End of Season Campout

I find myself routinely opening these posts with an apology for not writing more often, and once again, I'm sorry for the delay in sharing Sitka stories with everyone. 

A few weeks ago (honestly, probably a month by now), my bosses - John and Alison - took the entire crew camping for 2 nights as a way to celebrate the season winding down and also to show us how much we were appreciated.  They're pretty much awesome :)

We boarded the work skiff, packed full to overflowing with gear and kayaks and people and a dog, and set off over perfectly flat water towards the volcano.  We would be camping the the Brent's Beach cabin on Krusof Island. 

Upon our arrival, we set about making camp and getting all settled in.  While overcast, the rain held off, and it was beautiful.  We spent Sunday evening hanging out around the fire, exploring the beach, and watching Willow dig up rock after rock and lick them clean; needless to say, she's a very interesting doggie. 

That rock was covered in mud and ash when she found it

While washing dinner dishes in the falling tide, we found a huge Sunflower Star stranded a bit above the water line.  It was probably about 2 feet in diameter. 

You can get an idea of just how big this thing was from comparing my fingers to the leg I'm holding up at the tip of it.

After sitting up around the fire listening to John tell ghost stories (and I'm pretty sure these actually happened to him :/  ), some of us headed down to the water to see if there was any bioluminescence in the water.  Sure enough, you could see twinkling lights as the waves broke on shore and if you walked in and kicked water with your boots, you would send a shimmering shower of water!  I've gotta say, it was one of the coolest things I've seen this summer!

Monday morning, we all got up and went kayaking through the Magoun Islands for a few hours.  Once again, cloudy but not raining.  We also happened to be paddling at a lower tide and so we got to see so much life in the intertidal zone.  We decided to paddle through a cut between two small islands and discovered hundreds of starfish of about five to ten different varieties.  It was incredible! 

Me.  Photo by Cailen

Photo by Cailen

Willow escaped to land from her usual seat in the front hatch and ended up on Alison's lap for the rest of the paddle.

Photo by Cailen

Photo by Cailen.

Lion's Mane jelly bumping against the top of his world.

Me, with the mountains of Baranof Island in the background.  Photo by Cailen.

My best buddy in Sitka, Cailen.

Monday afternoon we had a tour scheduled for one of the small cruise ships that comes into Sitka.  I volunteered to go back to town and co-guide it with Mitch (who had been unable to come camping because of his second job).  It was a great boat ride back in; getting to critter-watch (we saw a humpback whale and lots of sea otters) and chat with Alison.  The tour went really well, we even saw an additional sea otter and a really huge sea lion tearing up a fish! 

The next morning it was sadly time to break down camp and pack the boat back up.  We got really lucky and the rain started as soon as we reached the dock back in town. 

I had such a wonderful time camping and I wish I had done more of it this summer.  But I guess there's always the possibility of a next summer in Alaska!