It’s early morning in Scenery Cove, and the world looks like a painting, with clouds weaving languidly through the treetops. We are on our way to Cascade Creek, for hikes of all varieties, from vigorous to gentle, natural-world focus to photographic. Soon we are beneath a canopy of towering conifers, climbing the trail beside a boisterous stream. We note berries ripening, flowering plants, the way moss covers everything and lichens and ferns abound. It is lush and green and misty, and we are the only people here. But we are not alone. Those of us who are walking more slowly see a family of red-breasted sapsuckers working a tree in their woodpecker fashion. An American dipper flits and sits beside the stream. We listen to the calls of many other birds, and catch glimpses of a few. There is sign of animals, too, along the way: moose droppings, a pile of descaled cones left by a squirrel, a place where a Sitka black-tailed deer walked through, neatly nipping the leaves off one of its favorite understory plants.
There is time before lunch to learn more about photography and sea ducks from our expedition staff, and then we are in Petersburg. We’re “alongside”, as they say, at a dock, and free to come and go as we please. Indeed, everyone wanders where they will. Dock walkers learn about fishing boats and styles and the underwater creatures that live on the dock. Bog walkers explore the unique muskeg ecotype. Town wanderers poke through stores, meet the locals, and soak in a little of this town’s authentic flavor. There’s no road to here, from anywhere else, and the evidence of Petersburg’s focus on fishing and its Norwegian heritage are everywhere. With a camera in hand, it’s paradise.
