Bald Eagle Heaven

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Today we are in Crab Bay, surrounded by forests, beautiful snow-capped mountains and a peaceful inlet. For the morning activity, Ken decided on another bushwhack, while I chose the “bushwhack light” or as I came to call it, the Baby Bushwhack. The normal one was a 3-hour excursion through the brush, and I just wasn’t sure I wanted to thrash through the forest for that long.

Prior to landing with our skiff on the shore, we saw two small deer, which are normal for this part. They were more the size of larger fawns, but Brady, our guide said the size helps them survive when there is little to eat in the winter. Once we landed our skiff, we explored mostly on shore and saw sea stars, lots of barnacles, mussels, little crabs and some other unique sea creatures. There were also a pair of bald eagles guarding their exceptionally large nest in one of the trees by the shore, and they made sure we were very aware of their presence for the 1.5 hours we were there. We did venture into the forest and did some thrashing through the dense underbrush, saw some cool old growth trees with lots of moss and definite signs of bears. Before long it was time to climb back in the skiff for a nice buzz back to the ship.

Ken did go on the regular bushwhack, and he reported it was quite a bit less challenging than yesterday. Less climbing, more meandering and lots of bear poop…. definitely we are in bear country! Our afternoon was a 2-hour guided kayak along the beautiful shore. The water was so peaceful, temperature was about 60 and the scenery amazing. We noticed small mounds of dirt where 4 bald eagles were hanging out. Then another of our kayakers saw about 9-10 in the trees just to their right. We kayaked quietly and got a good look at the dirt dwellers, while the tree eagles were a bit harder to get a good look due to their location up the trees.

Back to the ship we enjoyed a relaxed happy hour with our shipmates, who are varied, well-traveled and always interesting. Dinner was equally fun and before long it was time for the evening talk, which was about glaciers. Ken hung out for the talk, while I decided it was time to get some R&R in our room with some reading. Looking forward to another fun day tomorrow!

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