Idaho Inlet, the Inian Islands and Icy Strait

We awoke to another fog-filled overcast day as we cruised Icy Strait. Miraculously, upon approaching Idaho Inlet the surrounding mountains appeared. We anchored between the Shaw Islands and the shoreline of Chichagof Island.

After breakfast, the hikers set off into the forest and the kayakers took to the water. The Fox Creek trail began through a tall sedge field, winded through a meadow of silverweed, paintbrush, yarrow, cow parsnip, rattlebox, and false hellebore, and entered the edge of the forest through alder and young spruce. Soon the canopy opened up; there were many downed trees. Wind throws are an important clearing agent for this temperate rainforest (not fires, it’s too wet here!). At our feet we noticed the “ancestral path” of the bears inhabiting Chichagof Island; it told where these bears have walked for decades. We then followed the trail alongside older spruce, some hemlock and alder, devil’s club, skunk cabbage, ground cone, fern, bunchberry (dwarf dogwood), foam flower, false lily of the valley, spruce lichen, moss covered ground to the “bear tree”. A bear had stripped the bark to lick the sap and to scratch its back - perhaps because of an itch, but most importantly to mark its territory. From there, some hikers continued up the mountain to the muskeg, while others continued through boot-sucking mud and a knee-deep stream to the falls. The kayakers paddled around the Shaw Islands, in the company of harbor porpoise and a couple of humpback whales.

During lunch, the captain repositioned the Sea Lion in a small inlet in the Inian Islands. Zodiacs immediately zoomed off to look for Steller sea lions and sea otters. A few of the sea lions were catching salmon and thrashing them around (the sea gulls picked up the fish scraps). But most of them were spending their afternoon hauled out on the rocks resting. We could hear them roaring from far away. The sea otters were busy as usual diving for food, preening their fur, caring for their pups, napping, and people watching. They were curious about us too!

After all this excitement, we lifted anchor and headed back into Icy Strait in search of whales. We found humpback whales, spending most of their time underwater feeding, and much more: hundreds of phalaropes, kittiwakes, fulmars, murrelets, murres, porpoises, sea otters, and geese flying high. The grand finale? A baby humpback whale throwing its tail around and breaching while mom rested underwater. We were also jumping with exhilaration, what a day!