Alaska Recap - Part 5

Here is the last of the Alaska recaps.

The weather again turned rainy and miserable on Friday. We woke to gray rain clouds and a bit of fog. After yesterdays beautiful weather in Glacier Bay, this was a bit of a disappointment. But it didn't deter us from enjoying our last full day in Alaska.

We anchored near Lake Eva at the entrance to Peril Straight and hiking and kayaking were offered. Instead of having to choose this time, we had the opportunity to do both. All the kayakers gathered together and went for a quick hike prior to kayaking. We tromped through the mud and around a pretty little lake, taking in the lovely scenery. We saw swallows flying around the surface of the lake and were told they had just come up from South America. We got to spot overlooking a great little waterfall and that ended up being our turn around spot. Those wellington boots definitely came in handy on this hike as the ground was very muddy and very wet.

A group of us did a bit of a power hike on the way back and it was nice to work up a sweat. We got back to the beach and all our kayaks were waiting there for us. I met up with momma and we climbed into a kayak and sailed off. We headed back towards where we hiked, this time taking in the scenery from the water instead of the shore. We even tried to paddle upstream towards the waterfall, but due to the strength of the water, we only could get so far.

As we came back in to the area where the swallows were, we lifted our paddles and quietly floated around the small lake. We had swallows flying all around us at one point and it was quite a wonderful experience. After paddling around a while longer, momma and I headed back to the beach for a rather wet landing (think cold waves crashing down your back) and soon enough we were back on board the Sea Lion.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sailing around Admiralty Island looking for bears. We found two. One was a larger brown bear off in the distance, but he quickly went back into the woods as we approached. On the opposite shore, however, we found a young adult brown bear walking along the shore and we were able to get rather close. Bears apparently have better hearing than eyesight (both are good), so we kept as quiet as possible on the boat while we inched closer to the shore. The bear stopped a few times and even once looked right at us, but eventually he kept moving along the shore and then up into the woods out of our view.

That evening, we had our farewell dinner which consisted of "entertainment" from our Naturalists and some delicious white salmon. Yes, white salmon. Only 1% of the pacific salmon population are white (not the normal pink most are used to) and no one really knows why. Looks like Halibut, tastes like salmon. It is delicious with a slightly lighter, less oily flavor than regular salmon. Anyway... it was great and if you ever see this rare fish on the menu or in your fish market, get it and try it out.

Photos of Lake Eva Hike/Kayak & Bears!

We headed to our cabin to finish packing up that evening while the boat sailed through Peril Straight towards our last stop... Sitka!

Sitka wasn't that impressive. We didn't have a lot of time between when we got off the ship and when our plane left back for Seattle. We quickly said our goodbyes to the crew and boarded buses which whisked us off to a Sitka Museum with a large collection of totem poles. After that, we headed into town for some quick shopping and then it was off to the airport. I found out later that there was an Eagle Rescue place in town and I would have loved to visit that, but there just wasn't any time. I think if I had to do the cruise over again, I would reverse course, start in Sitka and get there a day early to visit the Eagle shelter.

Photos from Sitka & Flying Home!

Overall, it was a fantastic trip with lots and lots of photos. Alaska is a treasure and thank goodness some smart folks back in the day had the foresight to buy that chunk if land from the Russians.