Ideal Cove and Petersburg
What a joy to wake up underway sailing the flat calm waters of the Inside Passage, and walk out to the National Geographic Sea Lion’s bow to enjoy a cup of coffee. Marbled murrelets, Bonaparte’s gulls and bald eagles flew over the misty water as we approached our morning’s anchorage at Mitkof Island. Our destination was Ideal Cove, a marvelous old growth forest trail that leads into a magnificent small lake. On the way we found an infinite amount of very interesting plants from the temperate rain forest and the songs of invisible birds filtered through the old hemlocks, creating a magical atmosphere.
As we left ideal cove behind to head towards Petersburg, we heard an announcement to let us know that there was a small group of orca in the distance. We slowly made our way to get a closer look. Two males, each one of them with a six-foot tall dorsal fin, and at least two females traveled, in what seemed to us, in the search of salmon.
The fishing town of Petersburg is located on Mitkof Island. This small town has a Norwegian heritage that can be seen as we walk through its quaint streets. While some of us explored the town, some others traveled by Zodiac to Kupreanof Island for some muskeg walks. This is a different ecological community from the forest, and the perfect example of how nature finds its way under extreme conditions. Muskeg is the Alaskan term for peat bog. These patches of muskeg surrounded by forests, have species of plants that can happily survive in an acidic and nutrient poor substrate. Instead of hemlocks and spruce, we can see dwarfed Alaska yellow cedars and shore pines. Miniatures like the bog cranberry and the bog blueberry grow in close proximity to the insectivore sundews. This tiny world of wonders requires the observer to take a close, very, very close look at the ground to get to appreciate it.
We left Petersburg behind surrounded by majestic scenery of glaciers and snowcapped mountains to sail into the night, looking forward to another interesting and exploratory day tomorrow, here in Southeast Alaska.
