What we woke up to
Opening the cabin door to sunshine burning off the morning mist in a quiet cove surrounded by snowy mountains. That was how our day in Shrimp Bay and Klu Cove began.
Where we woke up
After breakfast we donned our thick socks and rubber boots, rain pants, and rain coats for the morning’s adventure, bushwhacking up Orchard Creek Trail. The skiff dropped our group at the shore for a ‘wet’ landing and we soon knew why we brought those rubber boots. The rocks were slippery with kelp and the trail headed steeply uphill. Soon we were enjoying squelching through deep muck between tree roots, dodging deeper muck in the low spots, climbing under and around branches, and carefully testing the melting snow before fully committing to taking that step. It was a blast!
Close to our trailhead, the water coming out of Orchard Creek
Heading up the trail
The trail was actually in pretty good shape but we were very glad to have high rubber boots. The trail went over a ridge and then back down to Orchard Creek Lake, which was still mostly covered in ice. On the return trip over the ridge, we walked into an area of muskeg and snow covered ponds for a group photo. Mike nearly lost a boot in a hole of muck after standing in one place too long and sinking as the picture was taken. We got him out, though, so no boots were abandoned and no Mike was abandoned. If only we could have recorded the suction sound of the boot pulling out!
Sign on the way to the lake
The lake was still mostly covered with ice
Mighty explorers
Fairy barf
One of our group did find a femur, however, alongside the trail. A big one. It was right near the sign pointing to Plenty Cutthroat Cabin. Hmm. We looked for teeth marks or saw marks, but cause of death was indeterminate.
Mucky boots
After the hike the skiff took us back to the ship and everyone gathered on the foredeck to relish the sun. Someone mentioned the idea of eating our lunch up there, and the crew instantly made it happen. Just another example of how this crew takes such good care of us all. Oh, and lunch was excellent as usual. Black bean bourbon soup, pulled pork, apple poppyseed slaw, and a pretty darn good potato salad. And snickerdoodles for dessert (which made Tami extra happy).
Lunch on deck
???
We got to open kayak for the afternoon, which meant we could head out on kayaks on our own without a guide, but we just had to stay within the boundaries. We were far less bundled for this kayak trip and the water was nearly flat in most areas. It was glorious paddling in the sunshine along the shore checking out little waterfalls and larger waterfalls and the rocky shore showing scrape marks from when the glaciers passed this way.
Rocks scraped by glaciers
We headed even farther down the shore until we got rounded up by one of the skiffs. Oops! We had gone beyond the boundary and they came down to ‘wrangle’ us back to where we were supposed to stay. Guess we better stay out of trouble.
Our friend Susie from Scotland
We paddled and paddled, then had to make a pit stop back on the ship, then launched again and paddled some more. Ah, life is so hard. Many of us spent the next couple hours enjoying the 360 degree views of this wonderful setting from the lounge and recovering from our day’s exertions, enjoying appetizers, and sharing stories of the day. The jigsaw puzzlers are on their third puzzle.
One of the puzzlers
We also had a floatplane visit us a couple times. First to deliver a part for our radar along with a technician to install it, and a second time to pick the technician up after he was finished. It was quite something to hear the floatplane roaring up behind us as we were paddling up the cove. But it made for some good pictures as it lifted into the air next to us.
Delivery
Just over our left shoulder whole paddling