second half of our journey. Alaska has nearly 34,000 miles of coastline (more miles of coastline than the contiguous U.S.) and in the next week we‘ll explore as much of it as we can, winnowing among islands, islands and rocky promontories.
We often hear about how big Alaska is; that it’s more than twice the size of Texas, etc. The best description comes from John McPhee (in his best-selling book, Coming into the Country) who says it’s so big that if anybody could figure out a way to steal Italy, Alaska would be the place to hide it.
