Exploring the ABC ‘s of Southeast Alaska
First thing this morning on the sun-splashed shores of Chichagof Island we spotted the tawny shapes of foraging Sitka black-tailed deer in the naked intertidal. A dark spot in binoculars soon materialized into a prominent brown bear behind the beach. As our captain nosed the Sea Bird toward shore we marveled at two, now-obvious, first-year cubs and their impressive mom. We enjoyed watching the bear family grazing on beach grasses and lumbering over the rocky shorefront.
Over on Baranof Island we followed a trail through sensuous rainforest along a salmon stream to Lake Eva. In forest, meadow and riverbank, we discovered wildflowers, towering spruce trees, skunk cabbage patches, bear tracks, thrush calls, and salmonberry thickets, a wide array of sensory experiences. On a moss-covered fallen nurse log we wondered at a five-inch wide yellow blob known as scrambled eggs slime mold.
Fungus? Animal? Plant? Missing Link? Whatever they are, slime molds can be found in Alaska’s temperate rainforests in summer. Thousands of scattered crawling amoeboid cells will come together to form large clumpy slimy masses known as plasmodia. These colorful blobs will creep over mosses and within rotting logs feeding on bacteria and producing millions of airborne spores.
After leaving the slime mold and our morning hiking and kayaking excursions behind, we enjoyed a barbecue lunch and crossed Chatham Strait to enter the recesses of Admiralty Island National Monument. We cruised the bending waterways of Hood Bay past glaciated valleys, abandoned canneries, and intertidal inlets.
Back outside along Admiralty’s western shore we stopped to watch humpback whales. Awaiting the expulsive blow of a whale out ahead of us, we were taken completely by surprise as a humpback surfaced immediately next to our ship below the rail, startling and enthralling everyone on deck.
Today, on Admiralty, Baranof, and Chichagof Islands, the ABC Islands, we explored some of the ABC ‘s of Southeast Alaska – bear, whale, slime mold, and more.
First thing this morning on the sun-splashed shores of Chichagof Island we spotted the tawny shapes of foraging Sitka black-tailed deer in the naked intertidal. A dark spot in binoculars soon materialized into a prominent brown bear behind the beach. As our captain nosed the Sea Bird toward shore we marveled at two, now-obvious, first-year cubs and their impressive mom. We enjoyed watching the bear family grazing on beach grasses and lumbering over the rocky shorefront.
Over on Baranof Island we followed a trail through sensuous rainforest along a salmon stream to Lake Eva. In forest, meadow and riverbank, we discovered wildflowers, towering spruce trees, skunk cabbage patches, bear tracks, thrush calls, and salmonberry thickets, a wide array of sensory experiences. On a moss-covered fallen nurse log we wondered at a five-inch wide yellow blob known as scrambled eggs slime mold.
Fungus? Animal? Plant? Missing Link? Whatever they are, slime molds can be found in Alaska’s temperate rainforests in summer. Thousands of scattered crawling amoeboid cells will come together to form large clumpy slimy masses known as plasmodia. These colorful blobs will creep over mosses and within rotting logs feeding on bacteria and producing millions of airborne spores.
After leaving the slime mold and our morning hiking and kayaking excursions behind, we enjoyed a barbecue lunch and crossed Chatham Strait to enter the recesses of Admiralty Island National Monument. We cruised the bending waterways of Hood Bay past glaciated valleys, abandoned canneries, and intertidal inlets.
Back outside along Admiralty’s western shore we stopped to watch humpback whales. Awaiting the expulsive blow of a whale out ahead of us, we were taken completely by surprise as a humpback surfaced immediately next to our ship below the rail, startling and enthralling everyone on deck.
Today, on Admiralty, Baranof, and Chichagof Islands, the ABC Islands, we explored some of the ABC ‘s of Southeast Alaska – bear, whale, slime mold, and more.
