Cascade Creek and Petersburg
It was a beautiful morning to be out on deck as the National Geographic Sea Lion nosed her way into Scenery Cove, a picturesque inlet in Thomas Bay. We spent about 45 minutes before breakfast searching for wildlife on the grassy shoreline and enjoying the sunlight as it streamed through the misty fog.
During breakfast we repositioned to another scenic cove in Thomas Bay called Cascade Creek. There are legends about this place from four miners who experienced frightening encounters in the wilderness while prospecting for gold. Accounts of the incidences are recorded in a small book called “The Strangest Story Ever Told” by Harry D. Colp. In it, one of the passages describes “hideous creatures... neither men nor monkey - yet looked like both” that were supposedly witnessed by the four gold prospectors. On our hikes at Cascade Creek, we didn’t see any of the coarse haired, scabby devils, but we did enjoy a long trek through the temperate rainforest with views of a rushing waterfall and moss covered boulders. With its vast wildness, it was easy to imagine how daunting the pristine forest must have been 100 years ago.
Just before lunch we were joined by Dr. Fred Sharpe and his assistant, both from the Alaska Whale Foundation. Dr. Sharpe is the leading humpback whale researcher in Southeast Alaska and he was happy to share his knowledge of the mammals with everyone onboard. One of the techniques Dr. Sharpe uses to study whales is to attach a “Crittercam” to their backs. This small camera captures images of the whales as they interact. It was exciting to see footage of these amazing animals underwater.
After lunch we arrived in a small fishing town called Petersburg. The town of 3,500 was first settled by an American of Norwegian descent named Peter Buschmann in 1897. Buschmann was lured to the area because of its rich fishing waters, sheltered harbor and abundance of ice from nearby LeConte Glacier that could be used in lieu of our modern refrigerators. Today, Petersburg boasts a prosperous fishing industry that processes over 100 million pounds of fish and shellfish annually. Today’s activities in Petersburg ranged from muskeg walks on Mitkof Island, bicycling around town, souvenir shopping at the local bookstore or flying over LeConte glacier in a six-person floatplane. Whichever activity was chosen, the blue skies and (relatively) warm temperature made for an enjoyable afternoon.
To complete the day, we tucked into a Dungeness crab feast, freshly caught in Petersburg, Alaska.
