This morning the cloudy sky was gray, the calm water was silver, and wisps of low clouds clung to the dark green hills. We finally had Southeast Alaska’s typical weather, and it was quite serene and beautiful. Mountaintops were hidden, and clouds and sea blended together. The ship had been motoring south most of the night. Shortly before 7 a.m. the ship turned into Peril Strait. A speedy Dall’s porpoise splashed as it surfaced, and we continued a short distance to our morning anchorage at Hanus Bay.
During the morning we walked on a trail through rain forest, and near a salmon stream. Where the sea met the stream, pink salmon were abundant! They swam in schools, and fish jumped as they headed towards the small cascade in the stream. We walked through forest that had mosses covering nearly every surface, and a wide variety of mushrooms. At the stream’s edge we gazed down at the salmon: one bright red sockeye salmon was easy to find among hundreds of pink salmon. They had journeyed thousands of miles around the Pacific Ocean, and had just arrived to their stream of birth to spawn and die. Now and then a fish jumped from the water.
Some of the last hikers to return saw a female brown bear with a one-and-a-half year old cub by the stream. Some of us kayaked in the beautiful estuary, and we looked down on schools of pink salmon. A bald eagle perched nearby, and a kingfisher chattered as it flew along the water’s edge.
During the afternoon we cruised west in Peril Strait, and some Dall’s porpoises briefly swam in the ship’s bow wave. Moments later, we watched a brown bear fish in one of the countless wild salmon streams of Chichagof Island. Further on, we noticed some Dall’s porpoises splashing in the distance, swimming near a humpback whale. In this beautiful, wild place we are outnumbered by wonderful, wild animals. By paying close attention, we have seen so very much, and heard unusual sounds—like whales breathing, salmon jumping, and even pristine silence.
