Our day in Sitka

Day 21
Sunday 20 September

Our day in Sitka.

Sitka the old, original capital of Alaska going back to the time of the Russian ‘ownership’ when it was called Shetka, was our first shore excursion. Sitka is a small fishing town and sits in the middle of a group of islands that make up the territory of Sitka. It is more often wet and misty here than not. There are forests of Sitka Pine, Spruce and Birch which run down to the water’s edge. The whole area is pristine, mountainous, lush green temperate rainforest and could easily have been the setting for a “Lost in the Jungle” movie. There are lots of waterfalls cascading down the mountain slopes through gorges cut through the forest to the sea. These waterfalls can be hundreds of metres tall and look like silver threads running through the deep green forest. It was really quite stunning to look at and hard to take your eyes away.

The township of Sitka is built on the shoreline of the biggest island, on the spot of the original Tlinget Indian settlement. They settled in the area about 10 000 years ago – around the time of the last ice age. They were superb forest dwellers and fished and harvested berries for food. As it was icy and snowy for about 7 months a year they collected all their food and other needs during the summer months as food was abundant. They lived in long houses in family groups. As it was too cold to go out much during the winter months they used their time creatively. Their art work is quite prolific as they had the time to spend involving everyone in some form of artistic pursuit. The women and girls made baskets from bark and roots, the men carved totem poles etc.

We didn’t have a lot of time in Sitka but we had decided to go on The Fortress of the Bear and Sea Otter Quest. We were disappointed to wake up and see that our spectacular run of good weather had come to an end. It was windy and showery. Not to worry we had come a long way to see these sea otters.

To get ashore we had to go by ship’s tender as there was no dock at which the ship could anchor. Once ashore we joined the tour bus and local guide for the trip to the Fortress of the Bears. Our guide was local and Tlinget in heritage and spoke in both English and his native language. He told us he was able to trace his family tree back 4 000 years. He had a wife and 7 kids and couldn’t afford to live in Sitka all year round as it was too expensive. Everything has to be shipped in and it costs. Therefore he winters in Antarctica where he is a fireman for 6 months. During the summer he stokes the larder for the family while he is away. He and the family – like most others- live off the land as their forbears had done. He hunts mainly deer, goat, rabbit, fox etc and collects berries – lots of different berries grow wild – blueberries, raspberries, wildberries and so on. He grows his own vegetables and really only needs to buy milk, eggs and bread.

Back to the Fortress of the Bears. The fortress is the remains of an old wood pulping factory that closed down about 20 years ago. The factory is now used by many different businesses as it provided buildings that were otherwise abandoned when the mill closed. Among those to use the facilities are the custodians of the orphaned bears. These bears would otherwise be killed by the state, as bears under 2 years of age are unable to fend for themselves and will die of starvation - 200 cubs are put down each year across Alaska. It is kinder to euthanize the orphans. However, the Sitka bears are unique and there is a move to try and save some if possible. These bears are a brown bear, not a grizzly bear. They have evolved over the past 10 000 years into the unique bear found on only 3 islands in the Sitka group. They are more closely related to the polar bear than the grizzly. When the ice disappeared at the end of the last ice age they were left behind on the islands and flourished because of the abundant food sources. They evolved to suit their environment- brown to fit into the dark forest, big because they have no natural predators and water resistant fur because they like to sit in the water.

There are 2 bears (brothers about 2 years old) on display at the Fortress who are used to humans and 3 more, smaller bears who haven’t been accustomed to being around humans and are too small to be left to roam in the enclosure just yet. They are big bears and their story was interesting. They will never be allowed to be released into the wild as they are too accustomed to being near humans. Sad really after all the effort put into saving them.

In rather blustery and showery weather we then boarded a catamaran to go searching for sea otters and other sea creatures. No long into the trip we started to see the otters. They hang about either by themselves or in gender rafts - males with males etc. A raft of otters seems to be anything more than 2 hanging together. We managed to come across a raft of about 15 – 20 (it was hard to tell as it was a bit rough and they move about). Basically they just lie on the surface of the water on their backs with their back flippers out of the water and their front feet tucked in under their chin. This is done to reduce body heat loss in the cold water. They look so cute. Surprisingly they are large and can grow up to 6 feet. They live to around 20 – 25 years in the wild – so it is thought – and go grey as they get older. Their pelt was extremely valuable in the days of Russian occupation and was only affordable to the nobility of Europe. There is over 1 million hair follicles per square inch of their pelt compared to 500 000 follicles on a human head. It is as soft as silk.

Once the otter had been hunted to near extinction the Russians saw no further value in Alaska and decided to sell it to the Americans for $7.2 million. The Indians were none too pleased because the Russians didn’t own the land in the first place. At the time most Americans didn’t see any reason to purchase the land and the deal was known as “Seward’s Folly” after the politician who saw it as a great natural asset. He turned out to be right. And just as fortunately the sea otter – now protected – is a growing population and has been rehabilitated into areas where they were hunted to extinction.

We also saw seals and sea lions frolicking - they move quickly when in the water and are hard to photograph. We were also lucky enough to see an uncommon sighting of a grey whale. It was just ‘a sighting’ as this whale was heading south for the winter. Humpback whales are more common in the area and grey whales are usually further out to sea. We also saw bald eagles and a nest (no eagles at home though). Some eagle nests can weigh as much as 1 ton and be as wide as 10 feet and deep as 8 – 10 feet - (the Americans don’t use metric so it is in imperial) - they are large.
All in all it was a great trip out on the waters around Sitka and the local guides were well informed and truly local.