An “expedition” morning is what we had intended for today and that is exactly what we experienced. Sailing into the Bay of Pillars off Kuiu Island just after dawn we were met by dozens of sea otters scattered about on the water's surface in their typical laid back posture. This bay so aptly named because of the many steep walled small islands within it that at low tide appear like pillars rising from the sea and topped with forests.
By 0700 our expedition staff set out in a scout boat to find an appropriate landing site for some shore activities and to get a sense of what this pristine wilderness has to offer. None of our staff has ever been able to lead hikes in this part of Southeast Alaska, and in fact very few people step foot into the dense and lush forests found here. Sooooo...needless to say we were in for some exciting exploration this morning. The hikes were all billed as various levels of “bushwhacking”; from an all-kids extreme bushwhack, to leisure bushwhack. It was no surprise to us that our eager and willing guests had no problem picking their bushwhack of choice. We couldn't have had better weather conditions either and once ashore we set out on our hikes, having only bear trails to follow we stepped into the amazing world of the temperate rain forest where the canopy of massive ancient spruce and hemlocks filter the sunlight in a manner that makes one feel like they have stepped into another world. Now for humans following a bear trail can be a bit tricky at times as the bruins that frequent the area need but a few feet of clearance to make their way in this environment, and that's where the bushwhacking comes in, but we all negotiated this wild and rugged terrain in style and soon found ourselves thinking a bit like a bear would in order to pick our way in and out of the forest.
Our forest excursions would only be the first part of our morning here in the Bay of Pillars, for it was just 0930 when we would return to the ship and begin to depart for our expedition landing craft cruises further back into the bay and get a real sense for the dynamic nature of this place. Timing our cruises with the outgoing tide we would see firsthand the reveal of the pillars as the massive volume of water held back in the bay is forced through the narrow channels around the islands producing currents so strong that even under near full power the 60 horsepower outboards strained to make forward progress. During this time many animals seek to take advantage of the intertidal and some of our boats were able to see a black bear feeding on barnacles and muscles and even a mink was seen scampering about on the steep rocks foraging in the kelp. A constant presence was the sea otters, some with their pups on the bellies of the mothers and other snoozing away in the bright sun wrapped in their bed of kelp. We left Bay of Pillars as the tide shifted and began to flood the bay once again.
The remainder of our day was spent cruising the waters of Chatham Strait in search of whales and cruising the incredibly scenic Red Bluff Bay with its narrow channel, steep forested walls complete with cascading waterfalls. We did manage to spot a group of feeding humpback whales prior to entering Red Bluff Bay watching them for as long as we could as they lunged at the surface and blew bubble rings ensnaring their prey of krill before gulping them down. To tie our whale watching experience up neatly we were later joined by Dr. Andy Szabo from the Alaska Whale Foundation where he proceeded to inform us of their most current whale research in the nearby waters and shed some light on humpback whales foraging behaviors and strategies.
To be sure there will be more in store for us tomorrow but for today it was an expedition to remember.
