Pavlov Harbor and Florence Bay
We began a really good, good day at Pavlov Harbor near the entrance to Freshwater Bay. Our objective here was kayaking and a series of hikes along a classic Alaska salmon stream. Shortly after the hikers got on the trail (actually a bear trail), we got a radio message letting us know that a brown bear had been seen headed towards the stream. We and the brown bear arrived at a waterfall just below Pavlov Lake. There was no doubt why the bear wanted to be there — Humpback (Pink) salmon had formed a glorious parade headed upstream towards their spawning grounds above the falls. But it was not going to be easy to get there. Due to heavy rainfall, water was gushing over the falls, denying the strenuous efforts of the “humpies” to get past this obstacle. Hundreds of them had accumulated in the pools below the falls and were easy prey for a hungry bear foraging for a meal.
Unfortunately the bears who arrived were young and had not developed the skills to easily catch their lunch. We could sense their frustration and were careful not to get within the range of their dietary angst. Yet we could not help but be amused by their flailing efforts until one of them advanced towards us with an aggressive posture. Needless to say our evacuation downstream was done with alacrity. On the other hand the kayakers got to witness the whole show in in the safety of a midstream position — brown bears can run at up to 35 mph on land, but they are slow and clumsy swimmers.
After a scrumptious Fajita Bar lunch on board, National Geographic Sea Bird headed down Chatham Strait (with sun shining down) towards Florence Bay. On the way, out guests under 21 got to go to the Bridge for a lesson on the navigation methods used by National Geographic Sea Bird’s captain to get where we want to go. At Florence Bay there were three hikes available: a photo lesson hike with Linda; an aerobic hike with Darcy or a short hike through the forest with Scott. A fringe benefit of Scott’s hike was a look down onto a meadow occupied by the biggest bear that any of us (including Scott) had ever seen. Again the under-21 crowd got a special event — Zodiac driving lessons. Judging from the shrieks of delight that we could hear, even hiking through the forest, the Zodiac drivers were pleased with their activity.
