Capturing the Moment

 Its that time of year again, for the annual Stave Island Party, and this year I wasn't going to miss it. Ryan and Tyler brought the whole gang from Rye, which always adds a ton of energy to the island. The real change this year is how many young kids there were. And the fact that they are at an age where they can really start to interact with each other. It is great to see the next generation of Stave Island friends coming up.  SIP '23, minus Nate and Kelly and Finn, who were bushwhacking off trail somewhere Jewels and Catalina catching frogs How many kids can you count? TAC (Toyon Adventure Club) back at it with the next generation

  Sometimes when I close my eyes and dream about Alaska I dream about a waterfall pouring out of the rainforest, with huge mountains looming far behind it, and then a bear walks out in front of the waterfall and catches a salmon. Well....that exact thing happened today. We arrived early in the morning to a place called Pavlof Harbor. It is a little bay on Chichigof Island in Southeast Alaska. At this time of year the pink salmon return to the river at the head of the bay to swim upstream and mate. And with the return of the salmon, bears from all around descend upon the stream. There also happens to be a beautiful waterfall that you could almost kayak almost all the way up to. We had one large bear come out and catch a few salmon. Then it walked straight up the waterfall, posed for a moment, and out of sight. Then two more bears came out and really put on a show. By this time we had our guests up the river in kayaks, stand up paddle boards, and our small boat. It was a pretty amazi...

  Imagine being on a small, 20ft inflatable boat, and having a whale the size of a city school bus come exploding out of the water right next to you. That is what happened today at Wachusset Cove, here in Southeast Alaska. From our anchorage at Iyoukeen Cove, we spotted a group of humpback whales over a mile out near the point of this long peninsula. This area is a hotspot for finding bubble net feeding humpback whales, so we put the normal morning plans on hold, in order for everyone to load up in our small boats and cruise out to find the whales....just in case it turned out to be a group of bubble netters. As with everything in Alaska, it was farther than it looked getting to the point. The landscapes are so vast, and the mountains so tall, that you lose all perspective of distance. When we finally did make it out to the point, the whales were nowhere to be seen. But not to be deterred, we kept driving, and driving, until eventually we ended up at a totally different bay called ...

  Stellar conditions for this morning's kayak at Emmons Island, near Sitka, Alaska. "Is this Hawaii", I thought to myself as I paddled in the beautiful sunshine and crystal clear waters around Emmons Island. I had to remind myself that I was actually in Alaska's Inside Passage, in a very special place. Instead of Hawaii's coral and sea turtles under our kayaks, it was sea stars, anemones, and sea cucumbers. The misty mountains in the background were another reminder that I wasn't in Hawaii anymore. Harbor seals watched us from a safe distance as we paddled. The weather was perfect for a paddle this morning. There was no wind in sight, and the water was flat calm and crystal clear. The misty mountains and our expedition ship reflected in the smooth water like a mirror. My plan was to circumnavigate the Vixen Islands. As we started out I noticed a few harbor seals cautiously watching our progress. The ocean was like a mirror, without a drop of wind. I couldn...

  Takatz Bay is one of the most beautiful places to kayak. It is located on the east coast of Baranof Island in Southeast Alaska. It is a long fjord, carved out by a glacier many years ago. Snowy mountain peaks are still visible deep up the valley, and the water is still tinged sky blue with glacial meltoff. Now a beautiful stream thunders out of the rainforest into the back of the bay, and salmon come back year after year to swim their way up it. This means that on occasion, a brown bear comes down to the river to do some fishing. If you get lucky, and you time the tides right (it has to be a high tide to get up the river to the falls), then you might just get to kayak with a wild Alaskan brown bear. Today was that day. And this bear was hungry. I watched the bear walking purposefully along the high tide coastline, peaking in and out of the forest as it cruised towards the river. I followed silently in my kayak, trying to keep my eye on it through the foliage. After busting out in...

  Whale watching can be pretty spectacular in Southeast Alaska during the summer months. North pacific humpback whales, who spent the majority of winter breeding and calving in Hawaii, are now here in Alaska for a feeding frenzy. Bubble netting humpbacks in front of the Safari Explorer Close up! I could see the ring of bubbles hit the surface just before the whales burst up from below with mouths wide open. Tiny herring leapt out of the whales' mouths Depending on the prey that the whales are feeding on, their strategies can be vastly different. If they are feeding on krill they can simply swim through the water with their mouth open, using their baleen-filled mouths to filter out the food. Things really spice up when the whales are hunting herring, a small schooling fish. When hunting herring, humpbacks will occasionally work together in a group, herding the fish into a tight ball, using a cooperative method called bubble net feeding. This is what we were lucky enough to stumble u...