Some of My Favorite Pics

Reflections 1


Reflections 2

Reflections 3

John's jelly fish with me as lighting technician

Got it! But wish I had been on the fishing boat!

Whales times 2


The sea in the rain



The sea in the sun




The great fisherman


Now where is that fish?


Great teeth!



Great eye shadow!


Waiting for plastic surgery - something the natives would never do.



My favorite face! (Not the one on the top.)



Sea Star 1

Sea Star 2

Sea Star 3 - a Bat Sea Star

Rocks with shells 1

Rocks with no shells 2

Rocks with shells 3

Floats

Sunset

Moonrise

August 10-11, Rocky Pass

Chart of the worse bit with buoys marked

Entrance to Rocky Pass


Looks wider than it actually is - just under the water dangers lurk.


Pilot and co-pilot - a great team

The kelp - usually means it is very shallow


Buoy draped in kelp

Rocky Pass

One of the navigational challenges John wanted to do this trip was to traverse the 15 mile narrow, twisted channel called Rocky Pass that is located through what looks like a large channel of water. But looks are deceiving as there are rocks and lots of kelp lurking just under the surface. Two sections of this pass are dredged to a level that is suppose to allow small craft like us to pass - but the last dredging was in 1977 so who knows! However the 50 buoys that mark the channel are now back in place. They were removed to keep people from going down the channel, but fishermen still did, sometimes with bad consequences, so navigating Rocky Pass is now very possible - as long as you do it on a rising tide. It is important to stay in the dredged channel between the buoys to make sure you have enough water under you so you don‘t go aground. We heard of a sail boat that went aground on a very high tide and had to wait 3 weeks for enough water to float again.

John’s biggest challenge was planning when to enter the pass as there are conflicting tidal currents, some of which are quite strong, throughout the pass - he did this perfectly. With the help of our friend John who made sure we knew where every buoy was located, we made it through the pass without incident. We were happily greeted by sea otters and whales on our exit, my favourite bit!

August 8-9, Red Bluff Bay

Snow capped peaks

Red Bluffs - with mist


Big brown bear - right in the middle of the photo




Running on shore



And this is why the bears are there - John caught a picture of a salmon jumping!

Red Bluff Bay

Another gorgeous location. We entered a wonderfully sheltered bay that had red granite bluffs on one side and snow capped peaks on the other. It is hard to capture in photographs the scale but take my word for it, it was beautiful! On the way in we passed an old cannery site and much to our surprise saw a huge brown bear fishing in water up to his neck. Unfortunately he heard and smelled us before we got a chance to stop and spend much time watching him fish - he was soon out of the water and up the stream away from our view. But we do have one picture - look real close and you will see him in the centre of the picture. The rusty pipes in front of him are huge so it gives you some idea of the scale.

That night and the next morning we saw more brown bears checking out the beach and stream for nibbles. It is amazing to see these rather large animals run or swim - they are fast! I wouldn’t want to be in their way or any too close.

August 7-8, Warm Springs

Journey in front of the water fall

Me in my kayak

Stuck as the lagoon emptied into the inlet and the tide came in - finally got out

"Sea Snot" above and deflated sea anemones below

My kind of hot tub - one with a great view!

Hot spring pools with waterfall in background

John having a soak

Warm Springs

And besides a beautiful water fall, that is what is there - warm or hot springs to soak or bath in which is actually quite appealing after a week without a shower. Also the kayaking was pretty spectacular despite getting stuck in two opposing tidal currents.

July 27th - 29th - Appleton Cove

Steve checking out the creek the bears were the night before

View from Appleton Cove



Mama bear and 3 little bears

Papa bear

And the eagle is always there to eat the rest of the salmon

Appleton Cove (a good place for a girl who grew up on an apple farm!)

There is nothing quite so special as seeing grizzly bears in their natural habitat doing what they do naturally - no observation platforms this time. We spent two days watching a total of 6 bears play, fight, rest, graze and catch fish. One very big male with a golden blond back, a big female with three fairly large cubs and another outsider who hung on the edge of the activity. We were anchored as close as we could get to the beach without going aground and were still half a mile away but with binoculars were treated to quite a show. Especially when the big male was fishing. He would splash around in the stream, I imagine to confuse the fish which probably wasn’t very hard to do, and come up with a big salmon which he would carry up the bank to eat. It was lovely to watch the mom and her cubs. They all looked big and healthy and seemed to spend most of their time hanging out with each other and staying out of the way of the male. Fun days!

July 31 - August 2

The hunter with his prey


Nancy's jelly fish - you should see the video!


Journey

A quiet moment in my kayak

Before we re-entered civilization in Sitka - we spent two days in a lovely anchorage doing some kayaking, watching the rain fall and the deer graze on the beach. By chance we ended up on an island known for it’s abundance of Black Tailed Sitka deer. They appeared to not be afraid of us as they watched us enter the anchorage and anchor. However they may have learned a new lesson about man. We were woken at 5:00 one morning by a gun shot. At least John was - I slept through it. John jumped out of bed and spent the next hour watching two hunters in a boat, skin and haul out one of the deer they had just shot. August 1st it was - the beginning of hunting season. The rest of the day the eagles and sea gulls had quite a feast on what the hunters had left behind.