Port Houghton, Alaska
Sailing into the back reaches of this large bay in Southeast Alaska immediately removes one from the concerns and confines of ‘real’ time. Instantly all the senses are heightened by the awesome sights, sounds and scents of wilderness - snowcapped mountains above with an immense meadow spread out before us, the call of the loon, the wing beats of a hundred ducks lifting off the calm and quiet water, the deep and earthy smell of the intertidal zone. There is rightness to some wild places- those places that you’ve never seen but know as if you’ve been there many times before.
By kayak, we paddled with the incoming tide up a wandering slough. Along the grassy banks were long-tailed ducks, Barrow’s golden eye, and some common mergansers flying by. From high in a nearby Sitka spruce, the chortle of a bald eagle was audible, and soon after, an eagle’s head peeked above a nest tucked deeply among hemlock boughs.
On foot, near the edges of Sitka spruce dominated forest islands scattered around the meadow, there are signs of a hard winter in the moose-browsed tips of western hemlock branches. Bears have been feeding here as well on the young parsnip-like roots of angelica. Having only recently left their winter dens, these roots and those of the skunk cabbage are some of the first spring foods available.
Other animals are arriving every day to exploit the rich feeding grounds of the Pacific Ocean waters surrounding the islands of Southeast Alaska. Hundreds of humpback whales migrate north from their winter breeding grounds in Hawaii to spend their summers here feeding on small schooling fish and krill. We spent several wonderful hours on deck watching seven or eight individuals of these massive baleen whales diving, feeding and returning to the surface to breathe, arch their backs and once again raise those oh-so-beautiful flukes.
Sailing into the back reaches of this large bay in Southeast Alaska immediately removes one from the concerns and confines of ‘real’ time. Instantly all the senses are heightened by the awesome sights, sounds and scents of wilderness - snowcapped mountains above with an immense meadow spread out before us, the call of the loon, the wing beats of a hundred ducks lifting off the calm and quiet water, the deep and earthy smell of the intertidal zone. There is rightness to some wild places- those places that you’ve never seen but know as if you’ve been there many times before.
By kayak, we paddled with the incoming tide up a wandering slough. Along the grassy banks were long-tailed ducks, Barrow’s golden eye, and some common mergansers flying by. From high in a nearby Sitka spruce, the chortle of a bald eagle was audible, and soon after, an eagle’s head peeked above a nest tucked deeply among hemlock boughs.
On foot, near the edges of Sitka spruce dominated forest islands scattered around the meadow, there are signs of a hard winter in the moose-browsed tips of western hemlock branches. Bears have been feeding here as well on the young parsnip-like roots of angelica. Having only recently left their winter dens, these roots and those of the skunk cabbage are some of the first spring foods available.
Other animals are arriving every day to exploit the rich feeding grounds of the Pacific Ocean waters surrounding the islands of Southeast Alaska. Hundreds of humpback whales migrate north from their winter breeding grounds in Hawaii to spend their summers here feeding on small schooling fish and krill. We spent several wonderful hours on deck watching seven or eight individuals of these massive baleen whales diving, feeding and returning to the surface to breathe, arch their backs and once again raise those oh-so-beautiful flukes.
