At last! Rain, rain! It has been almost two months since there was rain in many areas of Southeast Alaska. The forest has pined, as well as the animals. Many plants had held off growing, or flowering, or even fruiting. The crop of salmonberries for the bears is late. Barely now are they starting to grow. The sky was dark, but it lent a marvelous taste to Thomas Bay. A remote lonely part of Alaska. We sailed into the bay slowly, enjoying the beginning of a decent rainfall, and promptly anchored near our morning destination: Cascade Creek. A torrential, roaring river and waterfall, result of ice and snow melt of many contiguous mountains. Immediately after breakfast we began our landing on the beach, and soon our hikes up a very narrow, wet boardwalk, to a fantastic waterfall. The sound was strong, the wind created by the waterfall pulled millions of droplets horizontally over the winding steps up to another part of the mountain face.
Two Alaska yellow cedar trees were seen next to the waterfall, and numerous other smaller plants, many in bloom, were enjoyed. But the highlight of this walk was a porcupine, hiding beneath some old logs.
Besides these hikes, we had expedition landing craft tours along the lovely coast. But by late morning, we had left Thomas Bay, and headed out towards our afternoon destination, Petersburg. This town was founded in the late 1800s by a Norwegian fisherman, and has since retained its flavor. A nice small working town, a fisherman’s heaven, it was up to a few years back, the town in all the United States with the highest number of millionaires per capita. Millions of tons of fish, crab, and other seafood are packed here annually.
So we arrived immediately after lunch and began our different activities here: hikes to a bog or muskeg, bicycle rides around town, dock walks to see and learn about all the different fishing vessels here in port, and floatplane rides to the nearby Le Conte Glacier!
The rain is heavier now, slaking some of the thirst of this rain forest of Southeast Alaska.
