Today we landed in Barlow Cove at the north end of Admiralty Island. For most of us this was a new destination and we set off to explore. A small salmon stream poured out of the forest and we followed an old bear trail to see what we could find. The creek was stained a reddish brown color by the tannins in the water and a number of salmon were waiting for the tide to change to swim upstream to spawn. We worked our way up a beautiful route along the stream and entered a wonderful green forest with many large spruce and hemlock trees crowding the banks.

A short way along our walk we came to a ledge of schist along which the stream flowed and a beautiful easy walkway was found that allowed us to penetrate deep into the forest. Small waterfalls poured down the ledges and everywhere the lush growth of the vegetation attested to the productivity of the forest. Beautiful fungi of many descriptions grew among the forest litter and the Amanita sp. in the photo was one of the special varieties we were able to identify.

Later in the day we headed north toward Glacier Bay National Park and observed many humpback whales, birds and other marine organisms in the richly productive waters of this area of southeast Alaska.