Chatham Strait & Lake Eva
Early this morning, we raised anchor and transited Peril Strait and Sergius Narrows, the constricted, twisting waterway that lies between Baranof and Chichagof Islands. It was fun watching the currents, upwellings, and whirlpools in the turbulent water as we made our way through. This brought us into the wider waters of Chatham Strait, an enormous fjord carved by the tremendous glaciers of the Pleistocene Ice Ages. During the last of these episodes (known as the Wisconsin Ice Age), about 15,000 years ago, the ice lay more than a mile thick over this area and its crushing weight depressed the Earth’s surface here more than 1000 feet. The moving, flowing glacial ice followed the natural faults and lines of weakness in the bedrock of the region, gouging out deep, broad valleys that were later flooded by the sea when the ice finally melted. These flooded valleys now form the channels of the Inland Passage that surround the islands and cut deep into the mainland and provide us with fantastic waterways in which we can explore Southeast Alaska. It is interesting to note that Chatham Strait is the longest and deepest fjord in North America…it extends about 150 miles and reaches depths of more than 2,000 feet.
We got off to a great early start on our expedition with plenty of wildlife, including sea otters, northern sea lions, harbor seals, bald eagles, ravens, scoters, murrelets, geese, loons, and the occasional leaping salmon. But, right after breakfast, we sighted several humpback whales feeding in Chatham Strait. A couple of them actually approached the National Geographic Sea Lion as we floated there watching them (Figure A). Then, while we were still excited over the whales, a lone, huge brown bear was sighted walking along the shoreline of Baranof Island, so we left the whales and approached the bear for a better look. A little while later, we continued our exploration and poked into Sitkoh Bay for more scenic cruising, all the while enjoying superb weather conditions. This also gave us time to conduct various drills and give necessary briefings about what was to come.
In the early afternoon, we reached Hanus Bay in the northeastern region of Baranof Island and anchored the ship in a beautiful spot where we spent the rest of the day. After lunch, we made a landing on a pebble/sand beach and people could choose to hike in the magnificent Pacific temperate coastal rainforest. The naturalists led various walks along the forested trail which follows along a nice salmon stream to picturesque Lake Eva. Some went all the way to the lake, while others just went as far as the first cataracts. A few young salmon were seen in the stream, but no spawners were yet found above the cataracts. In addition, we got our kayaks out and also gave people the opportunity to explore the shallow waters in the estuary and stream within Hanus Bay (Figure B).
We all felt lucky with the seemingly perfect weather today as we enjoyed blue skies, calm waters, and warm and sunny conditions, but it’s important to remember that this is in fact a rain forest and it’s the excessive precipitation in the region that makes Southeast Alaska so green and lush and inviting. So, we really shouldn’t complain too much if indeed it does rain on us later somewhere along the way.
