Magic Moments - Adventures of Glen and Liz: June 26 - Warm Springs / Baranof Hot Springs

June 26 – Warm Springs / Baranof Hot Springs – to Ell Cove & Hidden Harbor

By 6am the rain had stopped but the sky is not visible due to the low cloud cover. The Colliers are supposed to fly out of here today but since the planes up here fly by visual; fog or low clouds can be a problem. Time will tell. Humm, by 8am the rain had started again (not has hard but still very wet), and the ceiling had lowered. It will be an interesting day for the Colliers. They have rented a house in Sitka for the next week and have friends coming in from various parts of the US to join them. Their guests might just get there before the hosts do.

Looking across the bay I can see that the kayakers are packing up and ready to move onto the next chapter of their trip.

Sunday must be bath day as the bathhouse along the boardwalk has been busy this morning. Not sure that I mentioned but the tub rooms are built with open viewing of the bay, with only a curtain to shield one from the weather and give a bit of privacy. I’m thinking either people don’t care, or they don’t realize that if one can see out another one can see in. About ½ the people who use the tubs don’t close the curtains.

Well the 11am flight is not going to happen, the ceiling is too low (basically at the floor). We moved up the strait a few miles to Ell Cove. In route we watched a couple commercial fishing boats working their nets. Also passed by two beautiful waterfalls. The one in Waterfall cove - per Gary ‘arguably the prettiest waterfall in SE Alaska’. We still don’t know if he wants to argue or debate that but we’ll let it go for now.

It is still raining but the ceiling has lifted a bit. The plan now is to meet the float plane at 2:30 in the bay north of here. It is a bigger and more open bay making it easier for the pilot.

The Miner crew and the Thomas crew headed out fishing. I believe that the Timm’s and Matheson’s will be headed out as well.

Colliers met their plan at a Hatchery dock. A tour of the hatchery has been set up for 4:30 pm for our group. All cameras are being readied as there are a number of brown bear hanging out at the Hatchery.

The hatchery tour was very informative and interesting. They hatch 4 species of Salmon – King, Silver, Pink and Chum. The Chum being the largest in numbers – a staggering 189 million Chum raised from eggs before being released about 6 months later. The Kings they raise for a year before releasing them into the wild. I don’t remember the numbers of each species but the numbers were large. The Kings being the smallest. The numbers are all based on regulations of the State Fisheries department. Of all the fish that they release each year only about 1.3 percent return to span one to six years later depending on the species. That number seems really low but based on the number caught by fisherman, and by seals, whales, larger fish, and of course the bears they are not overly concerned.

There were 5 grizzlies sitting around the fish weir watching and waiting for an easy meal. There appeared to be a momma with two cubs (yearlings), and another female a few years old per the hatchery worker. There was another one that stayed away from the group and we were told that it was a young male. Likely having been sent away by it’s mother. They are born during the winter when the mom is hibernating, they then stay with their mom for two summers and winters. During the next spring they are sent away by their mom. It was fun to watch them sitting around on the hatchery bridgework. The young man from the hatchery said that the bears basically ignore the workers. He also said that later in the summer when the higher number of salmon are returning, they are not surprised to see 40+ grizzlies around the basin where the fish gather before going up their fish ladder and into hatchery.

It sort of looked like see bears in a zoo without the fences.