Chatham Strait
Throughout the night we sailed through Peril Strait and by dawn we were in a glassy Chatham Strait, under cloudless skies. The engines slowed about 6am and we knew something was up. Climbing to the foredeck we could see the blows of whales standing out against the dark forest with the shining glacier fields on Baranof Island as an amazing backdrop. Humpbacks! Passengers crept up from below, coffee in hand, to soak up this magnificent site. Excited cheers and squeals arose from the crowd whenever a humpback slowly raised its tail in preparation for a deep dive.
After enjoying these cetaceans for a few hours, Dr. Ron Lyon from Stanford Alumni Association gave an introductory lecture on the geology of Alaska. He drove home the point that the islands that surrounded us were "garbage", scraps of rock, carried up to our coast by plate tectonics from the tropics millions of years ago.
The hot, windless afternoon was a time for many to enjoy the ease, speed and quietness of kayaking for the first time, sliding over kelp beds and peering into the water to see creeping sun stars and flounder skittering by. A petroglyph on a high cliff challenged our analytical abilities. Who created it? When? Why?
Others were keen to explore the trailess forest, to "bush whack" to be precise. Here the canopy shaded us from the hot, dazzling day and we realized we had entered another world of huge Sitka spruce and hemlock, carpets of moss, and most memorably, the devil's club. This tall understory plant with horrendous spines and huge maple leaves is a hazard to avoid yet is one of the chief medicinal plants of the local natives. The hikers gratefully broke out into a beautiful sedge meadow crossed by the distinct footprints of a wolf. Monkey flowers, orchids, paintbrush, and cotton grass grew among the sedges.
Sunset was spent watching a juvenile humpback breaching for 45 minutes close to the boat until darkness closed the show.
Throughout the night we sailed through Peril Strait and by dawn we were in a glassy Chatham Strait, under cloudless skies. The engines slowed about 6am and we knew something was up. Climbing to the foredeck we could see the blows of whales standing out against the dark forest with the shining glacier fields on Baranof Island as an amazing backdrop. Humpbacks! Passengers crept up from below, coffee in hand, to soak up this magnificent site. Excited cheers and squeals arose from the crowd whenever a humpback slowly raised its tail in preparation for a deep dive.
After enjoying these cetaceans for a few hours, Dr. Ron Lyon from Stanford Alumni Association gave an introductory lecture on the geology of Alaska. He drove home the point that the islands that surrounded us were "garbage", scraps of rock, carried up to our coast by plate tectonics from the tropics millions of years ago.
The hot, windless afternoon was a time for many to enjoy the ease, speed and quietness of kayaking for the first time, sliding over kelp beds and peering into the water to see creeping sun stars and flounder skittering by. A petroglyph on a high cliff challenged our analytical abilities. Who created it? When? Why?
Others were keen to explore the trailess forest, to "bush whack" to be precise. Here the canopy shaded us from the hot, dazzling day and we realized we had entered another world of huge Sitka spruce and hemlock, carpets of moss, and most memorably, the devil's club. This tall understory plant with horrendous spines and huge maple leaves is a hazard to avoid yet is one of the chief medicinal plants of the local natives. The hikers gratefully broke out into a beautiful sedge meadow crossed by the distinct footprints of a wolf. Monkey flowers, orchids, paintbrush, and cotton grass grew among the sedges.
Sunset was spent watching a juvenile humpback breaching for 45 minutes close to the boat until darkness closed the show.
