Iyoukeen Cove & Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska
Whales before 7:00am; brown bears and river otter before 9:00; snow-capped peaks all around us under a bright blue Alaskan sky. How could it be any better?
Yesterday in the late afternoon we boarded the Sea Bird in Sitka, on the outer coast of Baranof Island. The dormant volcano of Mount Edgecumbe was in clear and stunning view, with the evening sun in the western sky reflecting off of its snowy crater. We took advantage of unusually calm and warm conditions to visit the offshore island of Saint Lazaria, which is a refuge for breeding seabirds. The birds, like the seas, were quiet, but en route we had our first sightings of humpback whales and sea otters. They were but a harbinger of things to come.
During the night we made our way through narrow Peril Strait, turned up Chatham Strait and entered Freshwater Bay, a long, narrow inlet that cuts into Chichagof Island. Like all of the waterways through which we will be sailing, this was filled with glacial ice during the recurrent glacial episodes of the last 2.5 million years, the Pleistocene Era. The foredeck of the Sea Bird is the perfect site to admire the landscape left behind by the glaciers while searching for wildlife with a morning cup of hot coffee in hand. We soon found humpback whales. After a winter in the waters around Hawaii followed by the long northward migration to Alaska, the whales were busy feeding. Most of their annual food intake occurs in the cold, productive water of Alaska. The whales were finding their food near the surface, with shallow dives and lunges to the surface with their huge mouths open.
After breakfast we continued up Freshwater Bay searching the shore for wildlife. The “ABC Islands” of Southeast Alaska - Admiralty, Baranof, and Chichagof - have very high populations of brown bear, and two bears were sighted feeding in the intertidal zone. The name “brown bear” is not very useful, as one of our bears was light brown and the other almost black. They were of similar size, not quite fully grown. We surmised them to be siblings, perhaps four years old, now independent of their mother. They will stay together until they become fully mature and each assumes the solitary life of a bear. As we watched a river otter came out of the forest and scampered away from the much larger bears.
We spent our afternoon in Iyoukeen Cove, where Freshwater Bay enters into Chatham Strait. Many had their first experience in our kayaks, and all had an opportunity to enter the forest following trails made by bears. We found places where bears had passed with each stepping in the footprints of those who preceded, leaving a trail of bear footprints in the moss of the forest floor. Yellow skunk cabbage growing in bogs had the tips nipped off by hungry Sitka black-tailed deer, and other plants had been dug up and consumed by bears. The fresh appearance of the plant material left behind attested to the very recent passage of the bears – probably a matter of hours – a reminder that we are but visitors in their home.
After dinner many stepped to the deck to take in the evening light casting a pink glow on the snowy peaks; however, they were soon distracted by a mother and calf humpback whale. The calf, born last winter in Hawaii, seemed quite pleased with Alaska and celebrated its arrival here by a series of acrobatic antics, rolling and slapping the water with its flukes.
Whales before 7:00am; brown bears and river otter before 9:00; snow-capped peaks all around us under a bright blue Alaskan sky. How could it be any better?
Yesterday in the late afternoon we boarded the Sea Bird in Sitka, on the outer coast of Baranof Island. The dormant volcano of Mount Edgecumbe was in clear and stunning view, with the evening sun in the western sky reflecting off of its snowy crater. We took advantage of unusually calm and warm conditions to visit the offshore island of Saint Lazaria, which is a refuge for breeding seabirds. The birds, like the seas, were quiet, but en route we had our first sightings of humpback whales and sea otters. They were but a harbinger of things to come.
During the night we made our way through narrow Peril Strait, turned up Chatham Strait and entered Freshwater Bay, a long, narrow inlet that cuts into Chichagof Island. Like all of the waterways through which we will be sailing, this was filled with glacial ice during the recurrent glacial episodes of the last 2.5 million years, the Pleistocene Era. The foredeck of the Sea Bird is the perfect site to admire the landscape left behind by the glaciers while searching for wildlife with a morning cup of hot coffee in hand. We soon found humpback whales. After a winter in the waters around Hawaii followed by the long northward migration to Alaska, the whales were busy feeding. Most of their annual food intake occurs in the cold, productive water of Alaska. The whales were finding their food near the surface, with shallow dives and lunges to the surface with their huge mouths open.
After breakfast we continued up Freshwater Bay searching the shore for wildlife. The “ABC Islands” of Southeast Alaska - Admiralty, Baranof, and Chichagof - have very high populations of brown bear, and two bears were sighted feeding in the intertidal zone. The name “brown bear” is not very useful, as one of our bears was light brown and the other almost black. They were of similar size, not quite fully grown. We surmised them to be siblings, perhaps four years old, now independent of their mother. They will stay together until they become fully mature and each assumes the solitary life of a bear. As we watched a river otter came out of the forest and scampered away from the much larger bears.
We spent our afternoon in Iyoukeen Cove, where Freshwater Bay enters into Chatham Strait. Many had their first experience in our kayaks, and all had an opportunity to enter the forest following trails made by bears. We found places where bears had passed with each stepping in the footprints of those who preceded, leaving a trail of bear footprints in the moss of the forest floor. Yellow skunk cabbage growing in bogs had the tips nipped off by hungry Sitka black-tailed deer, and other plants had been dug up and consumed by bears. The fresh appearance of the plant material left behind attested to the very recent passage of the bears – probably a matter of hours – a reminder that we are but visitors in their home.
After dinner many stepped to the deck to take in the evening light casting a pink glow on the snowy peaks; however, they were soon distracted by a mother and calf humpback whale. The calf, born last winter in Hawaii, seemed quite pleased with Alaska and celebrated its arrival here by a series of acrobatic antics, rolling and slapping the water with its flukes.
