Hanus Bay
We awoke this morning to a spectrum of shades of gray as the Sea Lion came into her anchorage in Hanus Bay just off the Lake Eva trail. A light drizzle added to the mystical quality of the morning light that filtered through the clouds. Ashore in boots, now as close to our souls as our underwear, a walk through an oldgrowth forest and brown bear country awaited us. Although we didn't see bears, fresh scat in the trail and scratches on trees indicated their recent presence and certainly added a sense of drama to our adventure. The forest itself was amazing. At our feet (when our feet weren't deep in mud) was a rich and varied moss-based herb layer with so many shades of green that we couldn't begin to name them. From our knees to eye level was a lush understory layer of delicately leaved shrubs including such wonderful edibles as cow parsnip, elderberry, thimbleberry and salmonberry. High over our heads was the dense canopy of Sitka spruce and western hemlock, which magically filtered the light and gave an otherworldly feel to our passage. For many, this place had a quality most closely described as spiritual and left many of us renewed by our visit to this beautiful place.
After lunch, the Sea Lion headed into Chatham Strait to investigate a splashing in the distance. It turned out to be a lone, young humpback whale repeatedly breaching in the middle of the Strait. We watched in awe as this 35-ton giant propelled itself almost entirely out of the water over and over again. Between breaches the whale would roll over at the surface slapping his enormously long flippers on the water surface as he moved from back to belly to back again. Because of all this aerial behavior, we were able to see all parts of the whale including the long throat pleats covered with barnacles, the tubercles on the head and the detail of the coloration all over the body. As if these experiences were not enough, the afternoon was capped with a wonderful sighting of a brown bear along the shore of Hood Bay on Admiralty Island. I'd say it was a day worth waking up for!!
We awoke this morning to a spectrum of shades of gray as the Sea Lion came into her anchorage in Hanus Bay just off the Lake Eva trail. A light drizzle added to the mystical quality of the morning light that filtered through the clouds. Ashore in boots, now as close to our souls as our underwear, a walk through an oldgrowth forest and brown bear country awaited us. Although we didn't see bears, fresh scat in the trail and scratches on trees indicated their recent presence and certainly added a sense of drama to our adventure. The forest itself was amazing. At our feet (when our feet weren't deep in mud) was a rich and varied moss-based herb layer with so many shades of green that we couldn't begin to name them. From our knees to eye level was a lush understory layer of delicately leaved shrubs including such wonderful edibles as cow parsnip, elderberry, thimbleberry and salmonberry. High over our heads was the dense canopy of Sitka spruce and western hemlock, which magically filtered the light and gave an otherworldly feel to our passage. For many, this place had a quality most closely described as spiritual and left many of us renewed by our visit to this beautiful place.
After lunch, the Sea Lion headed into Chatham Strait to investigate a splashing in the distance. It turned out to be a lone, young humpback whale repeatedly breaching in the middle of the Strait. We watched in awe as this 35-ton giant propelled itself almost entirely out of the water over and over again. Between breaches the whale would roll over at the surface slapping his enormously long flippers on the water surface as he moved from back to belly to back again. Because of all this aerial behavior, we were able to see all parts of the whale including the long throat pleats covered with barnacles, the tubercles on the head and the detail of the coloration all over the body. As if these experiences were not enough, the afternoon was capped with a wonderful sighting of a brown bear along the shore of Hood Bay on Admiralty Island. I'd say it was a day worth waking up for!!
