Our last full day on the Wilderness Adventurer was an easy one…the most strenuous thing I did was push the button on my camera.
We could have opted for a more strenuous activity in the morning, but we’d been pretty active all week so we were content to take a skiff ride around Walker Cove, where we found ourselves when we woke up.
A group gathers for a paddle.
Kent was our guide for our skiff tour and talked to us about the geologic formations.
The skiff driver (Jan?), below, told us about their adventure the year before (2013), when they came across an abandoned fishing boat and towed it back to Walker Cove – where it burned down.
But that’s not even the most dramatic part. It seems that the fishing guide and his guest had been bear-hunting when they got caught in a storm. The guide tried to make it back to the boat with the bearskin and told the guest that he’d be back for him. The guest was found only because the crew of the Wilderness Adventurer reported the drifting boat to the Coast Guard. He had been out in the elements for five days and was almost dead. The guide fared less well; they found him in the water. I was fascinated by this story. Might have to write a book.
This formation was pretty puzzling. My geologist daughter says it looks man-made, but it was at the tip of a completely inaccessible crop of rock, so I don’t think so.
Toward the end of the skiff tour we nudged up into the mouth of yet another stream, where yet another few thousand salmon were reaching the end of their weary journey.
Everything gray below is a salmon.
As usual, we got underway during lunch. Have I mentioned that the food was surprisingly good? Breakfast and lunch were always buffets, and dinner entrees were chosen from among several options. I ate seafood virtually every night. There were no assigned seats, and we tried to eat with almost everyone on the boat, but there wasn’t time for everyone. We defaulted to a few couples we’d become comfortable with, like Mark and Sherry from outside Boston.
One our way to Misty Fiords National Monument, we passed Chimney Rock, a strange rock formation sticking up in the middle of a substantial channel.
What is a National Monument anyway? No one was quite sure. A place that’s protected, but not a national park. Misty Fiords has no roads, so it’s more primitive than a national park.
The cliffs were mesmerizing, but what really got me were the reflections, and I took a ton of my Alaskan Rorschach photos.
Got some nice views of a bald eagle.
Civilization! Several seaplanes took off and landed nearby.
Pretty relaxing. I knew I was relaxed because I couldn’t bear to do anything much but sit in the bridge with Gavin Rainwater, the Second Mate, and hear his version of Jan’s story while he piloted the boat. He showed me the ship’s report to the Coast Guard.
