To stand in a forest is to stand in a moment in time. Feeling the moist air breathe through the trees, seeing mosses glinting with dew, hearing the soft song of a chickadee or the gentle chatter of a snowmelt stream. All these moments make up the life of every forest. Some forests are full of hundreds of years of these moments, each day a time capsule of butterflies and birdsong. Old growth forests are the most ancient. Groves of Sitka spruce, hemlock, Douglas fir, and red cedar…hundreds of years old. That timeless wisdom stretches along the Pacific Coast and holds inside it the greatest lessons in life…slow down, breathe, let your roots find their way down into the soil and stay a while. The time we have is rushing past in our attempt to direct life’s winding current. So stand in the forest, listen to the woods, and feel the years long past, beneath you and around you. Become the old growth and never forget to be a part of this world…
5/15/2024
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National Geographic Quest
Tracy Arm, Fords Terror Wilderness
Except for a few hardy souls who were up at 04:00 for crossing the terminal moraine into Tracy Arm, most of us awoke well inside the Fords Terror Wilderness. Shortly before breakfast, we chanced upon a black bear grazing on the shore, and stopped to say “HI”, while Ann Marie started stretch class on the sun deck. As we passed Sawyer Island, we saw that the ice would not be so thick as to hamper our approach to the glacier, and by 09:00 the first of our Zodiacs were headed off in a light, May mist. We saw (and were seen by) many seals as we made our way toward the glacier’s face, and just as the cold and damp were starting to penetrate, we were greeted by the storied cocoa pirates, bearing hot cocoa with a little something extra! After lunch, we stopped for a peek at the Hole in the Wall waterfall, where Captain Paul put our bow right up against the cliffs, so we could all get an up close and personal view! The rest of the afternoon was filled with talks and wildlife viewing as we made our way toward tomorrow’s destination at Glacier Bay National Park! Photos by: Jeff Campbell, Karson Winslow, and Antonio Segura