Petersburg
A silver day greeted us as we entered the fishing town of Petersburg. Those that went flightseeing from helicopters and floatplanes carried on enthusiastic conversations about flying over glacial scenery carved into the rugged mountains of the mainland. It is thrilling to look down onto the winding paths of icy glaciers that dump “bergs” into the pale blue waters of fiords, to take visual hikes through alpine meadows, follow narrow ridgelines, and scale towering summits. Many of us also walked to a beautiful muskeg, an acidic bog full of sphagnum moss where a variety of specially adapted plants textured the landscape like a massive bonsai garden.
The docks were filling with fishing boats getting ready for an opening on pink salmon starting this Sunday. The photograph shows three fishermen getting ready to replace the lower portion of their purse seine net with a new section. Their fishing boat is in the background. The seine skiff that pulls the net from the boat into the loop is behind the fisherman on the left. Once the net is handed to those on the ship, it is fed through the power block, the big pulley shown at the center on top of the photograph. The lead line at the bottom of the net is pulled, closing the net like a purse, and all the fish are caught inside. Between 250 to1500 pink salmon can be caught in this way. These hardy fisherman work in all kinds of weather, as you can see by the sky in the background.
Icebergs recently calved from LeConte Glacier littered the entrance to the fiord where we had anchored. Fog hung in the trees and drifted in patches across the water as our Zodiacs entered it. Ice was everywhere. Some pieces towered over our Zodiacs looking ungainly, precarious, and outrageously blue. The smaller ones slowed navigation, but we were all back in time for recap and a fresh Dungeness crab all-you-can-eat dinner.
We watched a humpback whale after dinner before winding our way into Scenery Cove. It was a day crammed with adventure, overflowing with experiences, and peppered with those scenes that give Southeast Alaska a place in world-class wilderness beauty.
A silver day greeted us as we entered the fishing town of Petersburg. Those that went flightseeing from helicopters and floatplanes carried on enthusiastic conversations about flying over glacial scenery carved into the rugged mountains of the mainland. It is thrilling to look down onto the winding paths of icy glaciers that dump “bergs” into the pale blue waters of fiords, to take visual hikes through alpine meadows, follow narrow ridgelines, and scale towering summits. Many of us also walked to a beautiful muskeg, an acidic bog full of sphagnum moss where a variety of specially adapted plants textured the landscape like a massive bonsai garden.
The docks were filling with fishing boats getting ready for an opening on pink salmon starting this Sunday. The photograph shows three fishermen getting ready to replace the lower portion of their purse seine net with a new section. Their fishing boat is in the background. The seine skiff that pulls the net from the boat into the loop is behind the fisherman on the left. Once the net is handed to those on the ship, it is fed through the power block, the big pulley shown at the center on top of the photograph. The lead line at the bottom of the net is pulled, closing the net like a purse, and all the fish are caught inside. Between 250 to1500 pink salmon can be caught in this way. These hardy fisherman work in all kinds of weather, as you can see by the sky in the background.
Icebergs recently calved from LeConte Glacier littered the entrance to the fiord where we had anchored. Fog hung in the trees and drifted in patches across the water as our Zodiacs entered it. Ice was everywhere. Some pieces towered over our Zodiacs looking ungainly, precarious, and outrageously blue. The smaller ones slowed navigation, but we were all back in time for recap and a fresh Dungeness crab all-you-can-eat dinner.
We watched a humpback whale after dinner before winding our way into Scenery Cove. It was a day crammed with adventure, overflowing with experiences, and peppered with those scenes that give Southeast Alaska a place in world-class wilderness beauty.
