Pavlof Harbor, Alaska
Our last full day together in Southeast Alaska found us in Pavlof Harbor for the morning. Fifteen of the most intrepid adventurers aboard chose to strike out for three hours of bushwacking, stream-crossing, route-finding fun on a hike around a beautiful lake surrounded by snowy peaks and meadows. Others chose shorter walks that included viewing a fish ladder built to aid spawning salmon in their journey upriver. Kayaking was on the agenda as well, and people who just a few days previous were raw beginners, took to the water’s surface with confidence and gusto. A Zodiac cruise revealed thick-bodied leather sea stars, cauliflower-like fringed anemones and a family of common mergansers—mom, dad and the nine little ones.
After lunch, we went in search of whales and were able to locate several pairs of feeding humpbacks before making our way into Peril Straits and our final stop of the expedition—Sitka. This week was the Last Frontier at its finest. And while we came together as a group sharing common sights, unexpected sounds and exquisite tastes as well, we also each had a uniquely personal experience. Everyone will take with them some memory that has cemented itself in their psyche—perhaps the feel of the soft rainforest earth underfoot, the sound of a whale breathing or the image of a brown bear feeding at the shoreline. Robert Service may have said it best:
“Yours is the beauty that you see
In any words I sing;
The magic and the melody
‘Tis you, dear friend, who bring.
Yea, by the glory and the gleam,
The loveliness that lures
Your thought to starry heights of dream,
The poem’s yours.”
Our last full day together in Southeast Alaska found us in Pavlof Harbor for the morning. Fifteen of the most intrepid adventurers aboard chose to strike out for three hours of bushwacking, stream-crossing, route-finding fun on a hike around a beautiful lake surrounded by snowy peaks and meadows. Others chose shorter walks that included viewing a fish ladder built to aid spawning salmon in their journey upriver. Kayaking was on the agenda as well, and people who just a few days previous were raw beginners, took to the water’s surface with confidence and gusto. A Zodiac cruise revealed thick-bodied leather sea stars, cauliflower-like fringed anemones and a family of common mergansers—mom, dad and the nine little ones.
After lunch, we went in search of whales and were able to locate several pairs of feeding humpbacks before making our way into Peril Straits and our final stop of the expedition—Sitka. This week was the Last Frontier at its finest. And while we came together as a group sharing common sights, unexpected sounds and exquisite tastes as well, we also each had a uniquely personal experience. Everyone will take with them some memory that has cemented itself in their psyche—perhaps the feel of the soft rainforest earth underfoot, the sound of a whale breathing or the image of a brown bear feeding at the shoreline. Robert Service may have said it best:
“Yours is the beauty that you see
In any words I sing;
The magic and the melody
‘Tis you, dear friend, who bring.
Yea, by the glory and the gleam,
The loveliness that lures
Your thought to starry heights of dream,
The poem’s yours.”
