The weather has held. Blue skies, almost cloudless. The water is a mirror. And we are steaming east along Frederick Sound, searching for the entrance to Thomas Bay. This is the mainland of Alaska, beyond the towering mountains lies Canadian territory. We approach the red and green buoys, sail between them and are almost inside Thomas Bay. Off to the right, and at the end of this part of the bay we anchor, have breakfast, and prepare to enjoy our second day’s adventures. Here we are taken to land on our expedition landing craft and walk along a lonely path, originally a bear path, up to a roaring waterfall, the product of the ice and snowmelt of many mountains. It creates a strong wind, which carries the spray along the mountain s in front of us. Fantastic!
Cameras go half-crazy, and we search for every angle possible. Some of us walk on ahead, up those countless stairs, into the fine spray, up to a second stage of the mountain. Some of us return slowly along the boardwalk to the beach, where we call for an expedition landing craft and take in a leisurely tour along the edge of the land. Towering Sitka spruce and western hemlock trees stare down at us, with a good amount of young Alaska yellow cedars among them. It is great to see that this species is making a good comeback after being depleted from the forests due to its incredible resistant wood. When we have all returned, we turn around, and slowly wend our way back to Frederick Sound, and head straight for Petersburg.
Once there, among an enormous number of different fishing boats, we have lunch, and then divide our efforts between cycling around town or walking the three main streets of this small Norwegian community. Founded in the mid 1800s by a Norwegian fisherman, due to the presence of wood for his fish crates, abundant fish and, most importantly, the presence of innumerable icebergs of all sizes nearby, all from the Le Conte Glacier. Today it is a quaint fishing village, not really directed to tourism. Others of us crossed Wrangel Narrows to the island immediately across, Kupreanof, and easily walked to a bog or muskeg a short distance away. Here the soil has become quite more acidic than the surrounding soil and few plants can eke an existence. Hungry insect-catching sundews, poisonous bod rosemary, but there are many other plants such as crooked, undernourished lodgepole pines, some grasses, and sedges, and even cloudberries. But of course I must mention the tiny bog blueberry plants, as well as the bog cranberries. Junipers try to grow, but are stunted at less than one foot in height. Yes, a very unique environment.
Others of us enjoyed a floatplane flight, up to the Le Conte Glacier, to see a magnificent ice field, and miles of ice, sometimes blue to the absence of air bubbles and pressure.
Ah, we meet the all-aboard time, and slowly weigh anchor, and wend our way out of the busy fishing harbor again. Out to Frederick Sound and northwest to the giant Chatham Strait, where we will have new adventures tomorrow.
