Chatham Strait and Pavlof Harbor
We awoke this morning to glorious weather – clear blue skies overhead and views of distant, jagged, snow-capped peaks. Such weather is not common in southeast Alaska! The ship cruised into Saook Bay as morning stretch class began, and some of us looked for wildlife as we sipped coffee. After breakfast we cruised into Sitkoh Bay, a long, narrow inlet on Chichagof Island. A brown bear with two cubs was on the shore ahead of the ship, and after a while they ambled into the forest. A couple of harbor seals surfaced, a bald eagle flew over the water, and the sun shone down. As we left the bay, another three bears were seen! There was a very dark sow with a pair of 2-year old cubs. We walked out on deck very quietly and watched them eating grass at the shoreline. At one point the sow appeared to touch noses with one of her cubs.
We cruised north in Chatham Strait, and then turned into Freshwater Bay, to our anchorage at Pavlof Harbor. We spent the remainder of the afternoon exploring this beautiful area on foot and by kayak. Faster-paced walkers went to a lake, which was surrounded by wetland where there were numerous signs of beaver habitation, including a beaver lodge and many beaver-gnawed trees. We saw a red-breasted sapsucker with a brilliant red head, and countless holes it had drilled in tree trunks in its search for sap. The forest itself was beautiful with soft, spongy ground mostly covered with moss, tall Sitka spruce and western hemlock. During the course of this unusually warm day, we watched ferns unfurling their delicate fronds just above the forest floor.
The colorful kayaks explored the shoreline, and a couple of harbor seals popped their heads up among them. A river cascaded down some rocks from the lake, and kayakers paddled their boats towards this outflow of water.
As we all returned to the ship in the late afternoon, the tide had receded, and barnacles, mussels and a few sea stars were visible in the intertidal zone. Back on the ship, using the video microscope, we watched the barnacles feeding, kicking their ‘hairy legs’ into the water to catch food.
