Whales, Waterfalls and Wildflowers

20140612 8554 baranof falls psrAlthough we arrived to a nearly empty dock at Warm Springs Bay, the activity picked up quite a bit starting a few hours later.  First we had a massive commercial fishing “buy boat” – 95′ long by 32′ wide – dock right behind us while I was reading in the cockpit, blocking my nice view of the waterfall.  Fortunately they only stayed for a few hours to fill water tanks and go for a quick soak in the geothermal pool.  Then a few cruising boats arrived along with a commercial troller with a very nice young couple aboard.  Another buy boat anchored out in the bay, and a few trollers lined up to tie to the buy boat and offload their catch – there was plenty of action to keep us busy.  This is one of the salmon trollers anchored nearby.20140612 8586 troller warm springs bay psrJim was sitting in the pilothouse and looked up to see a humpback right in front of the boat – he had to have come under our boat in order to surface so close – WOW!  Jim shouted to the people on the dock and we all scrambled and grabbed cameras, and eventually the whale made a slow circuit of the inner bay20140530 8154 humpback dorsal  RESIZE, disappearing for periods of time, and then it appeared and cruised along right next to our boat – no more than 5′ off our beam.  It all happened so quickly that we didn’t get any photos of the close action.  Normally when someone calls “whale!” I grab my camera with the long lens.  For this encounter, I needed wide angle.

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We ended up having a fun time talking with the other cruisers on the dock, and with the beautiful weather someone had the idea for a “docktail” party.  The wife on the salmon troller is a Native Alaskan, and she brought herring eggs as an appy.  The herring will lay their eggs on anything, so natives stick fir branches in the water and the herring will lay their eggs on them.  I think they’re boiled or steamed in some way, and you eat them right off the evergreen branches.  Not for me – I’m not a seafood person, but people found them interesting.

We asked one of the charter boat captains for suggestions of other favorite coves and bays in the area, and he suggested Takatz Bay only 5 miles farther north.  What a great suggestion – it’s a gorgeous place.20140613 8601 entering takatz psr  Just as we turned to head into the long, narrow bay we saw whales blowing right along the north shoreline.  We had to pay attention to navigation since there was a charted rock in the middle of the entrance channel to avoid, but we were grabbing binoculars and watching the whales as much as the chart.  The whales were “lunge feeding”, where they seemed to be herding schools of herring up against the sheer shoreline and then lunging with open mouths to scoop them up.  We hurried to get the boat anchored in the protected back part of the bay, got the dinghy in the water, and grabbed cameras to zoom back out to watch the whales feeding.  We kept a respectful distance from them, but we ran the dinghy (“Beastie”) out to the mouth of the bay and then shut the motor off to drift quietly on the incoming tide.  The whales put on quite a show – we drifted with them for about 30 minutes and were surprised at how close to the shore they were.20140613 8537 takatz whale mouth psrEventually the tide started to change and the herring moved out into Chatham Strait.  We ventured farther out to watch for a little longer, and then the whales waved goodbye.20140613 8550 takatz whale high five psrWe zoomed back to ADVENTURES, anchored next to a waterfall and surrounded by huge granite cliffs – we have the anchorage all to ourselves.20140614 8606 adventures in takatz bay psr20140614 8638 chocolate lily psr

 

It was rainy and misty for the two days we spent in Takatz, but it never rained hard and I was able to kayak every day for several hours.  I found a lot of interesting geology – tiger-striped rocks with layers folded upon layers where different materials were trapped in molten rock and shaped as the rock cooled.  There were also a lot of wildflowers along the shoreline, such as scarlet paintbrush, subalpine daisy, shooting star, and the unusual (for me) chocolate lily.  I also love the color and bushy look of the new growth on the Sitka spruce trees…

20140614 8623 sitka spruce growth psrThe second day we headed back out in the dinghy to try and see whales feeding again when the tide was flooding, but all we saw was a salmon troller anchored off to the side.  The fishing has been very slow so far this season, and the commercial fishermen are pretty frustrated.

Red Bluff and Warm Springs Bays

I’m finding Alaska to be very frustrating as a photographer – there doesn’t seem to be a good way to capture the “big-ness”  or the details of the landscape in a photograph.  Red Bluff Bay is a great example – there’s a huge roaring waterfall, a large “bear meadow”, snow-capped mountains in the background, and a massive granite bowl with little silvery ribbons of waterfalls across its face.  It is breathtakingly beautiful.20140611 8457 red bluff bay reflection psrThe picture can’t even come close, and of course it doesn’t convey the sounds of the birds or the chill of the wind that funnels down the waterfalls.20140611 8462 adventures red bluff waterfall psrWe read that at high tide the creek was passable up to a lake so we headed out in the dinghy.  As we were slowly (and carefully – it’s a shallow creek) making our way up, we noticed a brown bear munching the tall grass near the shore.  He glanced at us now and then, but kept on munching so we gradually eased closer towards the shore.  After a little while the bear gave us a steady look, so we backed off and gave him more space.20140610 8378 brown bear grass looking psrLater on we were talking with the captain of one of the charter boats and he said that the bear’s stare meant that we were making him nervous, and that the bear’s next move would have been to run away if we hadn’t backed off.  They are amazing creatures to watch.  We had another good show while we were fixing dinner – this time we saw a Sitka black-tailed deer on the shore of the meadow, and he noticed a brown bear come out of the forest and amble along the shoreline.  We watched them for about 15 minutes, the bear sniffing the air now and then, and the deer keeping a sharp eye on the bear.  Eventually they all trotted off into the woods and we were able to finish cooking.

20140610 8365 trumpeter swan psrThere was plenty of other wildlife in the bay to keep us entertained – a trumpeter swan, river otter, seals chasing schools of herring in our little cove, mergansers, harlequin ducks, eagles and ravens twirling in the sky… a fairly typical day in SE Alaska, I think.

With so many bays and coves to explore, we had to force 20140611 8483 nat geo sea lion bow psrourselves to leave – more adventures await.  As we were cruising past the big waterfall, we had to pause to let the National Geographic Sea Lion come through the narrows – they could only spend an hour in the Bay that we hated to leave after several days.  I had to laugh:  they were taking pictures of us as we were taking pictures of them.

Our next stop was Warm Springs Bay, also on the east side of Baranof Island.  There is a public float and a handful of houses, part of the Borough of Sitka (13 miles away, on the other side of a 4000′ mountain).  The interesting features are the roaring waterfall, lake full of cutthroat trout, a river, and geothermal hot springs.20140611 8489 baranof warm springs wide view psrOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe houses are connected by a boardwalk, and the town has constructed a little public bath house with three booths, each with a huge metal tub, and a valve controlling the flow of 105+ degree water piped down from the hot springs.  The booths have a door on the boardwalk side, and an opening on the water side with a view of the waterfalls.  It’s a great way to relax and enjoy a soak, though it took a while for the water to cool off enough to sit in comfortably. The baths are visited by cruising boats like ours, charter boats, people from the local fishing lodge, as well as commercial fishermen who stop to fill their fresh water tanks and go for a soak.  The fresh water hose on the dock is left running – it’s insignificant compared to the amount of water coming from the waterfall, but it’s very disconcerting to see any water left running when you’re a boater with a limited supply.

The other way to enjoy the hot springs is to hike up into the woods and visit the natural pools, which are right next to the top of the waterfall.  You just can’t beat the setting, though you can’t soak for long since the water is so hot.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWe hiked around to explore the first day, and returned for a nice soak on the second day… a unique experience.  The bear scat next to the trail reminded us to talk loudly while we soaked.  I didn’t see any bear hair in the pools, so I don’t think the bears like hot tubs… a very good thing.20140612 8493 natures hot tub psr