May is the Driest Month?

Seven in the morning and time for yoga on the top deck. The visual weather forecast looked hopeful. By 7:30 the sprinkling began and the day was a constant downpour. Everything we read claimed that May was the driest month. After thirteen inches of rain today I am glad we aren't here for the rainy season. The clothes drier became our best friend on this trip.

Today's morning activity was a guided kayak trip around Shrimp and Klu Bays. The water still as a millpond with almost perfect reflections of the landscape, but wet wet wet. This was our first outing where we had no viewings of wildlife. Even the birds seemed to be smart enough to find a drier place. The beauty of the landscape kept us paddling and ignoring the rain. Along one steep bank were two large waterfalls with thousands of gallons of water crashing over rocks and falling into the sea. Stopping, juggling our kayaks and cameras, our guide took pictures to document our courageous but soggy spirit. Keeping eyes peled for wildlife, we hugged the shoreline around one bay and into another as the rain continued.

 

Dried off and post-lunch, the afternoon presented no letup in the downpour, so we elected to set off for an uphill hike to Orchard Lake. This lake feeds the waterfalls we paddled by earlier in the day. The skiff deposited us on a soggy bank, one of the only flat spots in view. The described "uphill climb to a lake" was actually a short, steep one mile climb followed by a similar but slightly shorter downhill slither to the lake, with constant rain from above and a foot of water or deep mud with the consistency of yoghurt underneath. Everything that you would expect in a temperate rain forest was there in abundance. Tiny little wildflowers in pinks, yellows, and white dotted the trail. My favorite flowers were the miniature dogwoods low to the ground with half inch flowers. Lichens, fungi, and mosses grew on fallen trees and hung from branches. Orchard Lake was large, gray, and fast moving toward the falls. When we scrambled down the side of the lake only five of us could fit on a sloping ledge hanging on the side of the lake. After a short ecological talk from our guide we retraced our slimy and extremely muddy steps back up and then down to our pickup point.

 

Back at the ship we changed into dry clothes and at my insistence Mike shuffled off for a massage. Ten minutes later the bear alert was sounded and I jumped into a skiff and headed for the shore. For twenty minutes we sat in torrential rain fascinated by the relaxed strolling and feeding of momma bear and her cub. We stayed another fifteen minutes until everyone was sure that their disappearance into the woods was permanent. Back on the ship I felt that I owed Mike an apology for causing him to miss the excitement.

 

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