Icy Strait
Our trail, from Seattle to the wildest parts of the Northwest Coast, has been marked by tracks of memory. Calving glaciers, killer whales, bear cubs and Indian dances: all have colored our journey. And our journey has culminated, appropriately, in a spectacular part of Alaska: Icy Strait.
We awoke at Point Adolphus, a place famed for marine life. Chilly water, stirred by the moon's inexorable tug, makes a cocktail of remarkable richness. Our plankton net, towed for just a few minutes, was found to contain a chunky brew! The water was filled with copepods, larval crustaceans and fish. Bigger fish are known to dine on this dilute stew, and sure enough, the water glittered with schooling hoards. And plowing through this scaly constellation - lumbering humpback whales.
We watched whales in the early morning, then moved westward to find sea otters. Otters are as cute and frisky as whales are majestic. We watched their industrious antics before anchoring at the mouth of Idaho Inlet.
Soon ashore, we strolled through spruce forests housing gruff squirrels and retiring brown bears. Bears, being creatures of habit, walk the same trails day by day, year by year, and generation after generation. Since they often place their hind feet just where their forefeet have been, their trails occasionally are marked by archaic divots. We were able to walk literally in the footsteps of Chichagof Island giants!
Zodiac cruisers fared no worse. They observed bears, sea lions, sea and river otters, and chubby harbor seals.
Even in a journey of superlatives, Icy Strait offered astonishment and delight to all.
Our trail, from Seattle to the wildest parts of the Northwest Coast, has been marked by tracks of memory. Calving glaciers, killer whales, bear cubs and Indian dances: all have colored our journey. And our journey has culminated, appropriately, in a spectacular part of Alaska: Icy Strait.
We awoke at Point Adolphus, a place famed for marine life. Chilly water, stirred by the moon's inexorable tug, makes a cocktail of remarkable richness. Our plankton net, towed for just a few minutes, was found to contain a chunky brew! The water was filled with copepods, larval crustaceans and fish. Bigger fish are known to dine on this dilute stew, and sure enough, the water glittered with schooling hoards. And plowing through this scaly constellation - lumbering humpback whales.
We watched whales in the early morning, then moved westward to find sea otters. Otters are as cute and frisky as whales are majestic. We watched their industrious antics before anchoring at the mouth of Idaho Inlet.
Soon ashore, we strolled through spruce forests housing gruff squirrels and retiring brown bears. Bears, being creatures of habit, walk the same trails day by day, year by year, and generation after generation. Since they often place their hind feet just where their forefeet have been, their trails occasionally are marked by archaic divots. We were able to walk literally in the footsteps of Chichagof Island giants!
Zodiac cruisers fared no worse. They observed bears, sea lions, sea and river otters, and chubby harbor seals.
Even in a journey of superlatives, Icy Strait offered astonishment and delight to all.
