09/14/2025
Southeast Alaska tells a timeless story… one of powerful forces dressed in quiet splendor… a story without end. It tells a tale of hardship and survival one day, of great bounty the next... of ceaseless change on both seasonal and geological timelines. Small… insignificant… humbled… awe struck. These are descriptors that represent feelings I had while witnessing mere snippets of this great story during this, an unexpected summer in the “great, big, broad land way up yonder” (Robert Service).
Moments came and went, each equally impactful as the last. I often woke to morning mist rising from warming stands of Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock… snowmelt working its way from summit to sea taking on the terminal forms of trickling brooks and great, cascading falls. Runs of resilient salmon passed below the boat on their sacrificial journeys to their natal streams destined and desperate to perpetuate their lineage. I silently gazed from afar at brown bears, fattened by summer foraging, filling their bellies with salmon roe, heads and skins then moving on about their day, driven by the promise of well-earned winter slumber. Eagles were omnipresent, working their way onto every page of this book as they watched and patiently waited from their perches high atop the canopy—monks of the coastal temperate rainforest. Humpback whales, goliaths of the Inside Passage, returned on schedule to feast on herring and krill in hopes of replenishing energy stores that had been largely depleted by overwintering in the safe, crystal clear, nutrient-lacking waters of the Hawaiian islands.
This story is one of balance, rhythm and interconnection; each character’s role intertwined with all other’s. There’s no protagonist, no antagonist… no hero, nor villain. It warms me to know that this extraordinary story continues day after day, season after season, year after year throughout time.
Disclaimer: This isn't a story of chasing fish on the fly. We've taken a break from the rod and reel and spent some time up north simply observing and record...