Thomas Bay & Petersburg
The National Geographic Sea Lion entered Fredrick Sound this morning. This beautiful waterway offers many bays, coves and islands to explore.
We stopped at Thomas Bay for a hike. The broadwalk led us up to the cascading waterfall. The bridge provided a good vantage point to observe this powerful waterfall.
Back on board, Pete Pederson gave a comprehensive talk about glaciers before lunch.
We docked at Petersburg this afternoon. Petersburg is a fishing village located on the northern end of Mitkof Island. Named after its founder, Peter Thams Buschmann who settled here in 1897. He built canneries, a saltery and a sawmill in this area. This is a working community with a population of 3500. Over a 100 million pounds of fish are still processed here annually.
A Zodiac ride from the dock took us across to Petersburg Creek for an interpretive bog walk following a netted broadwalk, we threaded our way through a thick forest to the muskeg. The extremely acidic peat here supports exotic carnivorous plants like Sundew.
We were free to explore the town on foot or by mountain bikes. Petersburg has hardware stores, clothing and gift shops, and bookshops for shoppers. Some guests took the option of flightseeing to the nearby LeConte Glacier.
Dr. Fred Sharpe from the Alaska Whale Foundation came aboard and gave a fascinating presentation about bubble netting and answered questions about whales. He played sound clips of whales and showed underwater footages of videos taken from cameras that were attached to whales by suction cups.
This evening recap a included preview of the video chronicle by Sarah Culler highlighting the first portion of our voyage. Ben Schwantes demonstrated two methods of catching salmon with the help of some our young guests.
For dinner, we feasted on fresh Dungeness crabs and baby back ribs, followed by ice cream in the lounge.
The National Geographic Sea Lion entered Fredrick Sound this morning. This beautiful waterway offers many bays, coves and islands to explore.
We stopped at Thomas Bay for a hike. The broadwalk led us up to the cascading waterfall. The bridge provided a good vantage point to observe this powerful waterfall.
Back on board, Pete Pederson gave a comprehensive talk about glaciers before lunch.
We docked at Petersburg this afternoon. Petersburg is a fishing village located on the northern end of Mitkof Island. Named after its founder, Peter Thams Buschmann who settled here in 1897. He built canneries, a saltery and a sawmill in this area. This is a working community with a population of 3500. Over a 100 million pounds of fish are still processed here annually.
A Zodiac ride from the dock took us across to Petersburg Creek for an interpretive bog walk following a netted broadwalk, we threaded our way through a thick forest to the muskeg. The extremely acidic peat here supports exotic carnivorous plants like Sundew.
We were free to explore the town on foot or by mountain bikes. Petersburg has hardware stores, clothing and gift shops, and bookshops for shoppers. Some guests took the option of flightseeing to the nearby LeConte Glacier.
Dr. Fred Sharpe from the Alaska Whale Foundation came aboard and gave a fascinating presentation about bubble netting and answered questions about whales. He played sound clips of whales and showed underwater footages of videos taken from cameras that were attached to whales by suction cups.
This evening recap a included preview of the video chronicle by Sarah Culler highlighting the first portion of our voyage. Ben Schwantes demonstrated two methods of catching salmon with the help of some our young guests.
For dinner, we feasted on fresh Dungeness crabs and baby back ribs, followed by ice cream in the lounge.
