Baranof Island, Kelp Bay
How do you explain the experience of exploring Southeast Alaska? Amazing? Perhaps too cliché. Preposterous? Yes, if you take into account the amazing biomass of organisms, large and small, calling this place home.
Slipping through the waters of Kelp Bay in kayaks or puttering along in Zodiacs, we shared common experiences. Immersed in the element of water, we saw humpback whale, harbor seal and fish jumping. Xerophilous creatures would find a refuge here, or would they be overwhelmed? The abundant moisture provides spruce and hemlock with goatee-like-beards on their branch terminus. You have a sense of solitude, and perhaps insignificance, when surrounded by these forest giants.
Piles upon piles of bear scat were spattered about the forest floor. Everywhere we wandered at our afternoon landing at Kelp Bay, we found signs of bear, deer and more bear. Reminders that we are not the first to wander these woods.
Reclining on the snowy slope opposite our trail, a sow with her two cubs cooled off on this sunny afternoon; they were soon joined by an additional two bears, quite possibly a sibling pair. Young bears numbered four, plus the sow, coming to a total of five for the afternoon, at the very least. What an incredible ending to our explorations on shore.
Young travelers with us this week have combined their talents to share with you a Haiku inspired by this immense landscape.
Linda Burback, photographic instructor/naturalist
Alaska’s Nature, a cooperative effort at Haiku by: Jack Garlinghouse, age 5
Kate Garlinghouse, age 7
Gwyneth Susan Garlinghouse, age 6
Annika Jones, age 6
Ice is falling down
Forest, bird songs, singing, chirp
Waterfall splashing.
