Hoonah, Alaska - Icy Straight Point

Day 5 of my Alaska vacation started with a sign of things to come. I had pulled back the drapes and was sitting inside when I noticed 2 Humpback Whales just outside my window. following the ship, right alongside. Each time they surfaced they let out a strong blow, and I could just stand on my balcony and almost feel their breath they were that close. The with their tails in the air they dove deep and were off.

We anchored just offshore from a small village of 800 native alaskan villagers in the town of Hoonah. The town is Hoonah and we anchored off of Icy Straight Point. The people are called Tlingit, but the “tl” at the beginning is pronounced with hard ‘k’ sound. These native people are one of hundred varieties of native alaskans. (not called native americans). Each culture is different, with their own language, and social and cultural traditions.

My tours today were led by one of these folks. They explained that this tribe lives off the coast eating fish, crab, and also berries and venison. They explain that they respect the land and only take what they need to survive. Unlike other peoples in the far arctic north, they do not take whales, seals, etc.This despite the fact that their bay is full of over 200 Humpback whales every summer due to its rich fishing grounds.

Eagles and Bears

The morning started with a hike in the forest down to a river valley frequented by brown coastal bears (grizzlies). This island is the densest population of coastal bears in the world, where a human is generally outnumbered in any 3 sq. mile radios by about 10 bears to one human. THese bears are not your forest black bears. These are monster bears that have to be respected. on our hike we were accompanied by a native, George, who carried a rifle in the event something unexpected happened. Also another 2 guides with ‘bear spray’ were with us at all times.

We started across a bog with many seemingly innocent little mud puddles. The guide grabbed a 20 ft pole and dropped it into the mud puddle. It was completely swallowed up. In fact these bogs could be as much as 40 ft deep.  This simple demonstration illustrated the importance to ‘stay on the trail’. All of a sudden we came across ‘bear dung’ on the trail. It was fresh. We stopped while the guides checked out the forest we were about to enter.  All Clear. We hiked down to the river valley.

Once we got to the viewing area, we spotted at least 4 bald eagles, adults, down at the river’s edge. eventually they flew along the water right by us. Amazing wingspan. A little later, two adolescent eagles, not yet ‘bald’ with the white head, circled overhead of us.

Then we saw the bear. It was a large ‘blond’ grizzly bear off in the distance trudging through the grass and marsh headed towards us and the river. Every now and then it would stop and raise up and look around. Amazing sight.

Whales

The second part of the day was spent on a whale watch cruise to the nearby feeding grounds. Once there we were surrounded by Humpbacks. Everywhere you looked. We cut engines and drifted among them. Also enjoying the day was a Sea Otter as well. At times, you just had to put the camera down and just watch and listen. Their blow holes working, and you can feel their breath, and some had distinctive tones to the breathing. One of the highlights was a group of 3 adults that swam close to the boat, then synchronized their deep dive with all 3 going deep and raising their tail flukes in unison before dropping deep underwater. The boat cheered wildly!

After about 45 minutes of just drifting amongst them we started to head back. Thats when off in the distance we witnessed humpbacks breaching. Full breach and too far to get a picture. But amazing sight. A breach is when the whale jumps from the water and splashes down. We also saw fluke strikes where the whales slaps the water with his tail or dorsal fins.

I finished the day exploring a bit of the local culture. And then headed back to the ship. In a fitting end to the day, as the ship was preparing to lift anchor, the captain announced we had a visitor on the port side. Sure enough an adult Humpback came swimming up alongside, after a few short surface breaths it dove deep and showed its tail fluke one last time before we left Hoonah, Alaska!