Paddling West Chichagof: July 6-26, 2019

   I have wanted to kayak the west coast of Chichagof Island in Southeast Alaska, from Sitka to the fishing village of Pelican, for more than 30 years. It is a very remote, pristine, and beautiful wilderness traversed each year by just a few hardy paddlers, and a number of fishing vessels. I

recruited my hiking, climbing and paddling buddy of 15 years, Tom Choate, to do it with me. Neither one of us is as young and strong as we used to be: he is 84 and I am 67. We were leery of the long, open water paddle around the Khaz Peninsula, so we cheated and hired a charter service to drop us off north of the Peninsula (blue line on the map). For the next nine days we alternated paddling with layover to rest and explore (red line on the map). The area is a labyrinth of islands and fjords, with a backdrop of jagged mountains and lush rainforest, and home to all kinds of marine life from whales to jellyfish. It was an experience of utter delight and total rapture for both of us. While I cannot communicate to you the transfixing wonder of this region, I will do my best to share with you our journey.

   (Concurrently I was preparing an article for Alaska Magazine on ocean acidification monitoring by the Southeast Alaska Tribal Ocean Research consortium; I conducted interviews on the ferry, and in Stika, Juneau and Haines. I omit discussion of that part of the journey.)