A few more photos

I didn't have good internet in Petersburg, so I'll post a little something about my trip from Ketchikan to Petersburg now.  I only took a few days, but I went to an area where I hadn't been to before, the Bradfield canal, which is east of Anan Creek Bear Observatory and has a big river that flows into the fjord.  On my way up, I found a lunge feeding humpback whale...  I love how the ventral pleats expand as they gulp.

When I got to the end of the inlet, there was a big tidal flat and the tide was rising, so I got into the canoe and took the tide in.  There was a young brown bear in the grass that watched me approach.

and I got a few nice shots of him before he wandered off.

Another brown bear in the grass never saw me as I drifted past.  The canoe was low down and the grass ended up being about shoulder height, and since the current was going upstream (rising tide still) I could drift along.  There is a hydro power plant there, that gives power to Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg, so the bears probably had seen people plenty and were accustomed to us.

When I got back to the river part, above the high tide area, there were lots of Alders and the sun shone through the clouds for a moment.  I  really like the colors, but of course the photo doesn't do it justice.

There were a lot of beavers back there as well, and they were munching on the alders.  I went about 5 miles back and then took the current back to the boat as the tide dropped.  Its a pretty nice way to explore, but you have to time it right and you can't hurry.  Also, on the trip to Juneau, I got this picture of a loon, but I forgot to post it.  Normally loons in SE alaska are very shy.  At least the "silver headed" ones; the Pacific Loon, the Arctic Loon and the Red-Throated Loon.  I never see them very close, maybe 100 yards at the closest and then they are gone.  The Yellow-Billed Loon as well, it is very shy.  But this one is a Common Loon, and in a river mouth, in shallow water, and it came right over to me and waited.  I have seen this before with loons in lakes in Canada, where fisherman catch trout and then release them, and the loons scoop them up because the fish are tired.  I assume this was the ploy the loon was plying, but I didn't have any tired fish to release.  

Also, on our trip up to the ridge between Windham and Endicott, I took a picture of Mike and I.