Halleck Harbor of Saginaw Bay, 7/4/2018, National Geographic Quest
Aboard the
National Geographic Quest
Alaska
National Geographic Quest rang in the Fourth of July with a near-midnight firework show on the night of the 3rd off the quaint town of Petersburg, complete with hot toddies, apple cider, and good company. Independence Day morning led us to Halleck Harbor of Saginaw Bay off of Kuiu Island, where we ventured out on Zodiacs to explore our first glimpse of Alaska’s temperate rainforest. Between tidal walks and kayaking/stand up paddling, we learned about the intertidal zone and soaked up the sweet Alaskan sunshine. The more adventurous souls of our group trekked out on a 3 hour bushwack, meandering their way around beaver ponds, up and over felled trees, and through thick boot-sucking mud to emerge back at the beach in Halleck Harbor.
Chatham Strait was our passageway for the afternoon, where we cruised north with the intent of finding whales, and whales we found! The start of dinner was (happily) interrupted by bubblenetting whales off the stern, visible from our window-lined dining room! It was a stellar way to wrap up Fourth of July here on National Geographic Quest – some would say better than fireworks…
Michele grew up in a small, salty beach town on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, which instilled in her a love for water and the outdoors. After wrapping up undergrad at UNC-Chapel Hill, she alternated between seasonal work and travel, venturing ac...
Growing up at the base of the Cascade Mountains in the tiny Oregon town of Sisters meant that Ryder was surrounded by wilderness. A childhood of hiking, fishing, hunting for arrowheads, camping, and upland bird hunting resulted in the outdoors feelin...
After exploring the glaciers and open waters of the northern Inside Passage, we sailed south through the night and returned to the starting point of our journey, Baranof Island. This island, along with Admiralty to the east and Chichagof to the north, is home to one of the highest densities of brown bears in the world. To search for evidence of the bears as they begin their yearly salmon feast and continue our exploration of the temperate rainforest, we anchored in Kelp Bay to kayak and hike the shoreline throughout the morning. Later in the afternoon, we welcomed Dr. Andy Szabo of the Alaska Whale Foundation to learn more about ongoing research taking place in Alaska on the unique bubblenet feeding behavior we witnessed earlier in the trip. Only in Alaska can you experience the forest, salmon, bears, and whales all in one day.
After a steamy frothy espresso and some toe-touching with our wellness specialist, our blood was flowing properly, and we were ready for another day in the Great Land. Diners were joined for breakfast today by a humpback whale cow and calf engaged in restful “logging” activity, setting the stage for a serene morning sail. They turned out to be the first of many majestic M. Novaeangliae we would encounter, most being much more active. We soon found ourselves approaching Morris Reef, and surrounded by not one, but two groups of humpbacks engaged in cooperative bubble-net feeding behavior! We spent time with both pods, viewing and photographing many spectacular lunges, with up to nine of these leviathans’ gaping maws breaking the surface simultaneously and in tightly choreographed formation. Our Global Explorers were then given an opportunity to receive Zodiac driving lessons from our USCG-licensed captains. All souls returned. We continued into the storied seven-mile-long Sitkoh Bay. Here we hiked an old logging road; amongst towering Sitka spruce, frequent bear signs, black-tail deer, and banana slugs galore! Once the wind abated, we also had the opportunity to launch our kayaks and enjoy a leisurely paddle in the bay, with views of National Geographic Venture , bald eagles, and an early 1900s cannery sight. At the end of the day, the ship embraced our return with cocktails, charcuterie, and conversation. A typically highly succulent dinner was followed by a night-capping presentation on birds of the region from our resident ornithologist.
Petersburg is a proper Alaskan fishing community at the head of Wrangell Narrows, on Mitkoff Island. No big cruise ships stop here, and the streets are not lined with shops selling trinkets, t-shirts and jewelry. The harbor is filled with fishing vessels: trollers, seiners, gillnetters and crabbers, each harvesting the bounty of the Alaskan seas. Soon the fishing season will be upon them, and now the residents of Petersburg are busy preparing their boats and nets, anxious to begin doing what they do best. Most living in Petersburg make their life fishing, whether catching or processing fish, or serving the needs of those who do. We docked at the floating dock of Petersburg this morning for a variety of activities. Some took a short ride across Wrangell Narrows to the adjacent island of Kupreanof for a walk through the forest to a muskeg bog. Our trail passed evidence of hand-logging in the early twentieth century, and then turned to enter the old-growth forest. We walked along a boardwalk, two planks wide, covered with repurposed fishing net to provide traction: effective and clever! Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock towered overhead; blueberries, huckleberries, and false azalea formed an intermediate level; mosses, ferns, and dwarf dogwood covered every bit of the forest floor, even extending up the bases of trees, and arboreal lichens hung from the branches. The vegetation switched abruptly as we entered the muskeg bog, an area of scattered, stunted trees and saturated, acidic and nutrient-poor soils. Muskeg actually occupies a fairly large part of the landscape, and there is reason to think that it is expanding. Perhaps in a thousand more years, muskeg will be the dominant ecology of Southeast Alaska. So much to do on this brilliant clear and warm day: explore the intertidal communities revealed by the very low tide or growing on the underside of the floating dock, take a bicycle for a pedal around the town and surroundings, explore Alaska's most famous hardware store stocked with everything needed to keep the fishing fleet afloat and at work, or simply strolling through the colorful town proudly displaying its Norwegian heritage. Dinner this evening was the famous Lindblad-National Geographic's Petersburg crab feast, featuring endless buckets of steaming Dungeness crabs.
