Fox Creek, Idaho Inlet, Inian Islands, and Icy Strait
Today’s weather created the kind of Alaska landscape that artists have immortalized: grey brooding skies, white clouds shrouding evergreen hillsides, and dark and mysterious water threading its way among seemingly numberless islands. We awoke this overcast morning after a foggy night and began our new day’s adventure with sea kayaking at the Shaw Islands and hiking at Fox Creek. Today’s kayaking provided paddlers with the challenging contrast of clear and calm water on one side of the islands, and gentle but noticeable swells on the other. The forest hike in the rain was like walking through an enormous green cathedral formed by towering trees and thick ground cover consisting in large part of the ubiquitous and thorny devil’s club, some plants of which towered more than eight feet high, and skunk cabbage. This afternoon we enjoyed Zodiac cruising in the Inian Islands, habitat of numerous contentious male sea lions, sea otter families, and an occasional harbor seal. After dinner we witnessed the sublime spectacle of cooperative feeding by humpback whales.
Today’s weather created the kind of Alaska landscape that artists have immortalized: grey brooding skies, white clouds shrouding evergreen hillsides, and dark and mysterious water threading its way among seemingly numberless islands. We awoke this overcast morning after a foggy night and began our new day’s adventure with sea kayaking at the Shaw Islands and hiking at Fox Creek. Today’s kayaking provided paddlers with the challenging contrast of clear and calm water on one side of the islands, and gentle but noticeable swells on the other. The forest hike in the rain was like walking through an enormous green cathedral formed by towering trees and thick ground cover consisting in large part of the ubiquitous and thorny devil’s club, some plants of which towered more than eight feet high, and skunk cabbage. This afternoon we enjoyed Zodiac cruising in the Inian Islands, habitat of numerous contentious male sea lions, sea otter families, and an occasional harbor seal. After dinner we witnessed the sublime spectacle of cooperative feeding by humpback whales.
