Petersburg
Today many of us became time travelers. A short van ride took us to a dock where we boarded our time machines. Seat belt buckles fastened, ear phones on, we heard the cough and roar of the drive system. Soon, water whipped by and the familiar dropped away. We floated by mountains, tree-studded cliffs and the airy abode of the mountain goat. Dropping over a jagged ridge, we saw fields of white and blue. This was the upper slope of the Le Conte Glacier. At one high spot, the pilot told us that the glacier was more than 4000 feet thick and its base was hundreds of feet below sea level. And at last we were there. Looking down, we could see what Southeast Alaska must have looked like during the Pleistocene. Every bay, every channel, every nook and cranny, even most of the mountaintops were once covered in the crushing frozen sprawl that we could see below us. While the life of Southeast Alaska, replete with orchids, bears, whales, hummingbirds and herring, astonishes us with its richness, what is truly amazing is its freshness. Even in the mossiest heart of the forest, the grey chaos of the Ice Age is never far away.
Others prepared a look at the future. A quick Zodiac ride took us across Wrangell Narrows. There we walked through forest until we encountered a sudden change. The forest thinned to a pitiful scrub. Sphagnum covered the ground, and weird, insect-eating plants proliferated. This was muskeg, the bog of Southeast. While opinions differ, many ecologists believe that this is the region’s future; that muskeg will spread until the ice returns to claim all.
Meanwhile, life in Petersburg is anchored securely in the present. A hard-working town, Petersburg makes much of its income from the sea. We saw schools of fishing boats in the harbor busily loading their vessels with tall stacks of crab pots in anticipation of the opening of crab season on Thursday. We, however, beat the rush by feasting on all-you-can-eat crab this evening as we steamed towards Icy Strait, our destination for tomorrow.
Today many of us became time travelers. A short van ride took us to a dock where we boarded our time machines. Seat belt buckles fastened, ear phones on, we heard the cough and roar of the drive system. Soon, water whipped by and the familiar dropped away. We floated by mountains, tree-studded cliffs and the airy abode of the mountain goat. Dropping over a jagged ridge, we saw fields of white and blue. This was the upper slope of the Le Conte Glacier. At one high spot, the pilot told us that the glacier was more than 4000 feet thick and its base was hundreds of feet below sea level. And at last we were there. Looking down, we could see what Southeast Alaska must have looked like during the Pleistocene. Every bay, every channel, every nook and cranny, even most of the mountaintops were once covered in the crushing frozen sprawl that we could see below us. While the life of Southeast Alaska, replete with orchids, bears, whales, hummingbirds and herring, astonishes us with its richness, what is truly amazing is its freshness. Even in the mossiest heart of the forest, the grey chaos of the Ice Age is never far away.
Others prepared a look at the future. A quick Zodiac ride took us across Wrangell Narrows. There we walked through forest until we encountered a sudden change. The forest thinned to a pitiful scrub. Sphagnum covered the ground, and weird, insect-eating plants proliferated. This was muskeg, the bog of Southeast. While opinions differ, many ecologists believe that this is the region’s future; that muskeg will spread until the ice returns to claim all.
Meanwhile, life in Petersburg is anchored securely in the present. A hard-working town, Petersburg makes much of its income from the sea. We saw schools of fishing boats in the harbor busily loading their vessels with tall stacks of crab pots in anticipation of the opening of crab season on Thursday. We, however, beat the rush by feasting on all-you-can-eat crab this evening as we steamed towards Icy Strait, our destination for tomorrow.
