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Tuesday | June 14

Big Port Walter & Baranof Island

Today I have the pleasure of leading a half-day hike in the dazzling rainforest at Lover's Cove in Big Port Walter.

Check out the video below:

Most of the hike is bush-whacking through 5 to 10-foot tall salmon-berry shrubs.  Huge sitka spruce and western hemlock trees towered above us.  Rows of large trees grow on fallen nurse logs as we follow a meandering salmon stream.  

We find fresh bear scat full of teeth and hooves of a sitka black-tailed deer.

People are in a Zen-like state of awe.  While snacking, I address our group of intrepid travelers and say:  “This is it folks…the way the rest of the world used to be.  Prime salmon spawning habitat beneath surrounds us on all sides.  Streams in California used to be chock-full of salmon with grizzly bears feeding on them.  Now the streams are mostly empty and degraded.  The last brown bear in California was shot in 1924.  Extirpated…extinct.”

We have time for a group photo in front of a fallen giant and head back to the shore where a waiting small boat takes us back to the comforts of the “mother ship”.

Tonight we cruise a couple of dozen nautical miles to the north in Chatham Strait to another beautiful fiord.  Guests and crew come out on the decks for the ever-changing scenery and a chance to see wildlife.

The lighting, coupled with the fresh smells and the sounds of waterfalls cascading down the cliffs is very stimulating.  The gentle hum of the engine cruising at 4 to 5-knots is rather soothing.  Coming into a bay or fiord for the first time is sublime.  So new, so fresh…the water looks like oil, especially the reflections of sky and clouds.  The smallest waves create oblong circles reflecting blue sky and streams by like a moving Monet painting.

The songs of the crepuscular animals—the thrushes--serenade us as we move deeper into Patterson Bay to our anchorage.