Fox Creek, Idaho Inlet and the Inian Islands
Morning saw us gliding across a completely still sea towards Idaho Inlet. Named after the excursion steamer “Idaho,” which ran aground at the head of the bay (thinking there was an exit), it is a quiet and protected body of water. We were here to search for sea otters before breakfast! We found them, spread out in ones or twos, preening, fluffing their fur, rubbing their faces, wiggling their toes, diving under and disappearing.
After breakfast our activities were various: a photography group who wanted to learn from Flip Nicklin, our National Geographic Photographer on board, and Eric Guth, our Photo Instructor, took them out and found plenty material to work on within a few hundred yards of the landing site. Exercise hikers took off and roamed the woods and salmon stream (with salmon), and the interpretative hikes found much to discuss with bear-scratching trees and perennial bear tracks through the forest being just a few of the findings of the morning. The kayakers circumnavigated Shaw Island – I was in that group. Between strands of bull kelp and ribbon kelp, bright orange multi-armed sea stars a foot in diameter crawled over the barnacle-encrusted rocks searching for a meal of blue mussel or clams.
By the end of lunch, we had reached our next location for exploration, this time by Zodiac for all. The Inian Islands are a grouping of small islands lying in the path of the massive Pacific Ocean currents which flood into Southeast Alaska’s Inside Passage twice every 24 hours. For that very reason they are a hotspot for the massive Steller sea lions looking to pack on the pounds by intercepting the salmon trying to make it home to their native streams and rivers to spawn. Although no one saw everything, together we saw it all: Steller sea lions devouring fish in a gulp, humpback whales, one breaching, sea otters sleeping in the kelp, tufted puffins in the sunshine (wow!).
It was a magnificent day from start to finish – but even as National Geographic Sea Bird left her anchorage at the “hobbit hole,” the whales had not finished with us – a double breach out the windows of the lounge!
