Ideal Cove and Petersburg

Another bright morning, and flat calm waters, greeted us with a new day. Ideal Cove is located on Mitkof Island, where we experienced the Southeast Alaska temperate rain forest for the first time. One of the great things of having seen Endicott Arm yesterday was that we were able to witness how it all began. Starting with nothing but rock, after the glaciers retreated, we now can walk through a timeless and mysterious forest. As we moved deeper and deeper into the woods, we talked about the non-human inhabitants of this world of mosses and trees. Bears, moose, and even wolves are present, at least in our minds, as we are their guests in their ancestral home.

We had a pleasant afternoon in the fishing town of Petersburg, a real Alaskan fishing community with an important Norwegian influence. As we approached Petersburg’s dock, dozens of Bonaparte’s gulls fed on the small creatures that were forced up to the surface by the currents. We meandered through Petersburg and rode our bikes through town. Not only can Norwegian folklore be found here, but also the icons of the Pacific Northwest cultures have been erected near the main street; totem poles.

Just across Petersburg, on Mitkof Island, there is a wonderful example of an Alaskan muskeg. Following the ecological succession, old growth forests seem to follow a pattern, where they turn gradually into a peat bog, or as we know it in Southeast Alaska, a muskeg. Here we had the chance to dedicate a good part of the afternoon to looking into the miniature world of the extremophile plants that grow here. They not only heroically survive, but they thrive in the acidic conditions of the Muskeg.