We arrived in Juneau in the evening and the next day did some 'touristy' things because Mavis had never been there before. Juneau is the only state capital not accessible by land. They also have the only glacier (Mendenhall) that is accessible by land and it is quite a tourist attraction. To say I was horrified by the changes in Juneau is an understatement. They have turned it into a cruise ship mecca and the famous Red Dog Saloon has been moved (oh the horror) to a corner and is five times the size of the 'real' one. What Columbia Emerald and Little Switzerland jewelry have to do with Alaska is beyond me except they are in every cruise ship destination anywhere. Gag me with a spoon. They were expecting eight ships on Thursday - I'm glad we missed that!!! We took a late afternoon flight on a six seat aircraft to Hoonah which took 20 minutes and were met by our hostess, Theresa McConnell. After getting settled in our wonderful little cabin we had dinner and went to bed. We spent the next six days with Shawn on his 31' boat The Glacier Wind. This trip was one that Mavis and her late husband wanted to take so they could see whales lunge feeding. They have taken many whale watching trips but have never seen this behavior. Unfortunately, Allan passed away before they could take the trip so I told Mavis I'd go with her. We set off and saw several whales as well as Dall's porpoise, Harbor seals, sealions, otter, eagles, all kinds of things. Sadly the whales weren't cooperating and spent most of their time sleeping. The water was full of herring and they could eat at their leisure. We did have one whale breech and do a lot of tail slapping but that was about the only exciting thing we saw for four days. On the fifth day we rode around for a while and decided to try our luck in the Hoonah harbor. Whodathunk we'd find a solitary whale lung feeding. I know that Mavis was a little disappointed because she really wanted to see several doing cooperative feeding where they blow a net of bubbles and lunge feed on the fish but at least she got to see one with his mouth agape showing his baleen and tongue. My only wish was to see Orca and, on the last day in heavy fog Shawn spotted a pod of five near the shore. They were moving at a very fast pace but I was able to get a few photos which satisfied me. Guess I'll get my real opportunity when we go to Vancouver in September, 2001. We kept hearing unusual splashing noises and were surprised to see herring jumping all around us as far as the eye could see. Shawn has been in Hoonah for over 30 years and has never seen anything like it. We saw what was the cause of the feeding frenzy - thousands of little fishlets were all over the place and they had grouped together in little balls which looked like kelp. They also hid in large groups in pieces of kelp. Unfortunately the herring were onto their ruse and they were hitting on the hapless little fish like crazy. Another example of the food chain. On the fourth day out of total frustration we decided to come back early and drive around the island. Shawn spotted a bear crossing the road and further on I spotted another bear. We stopped to watch it since it didn't run from us and up popped her cub. We were so excited when she went up the hill and proceeded to nurse the bearlet. When it was finished the sow put her head down on a tree stump and took a nap leaving her baby to play by her side. No one ever reminds me to take my cameras because, on vacation, they are just part of me. However, did I have my cameras or binoculars with me this day??? NOOOOOOOOO . . . . I'll never forgive myself and am kicking myself to this day (and will probably continue to do so for years to come). We went out the next day to see if we could see her again but, of course, she was a no show and all we saw was one deer. Pout. So ends our adventure in Hoonah. Even though the whales weren't very cooperative, we enjoyed being a part of this community of 800 people. Hoonah is a Tlinget indian village and something very few people will ever experience. If you are interested in taking a similar trip please visit the webpage of our host Shawn McConnell. Thanks for stopping by and please sign the guest book so you can be notified when we add our future trips.
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PHOTOGRAPHS OF ALASKA, 2000
