Kelp Bay and Pond Island
I sit quietly in a kayak, watching falling raindrops create concentric overlapping circles on the calm water. White and gray mists drape the dark green mountains. Nearby a feeding humpback whale expels its breath in a powerful rush of sound. It is a low-tide morning in Kelp Bay, a large inlet off Chatham Strait and the natural beauty of Southeast Alaska once again enthralls us.
Walking on Pond Island is equally interesting. As the group steps from the beach into the old-growth forest, it is as though a curtain has closed behind us. Respectfully we stand in an older and seemingly wiser place of huge Sitka spruce, western hemlock and unusually large Alaskan yellow cedar trees. Soft green light filters through the high conifer branches. Most things here are in a state of death and rebirth – the fallen trees returning to soil and providing nutrients for the next generation of seedlings. Our meander along bear trails leads to a muskeg filled with delightful small plants and berries. Several of today’s walks visited a beaver dam and pond, and the Zodiac cruise watched the beautiful Sitka black-tailed deer pictured above.
We graze on blueberries along the path and in too short a time, find ourselves back in the intertidal meadow. The tide is now very low, humpback whales are surfacing right along the shore and several stranded sea stars demonstrate their unusual method of eating clams.
I sit quietly in a kayak, watching falling raindrops create concentric overlapping circles on the calm water. White and gray mists drape the dark green mountains. Nearby a feeding humpback whale expels its breath in a powerful rush of sound. It is a low-tide morning in Kelp Bay, a large inlet off Chatham Strait and the natural beauty of Southeast Alaska once again enthralls us.
Walking on Pond Island is equally interesting. As the group steps from the beach into the old-growth forest, it is as though a curtain has closed behind us. Respectfully we stand in an older and seemingly wiser place of huge Sitka spruce, western hemlock and unusually large Alaskan yellow cedar trees. Soft green light filters through the high conifer branches. Most things here are in a state of death and rebirth – the fallen trees returning to soil and providing nutrients for the next generation of seedlings. Our meander along bear trails leads to a muskeg filled with delightful small plants and berries. Several of today’s walks visited a beaver dam and pond, and the Zodiac cruise watched the beautiful Sitka black-tailed deer pictured above.
We graze on blueberries along the path and in too short a time, find ourselves back in the intertidal meadow. The tide is now very low, humpback whales are surfacing right along the shore and several stranded sea stars demonstrate their unusual method of eating clams.
