Icy Strait & Cross Sound
We spent the day in Icy Strait and Cross Sound. Icy Strait and Cross Sound join to connect the northern part of the Inside Passage to the open ocean. With every tide, huge quantities of seawater race through them, stirring nutrients to the sunlit surface. Plankton here are so fecund that they render the sea a deep rich green. Creatures from jellyfish to whales gather to dine on this dilute chilly chowder.
After a wet day by Chatham Strait, we were amazed to see dappled clouds under clearing skies. The day brightened into cherry sunshine that made everything seem vivid and alive.
Early in the morning, we boarded Zodiacs for a trip through the Inian Islands. The Inians form an intricate plug in Cross Sound, so tidal currents and productivity are most intense here. We wove through the Inian archipelago, enjoying all sorts of ocean life. Sea otters, generally found close to the outer coast, are abundant here. We saw many, sometimes shy and sometimes surprisingly comfortable near us. Always working hard to stoke their frenzied metabolisms and to groom their immaculate fur, otters seem engagingly industrious. Puffins are the otters’ charismatic equal. We saw several peering down at us from a rocky cleft, and more paddling about the waves. But most dramatic were the sea lions. At the westernmost tip of the Inian group, currents are particularly ferocious, and form a huge swirling eddy. Salmon and halibut, swept up by the current, are easy prey to sea lions, which gather in great numbers. We found many patrolling the eddy. Mature males were the biggest, and swam about singly. They often allowed us to get quite close before giving a baleful stare, a silent grimacing snarl and descending into the swirling water. Smaller juveniles found courage in numbers. In a tight group, they approached us, seeming to egg each other on, before a panicked splashy disappearance.
Near the Inians lies the tiny town of Elfin Cove. Like sea lions, people come here to enjoy the ocean’s riches. Once a commercial fishing town, Elfin Cove now relies primarily on recreational fishing lodges. The town hugs the steep shore of a tight cove, and “mainstreet” is a boardwalk that often hangs over the water. We wandered Elfin Cove, imagining life in the extreme isolation of Alaska wilds.
By afternoon we were in the comparatively placid waters of Idaho Inlet, which braches off of Icy Strait. Most went ashore to walk on former bears trails, admiring squirrel middens, stately spruce trees and lacey ferns. Longer walkers climbed to a muskeg, the bog that, paradoxically, is often found on the slopes some distance above Alaska’s shoreline. Kayakers paddled through the emerald green water, enjoying long fronds of kelp arcing gracefully into the depths.
Icy Strait and Cross Sound concentrate productivity and biological exuberance. Similarly, they concentrated our experience into a rich and savory day.
