This morning, we woke up in Pavlof Harbor and decided to do a hard-charger bushwhack on Chichagof Island. More on bushwhacking later. This trek was absolutely insane and one of the most difficult and rewarding things I've ever done in my life. In the afternoon, we did a much easier hike to Pavlof Lake and took in the gorgeous scenery. The area we hiked will be shut down by the national park within two weeks, as the salmon will begin running in earnest and it will be too dangerous with all of the bears.
On our way into Pavlof Harbor, we saw a bear on shore. It was the third or fourth bear we'd seen, but all of the others were at a distance, so this was very cool.
Elizabeth found a banana slug.
We were supposed to go up one side of the mountain and down the other, arriving on a completely different side of the island. When we didn't, we assumed that our guide had gotten turned around during the hike. As we headed back to the boat, we found out that when we reached the top, the boat had radioed our guide and told her to back the way we started because there was a mother bear with two babies on the beach where we were supposed to come out. They were still there when we got back to the boat. There were majestic but it was a bit terrifying to think of what would have happened if we had come out of the woods onto the beach.
Two weeks after we were here, this area was completely shut down humans.
Evidence of bears was everywhere - this is skunk cabbage, one of the first things bears eat when they wake up.
Pavlof Lake
That night, we came upon a group of 16 humpback whales bubble net feeding. It is unusual to see bubble net feeding, as not all humpback whales know how to do it. According to our crew, they've only seen groups of 6 or 8 at a time doing it - to see 16 whales at a time, bubble net feeding, was absolutely amazing.
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