Exploring the Inner Channels

I continue to be way behind on blogging, but we continue to be busy exploring and working on projects. The good news is that there’s plenty to share – so far it has been a great summer.

In late May we spent a few days in Red Bluff Bay, on the eastern shore of Baranof Island, because there’s a terrific “bear meadow” that usually has some brown bears eating sedges (a type of grass) at that time of the year. Early wildflowers, like the shooting stars above, are also in bloom, adding to the beauty of the place.

As soon as the anchor was set, I was in the kayak with cameras, and I spotted the four-legged furry things that I love to watch…

The photo above shows typical bear behavior – they’re always scanning to see what’s going on around them, ever watchful for a more dominant bear or a threat. This bear paid particular attention to one area in the nearby forest, though nothing scary ever emerged.

Late one afternoon, two sub-adult bears were eating grass and playing on a shoal, and wrestled and interacted as they swam across to the main meadow – fun to watch since bears are solitary more often than not.

A lone trumpeter swan was in residence, odd to see one this late in the spring since most have migrated farther north by now.

Mergansers are usually pretty shy, but these two let me get fairly close.

As we made our way up to Glacier Bay, we spent a few nights in some favorite anchorages along the way, and finally got to see some good whale action on our way into an anchorage one afternoon. It was a good-sized pod of humpbacks bubble-net feeding!

We watched them through binoculars for a while as we slowed our approach to the anchorage, but the food they were following kept moving them farther away. So that is the end of this tale (tail)… for now…

Next up is Glacier Bay, which never disappoints!

Natural Beauty – From Yosemite back to Alaska

We are people who must meander, never content to sit still for too long. There are too many places to see and things to explore. Once again, I’m trying to catch up – this time from the end of March, when we wrapped up a road trip with a stop in Yosemite National Park, to our return home to Petersburg – shifting from the roads to the waterways.

But first – Yosemite. Wow.

Yosemite Valley
Half-Dome

The National Park Service advertising tag says “Find Your Park” – and the problem is that we keep finding Parks and falling in love with them, and it’s impossible to choose just one. Thankfully we don’t have to. Unfortunately we hit Yosemite on a weekend, so it was crowded, and our campground was a long drive from the valley. We enjoyed seeing the iconic views, but we also wanted to get off the beaten path a little, and snow shoes in the higher elevations turned out to be a perfect way to find solitude.

We only made a short visit to this famous national park this trip, but we hope to return and explore it more deeply another time.

Giant Sequoias

And now for something completely different… back home in Petersburg, with orcas cruising by…

…and a trip with friends to see the nearby LeConte Glacier. In mid-May, there’s often a lot of calving, and the inlet can be so choked with brash ice that it’s impassable. There was a good chance we might not be able to see the glacier’s face, but we were on an aluminum jet-powered boat that could safely navigate a lot more ice than ADVENTURES can!

LeConte Glacier

I wasn’t optimistic, but after a patiently wiggling among the bergy bits, growlers and brash ice, we did get to see the face!

Awesome. And to top it off, we also had great weather for the annual Little Norway Festival in town.

A big Viking and his two tiny Vikings

It is mid-May and way past time to cast off the lines and get out on the water… so stay tuned.