Today we explored different areas along the northeastern shore of Baranof Island. We started the day leaving our anchorage at Warm Spring Bay where we spent a quiet and restful night and slowly made our way north along the eastern coast of Baranof Island.
Not long after, we discovered several blows far away across Chatham Strait and National Geographic Sea Lion directed her bow towards them. We delighted watching several humpback whales and many Dall’s porpoises swimming around in the calm waters, presumably feeding on small schooling fish, possibly herring. A few harbor porpoises were also present and six or seven bald eagles tried too to grab some stunned fish or scraps from the surface. All that before breakfast!
We sailed back to Baranof and entered the large and protected Kelp Bay, where we continued our search for wildlife. Some more Dall’s porpoises and the occasional humpback whale were spotted here and there, until something walking on shore called our attention: a brown bear!
Baranof is one of the three ABC islands of the Alexander Archipelago, famous for their large population of brown bears, and this one looked at us for a long time while we watched him, before heading back into the forest. A short time later, we discovered three Sitka black-tailed deer on the beach; two bucks and one doe of that sub-species of the black-tailed or mule deer, endemic to the Alexander Archipelago. They allowed us to watch them for a long time, something that this shy creature rarely permits.
We spent the afternoon hiking and kayaking the area around Lake Eva, facing the infamous Peril Strait that separates Baranof from Chichagof Island. There we had a great time admiring the beauty of the temperate rainforest and stretched our legs on the very nice trail created and maintained by the Forest Service. Red squirrels, red-breasted sapsuckers, Steller’s jays and many other inhabitants of the forest welcomed us to their home. What a beautiful day we had in Southeast Alaska!
