Ideal Cove and Petersburg
We were greeted by a thick bank of fog this morning as the National Geographic Sea Bird made her way along the east side of Mitkof Island toward our morning destination, Ideal Cove. A picturesque forest trail in the Tongass National Forest, Ideal Cove is a beautiful place to view the lush and diverse temperate rainforest vegetation of Southeast Alaska.
After breakfast we took the Zodiacs ashore, but before we could enter the forest we had to make our way over several hundred feet of intertidal zone. Beneath our mud boot-clad feet were thousands of mussels clumped together, giant clams shells, several types of seaweeds, and barnacles stuck to every rocky surface. We also saw the long, hollow pipes of tube worms that emerge into feather-like plumes when the tide rises and covers them with water.
In the forest we were surrounded by every shade of green. We passed giant skunk cabbage, blueberry bushes (several with ripe fruit!), spiny devil’s club, salmonberry bushes (also with ripe berries), and towering Sitka spruce and pine trees. Those guests who were inspired to go for a longer aerobic walk were rewarded with stunning views of Hill Lake and Crane Lake as well as a juvenile eagle soaring overhead and a flitting belted kingfisher.
Just before lunch we returned to the ship and were soon cruising back up the eastern shores of Mitkof Island toward the small fishing town of Petersburg. The fog began to lift and the sun came out, making it a perfect day to walk around the small village or take a bike ride farther afield. As the ship was docking we even got a nice look at the elusive Devil’s Thumb—a steep rocky spire that juts up out of the Coast Mountain Range. Those who signed up for a float plane ride over the LeConte Icefield could not have had better weather for a bird’s-eye view of the LeConte Glacier and Stikine River Basin.
After several hours of meandering around Petersburg, meeting the locals, and shopping for native crafts, we came back aboard the National Geographic Sea to listen to guest speaker Dr. Fred Sharpe give a talk about the Alaska Whale Foundation, a humpback whale research organization that he spearheads. Dr. Sharpe spends his summers up in Alaska aboard his small vessel, the Evolution, studying and observing the behavioral activities of humpback whales.
A trip to Alaska would not be complete without a meal of Dungeness crab, so tonight we feasted on freshly caught crab purchased from local fishermen in Petersburg. They may even have been the same crabs that we saw being hauled up just offshore of where we landed at Ideal Cove. Talk about fresh!
