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Wednesday | June 1st

Leah our wellness instructor offers a morning meditation on the shoreline next to a river swollen from snow melt.

A full days worth of activities ensues in Patterson Bay. The bay was named after Carlisle Patterson, Superintendent of the Coast Survey on a ship in the late 1870’s.

I have the all-day bring-a-sack-lunch kayak and a half-dozen of us luxuriate amongst the stunning scenery while feeling the warm rays of delicious sunshine. I write in my journal: “One of the loveliest paddle days of my life…waterfalls everywhere you look, cascading down thousands of feet of sheer cliffs. The roots of trees and shrubs grips the cliffs with tenacity. The breath-taking views has everybody practically speech-less. You can almost see and feel the vegetation growing as the sunshine is so intense.”

“We are so appreciative for what Mother Nature is providing: stunning scenery and sunshine in Alaskas’ vast and very fecund wilderness. A variety of neotropical migrant songbirds are heard throughout our kayak including: Orange-crowned warbler, Townsends’ Warbler and Wilson’s Warbler and the first of the season Swainsons’ Thrush, fresh from a flight from South America.”

“The daintiest most delightful waterfalls have carved out notches following cracks and weaknesses in the very resistant bedrock. The bay is even more beautiful due to the flood tide and the water is oh-so-clear with 1000’s of barnacle exo-skeletons floating in the waters surrounding our plastic ‘yaks. I tell my pod of kayakers that barnacles shed--like a snake its skin—in order to become larger crustaceans, a process called ecdysis.”

“I don’t think I’ve seen more waterfalls on a kayak trip. Water seems to be dancing, leaping and falling with comet-tail ends over cliffs and in a frenzy down to the sea-surface practically every 50 meters or so. The pleasing sounds of the waterfalls reminds me of a few words from naturalist John Muir who said that ‘the snow is melting into music.”

Besides my kayak tour, snorkelers had fun frolicking along the shoreline as Dan Blanchard and my colleague Randall created a rooster-tail of water while racing out in our monohull boat with camping equipment for our guests that signed up for the overnight sleep-out.

They are guaranteed a 1000-star or more hotel tonight!