Princess Royal Island, British Columbia
Over the last two million years or so of earth history, the Pleistocene Epoch, colder periods, when ice accumulated on land, have alternated with warmer periods (such as we now enjoy) when the ice melts, glaciers retreat, land surface appears from beneath the ice, and vegetation advances over the landscape. The cold glacial periods are long; the warmer interglacial periods are short (measured in thousands of years.) The previous glacial period began some 130,000 years ago (give or take a couple), and ended but 15 - 12,000 or so years ago. Snow accumulated on the continent. By its very weight, it was transformed into ice and this enormous mass of ice began to move, spilling out over the margin of the continent and into the sea. Here the story intersects our travels in coastal British Columbia, for the landscape through which we travel was once completely covered with ice. We are surrounded by glacially carved topography. The rounded peaks above us attest to the great depth of the ice. The steep-sided U-shaped valleys were carved by the relentless motion and pressure of the ice. Once filled to the brim with ice, they are now flooded by the sea to become fjords, the highways of the Inside Passage. Smaller bowl-shaped side valleys or cirques that once gave birth to tributary glaciers now give us myriad waterfalls that spill out over the lip and tumble down the steep slopes to the fjords below, bringing delight to passing travelers.
We spent our morning taking in the scenery and admiring birds from the bow of the ship. The valley slopes are now cloaked in forests of cedar, hemlock, and spruce. A bald eagle snatched a salmon from the water in front of us and struggled to carry it, hanging from its talons, to the adjacent shore. Thus nutrients were transported from sea to land. The salmon, so important to the wildlife and the Native People of the Pacific Northwest (as we experienced yesterday at Alert Bay), also contribute to the very growth of the forest, a story emphasized by Betty Lou Krause in her talk on salmon, bears, and the forest.
In the afternoon we visited some more recent history – the abandoned salmon cannery at Butedale, built in 1909. Once it was seasonal home to 400 workers. Today it is occupied by one cat, one dog, and the caretaker, Lou, who proudly showed us the vintage power plant where water + gravity = electricity. Just south of Butedale we entered narrow Aaltanhash Inlet (seen above), sharing it with harbor seals, Steller’s sea lions, red-throated loons, and Barrow’s goldeneyes. There we spent a quiet night at anchor surrounded by the beauty of coastal British Columbia.
Over the last two million years or so of earth history, the Pleistocene Epoch, colder periods, when ice accumulated on land, have alternated with warmer periods (such as we now enjoy) when the ice melts, glaciers retreat, land surface appears from beneath the ice, and vegetation advances over the landscape. The cold glacial periods are long; the warmer interglacial periods are short (measured in thousands of years.) The previous glacial period began some 130,000 years ago (give or take a couple), and ended but 15 - 12,000 or so years ago. Snow accumulated on the continent. By its very weight, it was transformed into ice and this enormous mass of ice began to move, spilling out over the margin of the continent and into the sea. Here the story intersects our travels in coastal British Columbia, for the landscape through which we travel was once completely covered with ice. We are surrounded by glacially carved topography. The rounded peaks above us attest to the great depth of the ice. The steep-sided U-shaped valleys were carved by the relentless motion and pressure of the ice. Once filled to the brim with ice, they are now flooded by the sea to become fjords, the highways of the Inside Passage. Smaller bowl-shaped side valleys or cirques that once gave birth to tributary glaciers now give us myriad waterfalls that spill out over the lip and tumble down the steep slopes to the fjords below, bringing delight to passing travelers.
We spent our morning taking in the scenery and admiring birds from the bow of the ship. The valley slopes are now cloaked in forests of cedar, hemlock, and spruce. A bald eagle snatched a salmon from the water in front of us and struggled to carry it, hanging from its talons, to the adjacent shore. Thus nutrients were transported from sea to land. The salmon, so important to the wildlife and the Native People of the Pacific Northwest (as we experienced yesterday at Alert Bay), also contribute to the very growth of the forest, a story emphasized by Betty Lou Krause in her talk on salmon, bears, and the forest.
In the afternoon we visited some more recent history – the abandoned salmon cannery at Butedale, built in 1909. Once it was seasonal home to 400 workers. Today it is occupied by one cat, one dog, and the caretaker, Lou, who proudly showed us the vintage power plant where water + gravity = electricity. Just south of Butedale we entered narrow Aaltanhash Inlet (seen above), sharing it with harbor seals, Steller’s sea lions, red-throated loons, and Barrow’s goldeneyes. There we spent a quiet night at anchor surrounded by the beauty of coastal British Columbia.
