We got a late start (even for me!) after our late arrival in camp the previous night. Great night's sleep, though, and we both felt much better than the day before, especially Emily, who was much better rested after a more-or-less normal night.
Had an amazing morning, with beautiful coastline and a long stretch where we paddled along with a pod of humpback whales bubble net feeding, as close as 50 yards away or less. Bubble net feeding, for you non-Alaskans, is an interesting cetacean behavior where a group of whales dive and cooperate to blow bubbles as they spiral to the surface together, driving food--fish--together where they can be easily swallowed. The bubble net behavior culminates with several whales lunging out of the water at the same time with their mouths open, then closing their mouths on (presumably) a school of fish. I've been told that this is a behavior that is only seen here in Southeast Alaska, though I don't know if that's true or not. We did our best to stay away from the whales, aware that legally we're not allowed to approach whales any closer than 100 yards, and also concerned about inadvertently winding up in a whale gullet, but several times the group surfaced near us; at moments like these, I have a difficult time estimating distance without exaggeration, but I would swear they surfaced no further than 30 yards from us at one point. Wild!
Although the weather was calm in the morning, after a lovely, sunny lunch at a pretty slot beach, we started to get a little bit of South wind in the early afternoon. The wind was never overpowering--and Southerlies were a favorable direction for us--but Clarence Straight is a body of water that runs in a North-South direction, and Southerlies can build up some relatively large waves over the length of the channel. As the afternoon went on, we started to experience waves that, though not dangerous, were enough to make Emily nervous--probably waves in the 2 to 2 and 1/2 foot range, with some reflection and refraction at different points.
After a particularly uncomfortable stretch rounding a rocky point, with complicated wave patterns, we decided to take an early dinner break in the hope that the weather would settle a bit. We made a dinner that I call Fancy Pants Mac & Cheese, ate, filtered some water, breaking for about two hours, then moved on after dinner, when the weather had settled enough to make paddling feel more comfortable for Emily.
Throughout the day, we stopped at a number of gravel beaches as we worked up the Cleveland Peninsula; good camping options in this area, with easy landings and often-accessible uplands. Water is also not in short supply.
Besides the whales, we also saw a black tail buck on the beach later in the afternoon, and passed a Black Bear, who we saw from a long way off, and who disappeared after he became aware of us.
The Northern section of the Cleveland Peninsula has been extensively logged, and as we began to near Meyers Chuck, we passed one very long clear cut strip that appeared to have been cut all about the same time, possibly as a single operation. The clear cut was a little unattractive, but a litoral buffer had been left uncut, and we found a nice campsite above the clear cut and below the beach a few miles South of Meyers Chuck. We camped on the beach, but there were small (lumpy) areas in the upland that would work as tent sites in a pinch. There was also water nearby.
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