Hanus Bay and Peril Straits
Pieces of blue sky fell onto the sea as we began our low tide landing at the trailhead of Lake Eva. As usual, several of us began our activities with kayaking while at least forty intrepid hikers made the long hike to the Lake. We treaded past clusters of dwarf dogwood blossoms and bear scat, and quickly slipped under a canopy of western hemlock and Sitka spruce, the whole scene softened below by mosses and ferns. We followed a salmon stream past a rocky whitewater cascade that the fish must jump en route to their spawning grounds. One brown bear patrolled the shore and seemed unconcerned with our activities. The tides here in Southeast Alaska can rise or fall as much as twenty feet in six hours and we witnessed the dramatic change as our landing beach was reduced to about one-fifth of the size it had been three hours before.
Back on the ship, we cruised Peril Strait and found more humpback whales. An eagle folded its wings and hit the water to come up with a salmon. Another bear was spotted in a green grove of summer grasses. We watched it without a word as a five-knot current moved the M/V Sea Bird through Sergius Narrows, north of Sitka.
The evening farewell cocktail party turned into a lively affair and when Chris Lindberg and Kim Heacox sang two songs with guitars and clarinet. Kim’s song was an Alaskan farewell built on a Bob Dylan tune while Chris’ was once again purely original and clever, and if that’s not enough, he rendered some verses en Francais y Espanol. It was a good laugh. After a grand final dinner the party resumed on the foredeck with Chris and Kim and their guitars, singing in the rain and the falling light.
Pieces of blue sky fell onto the sea as we began our low tide landing at the trailhead of Lake Eva. As usual, several of us began our activities with kayaking while at least forty intrepid hikers made the long hike to the Lake. We treaded past clusters of dwarf dogwood blossoms and bear scat, and quickly slipped under a canopy of western hemlock and Sitka spruce, the whole scene softened below by mosses and ferns. We followed a salmon stream past a rocky whitewater cascade that the fish must jump en route to their spawning grounds. One brown bear patrolled the shore and seemed unconcerned with our activities. The tides here in Southeast Alaska can rise or fall as much as twenty feet in six hours and we witnessed the dramatic change as our landing beach was reduced to about one-fifth of the size it had been three hours before.
Back on the ship, we cruised Peril Strait and found more humpback whales. An eagle folded its wings and hit the water to come up with a salmon. Another bear was spotted in a green grove of summer grasses. We watched it without a word as a five-knot current moved the M/V Sea Bird through Sergius Narrows, north of Sitka.
The evening farewell cocktail party turned into a lively affair and when Chris Lindberg and Kim Heacox sang two songs with guitars and clarinet. Kim’s song was an Alaskan farewell built on a Bob Dylan tune while Chris’ was once again purely original and clever, and if that’s not enough, he rendered some verses en Francais y Espanol. It was a good laugh. After a grand final dinner the party resumed on the foredeck with Chris and Kim and their guitars, singing in the rain and the falling light.
