Rain, nor snow, nor dead of night will prevent this hearty group of travelers from their appointed task. The latter was easy because it does not get dark till past eleven. The rain however only means we don our raingear and face the elements like the intrepid explorers that we are. We are invincible in our layers of Gore-Tex, and rubber boots as we slog our way through boot-sucking mud, along the Pavlof River. Our final goal will be a beaver lodge at the beginning of Pavlof Lake but in route we stop to ponder piles of bear scat, footprints of a river otter, and the new wildflowers we encounter. When we finish our walk a sense of accomplishment overcomes us all and a hearty cheer and raised arms readies us for our next adventure.
As weather often goes in Alaska, we did not have long before the rain had all but disappeared and sun once again graced the decks of the National Geographic Sea Lion. It seemed however, that more than sun was shining down on us as we came across two humpback whales feeding in the exceptionally calm waters of Chatham Strait. The whales seemed to care less that we were upon them and frequently swam right below our bow. Time went by fast, and it was not long before we needed to leave in order to reach our destination of Red Bluff Bay before dinner. This too would need to be delayed when the captain learned that a fleet of salmon boats was fishing nearby, and that we could navigate close enough to observe and photograph the fisheries we were hearing about in our talks and on our hikes around Southeast Alaska.
We watched as the seine boats haul in the catch of the day, chum salmon. It was great to see how our fish was caught and to hear Steve Maclean, one of our naturalists, talk about the fisheries while we saw for ourselves how it was done. Our arrival at Red Bluff Bay would need to wait until after dinner.
We finally made it. Red Bluff Bay was worth the wait and it was the perfect time to be there. The sun was shining and the navigation through the narrow passage ended with the sighting of two brown bears in the meadow at the end of the bay. What a perfect way to end the day.
