I like sea otters almost as much as I like penguins! (excpet that they are too hard to see.....)

We docked in Sitka just as breakfast was ending.  Sitka is the 4^th largest city in Alaska –using the term “city” loosely, since it only 9000 has inhabitants.  It is not reachable by road – although the locals do brag that they have 14 miles of road on Sitka- but only by boat, car ferry and plane.  For such a small place, it has a lot of history, due to its location on the pacific coast,  protected by a bay forming a calm harbor.  It is closer to Russia than to the lower 48 states.  Also, it is really pretty – but that’s not why its history is so rife with battles and conflicts.  The reason for that is both location (see previous sentence) and waters full of sea otters:   Sea otters are these adorable creatures who have the bad luck of having the densest fur of any animal.   

We will get back to the complicated history later, but let’s start with the wild life first.
We took a local boat to navigate around the rocky bay.   As we floated along the coast, made up of a lot of small islands (even smaller than the main one where Sitka sits – not road at all there, and no utilities), we noticed a lot of very pretty houses ,

and also people camping near one of the beaches.  People here like isolation…..

   

 There are A LOT of eagles here- yes, I know, we have eagles in Westchester County too – but not everywhere you look…..  I could literally post over 100 pictures of eagles….  But here are just a small sample . (Joe got a lot of mileage out of the super-duper lens today….). 

There is a dormant volcano right across the bay , which was clearly visible today – apparently a rare treat, because it rains over 200days/year.  The area gets between 8 and 10 feet of rain/year, which explains the fact that the Tsongass  forest  is a temperate rain forest.

 The main point of our boat ride was to see sea otters and whales- and we succeeded on both counts.   Sea otters hang out together in “rafts” (my guess is that’s because from a distance, it looks like a raft).  Males and females form separate rafts, because they don’t like each other.  Which begs the question:  How do baby sea otters happen?  Apparently, the males will just hang around the female raft, and if one female is interested, she’ll sneak out and do the dead with the male – then get back to her own raft and raise the babies on her own….

 The Russians killed about 175,000 sea otters while they were here, bringing them close to extinction.  But they are now thriving, which is good, because they are an important part of the entire ecosystem:  they eat almost exclusively sea urchins.  Without them, the urchins eat all the kelp everywhere, and the kelp is critical to keeping the rest of the flora and fauna balanced. 

As we were going along the coast, we could not help noticing that there are a lot of dead trees in the forest.  These are yellow cedars, which are becoming extinct due to climate change:  It does not snow nearly as much in this area as it used to.  So in the coldest part of the winter, the roots do not have the benefit of a blanket of snow to isolate them, and they freeze and die.  Yellow cedar may become extinct in this part of the world very soon…

We were grateful for our knowledgeable local captain, because this part of the coast is very ragged.  Just next to the boat, almost impossible to see, was this outcrop of rocks – thank goodness, the seagulls made it quite obvious.

 Then we went looking for whales!  They do not breach here (they are too busy eating- breeching is a social behavior that happens when they go south.  Here, the just eat all the time…..).

 But we got to see them dive, and see the specific tail markings- just like finger prints- on every whale.

We docked in the town itself, and walked around, learning about the history, and enjoying the rain forest:

 The main reason the Russians invaded in 1802 (really annoying the native Klinkits) was to get the sea otter fur, which carried a very lofty price, particularly in China.  The natives managed to push back the Russians in 1802, but the Russians tried again in 1804 and won. 

  For a while (until the entire territory was sold by Russia to the united states in 1867, for $6 millions), Sistka was the Russian capital for the entire territory (note:  Alaska was not the Russian's to sell, because it was not theirs.  There were a lot of people here before the Russians showed up, but let’s not get started about the wrongs of colonialism……).

Anyway, the Russians built an Orthodox Cathedral, which is still standing (although the roof had to be replaced after a fire in 1964), and converted a lot of the native population – indeed, the elderly deacon who gave the tour today clearly was of Klinkit ancestry. 

All the icons and ornaments were made in Russia and imported in the early 19^th century.  It’s a cool place….  

The stores in town – although touristy- still display a lot of the Russian ancestry. 

After that, I stopped by for some great chowder at a local spot, 

admired the harbor and it’s flowers and continued on to the Sitka National forest  center – which has a great combinations of easy walk through the forest, native culture and artifacts, and history.  

On the way, I could not resist the local version of a lemonade stand:  local kids selling cups of Salmon Berries (local berries) for $1.  The berries were mediocre, but the kids were adorable.

Totems, which were acquired from all around Southern Alaska, are displayed along the path.

The story they tell are lost to time, but I can’t help but think that the top of this one looks like St Nick – and important Russian Saint – so we may be seeing evidence of the merging of the cultures. 

 A lot of them are topped with raven’s head, which are very important symbols of the native culture..

There are two memorial plaques, commemorating both the natives and the Russians who died in 1804 are placed at both ends of the trail.  These were dedicated in 1999 in a joint ceremony between Russia and the Klinkits, and honor those who died on both sides.  I think that’s a nice gesture.

We are now on our way to Juneau, which will should reach tomorrow around noon.