As the day of departure for Icy Bay quickly draws near (May 6!), I've been doing my best to get outside and recreate before I don't have another day off until August. The past two weekends have been grand here in "Little San Francisco." This is apparently one of Juneau's nicknames. Absurd! There aren't nearly enough hipsters up here for Juneau to grab that title. But, to the chagrin of hipsters everywhere, Juneau has much more to offer than their skinny jeans ever will.
Like this baby King Crab:
Barely a fish stick now, this little guy will be prized for his leg meat later on (more than most hipsters can say).
This Sunflower Star has nineteen legs. Need I say more?
A little over a week ago I went on a kayaking adventure with a few friends north of Juneau in Berner's Bay, a large inlet fed by a few big glacial rivers.
This time of year, the eulachon (a small forage fish) are running up into streams from the ocean to spawn, bringing in seals, sea lions, eagles, and gulls en masse to feast on the bounty. At one point we had at least twenty Bald Eagles circling overhead.
Mixed flocks of gulls (Glaucous-winged, Mew, and Bonaparte's) swarm to feed on eulachon:
Harbor seals take a break from snacking to pop their heads up and check me out:
Eagles and gulls working hard for the money:
This 3 day trip culminated with humpback whales surfacing and breaching all around us, a spectacle I was unable to capture with my camera. You'll just have to believe me!
Taking a break on the beach:
3 kayaks on a half-sized car:
Stay tuned for Part 2...
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