Petersburg, Alaska
July 1, 2010 - July 12, 2010

8 July 2010

Thursday
sunny/warm

Another amazingly sunny day. We got the boat into the water around 11:00 a.m. and headed towards Woewodski island. There's a freshwater lake on the island that has a trail to hike. The water was so calm there was barely a ripple as we motored out to the island.

We got there at an odd tide time and my friend was reluctant to leave the boat so I headed up the trail by myself with the assurance that there weren't any bears on this island. The hike was beautiful. The woods were very thick and I was thankful for the plank boards and bridges on the trail. In some areas the trail was only tramped down dirt and it would get a bit wet and swampy I had to make my way around a few places where the trail was more mushy than the ground around it. In some places where the plank boards would get wet they had stapled nets to the boards for traction. I stopped often to take pictures on the trail and enjoyed the easy hike to the lake. In some areas as I walked across the boards I had to avoid looking down to the left to see the 50 foot drop down to the river.

I knew I was getting closer to the lake as the tops of the trees started getting closer. Suddenly I broke out onto a sunny beach to the lake. The lake was beautiful and knowing it was sitting in the middle of a mountain made it more so. I walked around for a few minutes and enjoyed the view and the sun. I finally took one last look around and made my way back down the path to the boat.

As I walked down the trail I kept my eyes open for any local wildlife. As much as I wanted to see a bear I didn't want to trip over one. I did run into one very large member of the local wildlife.

He croaked at me then hopped away.

Harvey Lake
Click on the images to make them larger
Harvey lake trail
Boards through the woods
Bridges over the streams
Stream
You can see the web covered boards in the back of this image
The web covered boards
My first view of the lake
Harvey Lake

 

We tore back towards Papke's landing. The speed was awesome it and felt so good sitting in the sun on the boat with the wind tearing at my hair.

We decided to go walk around downtown making good use of the sunnny day for more photographs.

Harbor images

Click images to enlarge
Harbor with Mountains
Cleaning the net maybe?
Low Tide
I didn't notice the man in the boat until later
Bearclaw Mountain
The Cannery
Boat with Mountains
Anchor Chain
 
 
Bald eagle flying (top right)
Harbor