The forecast for the week called for rainy weather here in Southeast Alaska, but as we were sailing down Frederick Sound, the sky was looking promising and the sun was attempting to shine upon the Tongass National Forest. We anchored in Ideal Cove during breakfast and boarded the inflatables to go to shore for our morning activities.
Ideal Cove is literally an ideal place for hiking. The trail is a skinny version of a boardwalk, and enters into the temperate rainforest. The avid photographers chose the option of meandering along the shore and into the forest, capturing the scenery through their camera lenses. Others followed the naturalists to learn about the vegetation and the animals encountered along the trail.
Our group opted for the longer and faster hike and explored the Three Lakes Trail. We hiked the loop around Hill Lake and Crane Lake. As we were approaching Hill Lake, we heard the screaming sound of two eagles and came upon two mature eagles engaged into a fight in the grass next to the trail. They let go of each other as we got close and took off their separate ways. One landed on the branch of an Alaskan spruce tree across the creek and took the time to set his feathers back into order. It looks like they had been engaged in the fight for some time and they didn't reveal the source of their fighting.
Back on board National Geographic Sea Lion, Michael Melford, National Geographic photographer, gave a wonderful presentation on photography along with the great stories hidden behind each picture.
Petersburg, also known as “Alaska's Little Norway,” was our destination for the afternoon. Guests who signed up for flightseeing were rewarded with a view of a massive calving of the LeConte Glacier from up high. Others took a walk to Petersburg Creek, across a beautiful muskeg and observed how the vegetation has adapted to the acid environment of the bog.
More photo opportunities were offered along the dock and Paul North, naturalist, shared his knowledge of fishing history and talked about the diversity of fishing vessels and techniques.
Everyone was feasting on Dungeness crab as the National Geographic Sea Lion was gently sailing north to our next destination.
