Le Conte Bay and Petersburg
Feasts of all kinds were to be had today! Our first feast was a visual one as we cruised among gigantic icebergs in Le Conte Bay. What we experienced can best be described in the words of John Muir: “...icy wildness unspeakably pure and sublime.” This was truly an unexpected visual feast. Utterly silent, except for the dripping of the melting ice, we watched in awe and spoke in superlatives: fantastic, incredible, awesome, breathtaking, and brilliant! What was most impressive, however, was the sheer size of some of the icebergs. This was made even clearer to us when we could view these enormous ice sculptures with reference to a scale (the Zodiac in the above picture is 19 feet long). Our excursions took us past the terminal moraine that was bustling with life as the currents stirred the sea into a biological broth. The glassy conditions provided excellent viewing of schools of fish that were just beneath the surface. These same schools quickly became a fresh fish feast for gulls and Marbled Murrelets.
On this stunning sunny day, we spent our afternoon exploring the fishing town of Petersburg. Some went flight-seeing from float planes that provided an entirely different perspective of the glaciers carved into rugged and jagged mountains. Hundreds of harbor seals resembling tiny sausages were resting on the many icebergs. Some of us also walked to a beautiful bog – an acidic habitat full of sphagnum moss, Labrador Tea, the lovely round-leafed sundew, and bonsai-like shore pines.
Our final feast was one that filled our tummies: a fresh Dungeness crab “all-you-can-eat” dinner. As we reflected on the many new aspects of Southeast Alaska that we had witnessed today, we wondered what extraordinary experiences we will enjoy tomorrow.
Feasts of all kinds were to be had today! Our first feast was a visual one as we cruised among gigantic icebergs in Le Conte Bay. What we experienced can best be described in the words of John Muir: “...icy wildness unspeakably pure and sublime.” This was truly an unexpected visual feast. Utterly silent, except for the dripping of the melting ice, we watched in awe and spoke in superlatives: fantastic, incredible, awesome, breathtaking, and brilliant! What was most impressive, however, was the sheer size of some of the icebergs. This was made even clearer to us when we could view these enormous ice sculptures with reference to a scale (the Zodiac in the above picture is 19 feet long). Our excursions took us past the terminal moraine that was bustling with life as the currents stirred the sea into a biological broth. The glassy conditions provided excellent viewing of schools of fish that were just beneath the surface. These same schools quickly became a fresh fish feast for gulls and Marbled Murrelets.
On this stunning sunny day, we spent our afternoon exploring the fishing town of Petersburg. Some went flight-seeing from float planes that provided an entirely different perspective of the glaciers carved into rugged and jagged mountains. Hundreds of harbor seals resembling tiny sausages were resting on the many icebergs. Some of us also walked to a beautiful bog – an acidic habitat full of sphagnum moss, Labrador Tea, the lovely round-leafed sundew, and bonsai-like shore pines.
Our final feast was one that filled our tummies: a fresh Dungeness crab “all-you-can-eat” dinner. As we reflected on the many new aspects of Southeast Alaska that we had witnessed today, we wondered what extraordinary experiences we will enjoy tomorrow.
