Icy Straits, Southeast Alaska
Today was a special day for us, as we had the opportunity of kayaking for a longer distance in one direction, led by our expedition leader Cindy, as well as hiking for quite a while up Fox Creek, led by Pete. At the same time, Gretchen and William introduced us to a great number of tidal living beings, including different red, green and yellow-brown algae (some 30-foot giants), different sponges, worms and sea anemones, some mollusks such as chitons, limpets, sea snails, quite an array of crustaceans in the form of Dungeness and hermit crabs, and one of our young passengers, Jack Frost caught for us two small tidepool sculpins. Quite a variety of critters!
Meanwhile the kayakers were enjoying the beauty and solitude of their tour. The strong hikers walked into a quite interesting forest, as it is formed mainly of Sitka spruce, with a smattering of understory plants, including different ground orchids, skunk cabbage with its huge leaves, and two or three species of blueberries. Also seen was a set of bear tracks leading to two spruce that are heavily scratched by bears and dripping with sap.
After a good warm midday lunch, we set off to the vicinity of Point Adolphus on the northern point of Chichigof Island and enjoyed a good afternoon watching a big pod of humpback whales group feed, giving us the appearance of eight or ten locomotives raking the surface of the water, spouting great geysers of spray up into the air. Dozens of gulls and other seabirds took advantage of the great number of fish at the surface. These whales also regaled us with a series of breaches and tail lobs, which awed everybody. Imagine thirty to forty tons of whale flying for a moment, turning in mid-jump, and falling with a huge splash on its back.
