It was a gray and sometimes rainy morning as we anchored at the head of the deep bay that is call Port Althorp. About half of us took a long bushwhack hike, often on bear trails, deep into the temperate rain forest, while the rest of us took shorter walks or kayaked in the bay.
While we ate a wonderful lunch, the National Geographic Sea Lion moved to the Inian Islands where we jumped into our expedition landing craft for a true wildlife extravaganza. All the tidal currents entering this northern portion of Southeast Alaska from the Pacific Ocean move through these islands, upwelling nutrients and creating an ideal place to see a wide variety of marine mammals, seabirds, eagles and fish. In spite of the periodic rain (or maybe because of it!), today was fantastic.
