Alaska Trip 2022 -- Day 10 Sukoi Inlet: bears, bushwhacking lite, and rain

It was now already day 10 of our epic Alaska adventure.  We woke up to rain in our anchorage in Sukoi Inlet where we had arrived at about 10 pm the night before. 

GPS track for Day 10 in yellow

The big surprise of the morning was when the announcement came over the intercom that there were bears walking along the beach. Since it was raining, my pictures were very poor.  Fortunately one of the crew got some decent pictures of the two juvenile bears.  They were turning over rocks looking for crabs and other goodies for breakfast. 

Two juvenile brown (grizzly) bears on the beach in Sukoi Inlet

So many people had wanted to see bears on this trip.  The crew was greatly relieved when these two little guys showed up on our last day.

Our activity for the morning was bushwhacking lite.  We loaded into the skiff and were soon on the beach.

It was a wet morning, but the rain had slackened up at least for the moment.

Pointing out crabs and other things that live under the rocks

Once we were back in the woods it was very uneven going.  As usual I forgot to take pictures as I was using my hands to climb up and down over the very uneven terrain.

Below is our group picture.  Obviously we were already pretty wet, but we had been protected back in the woods.  More wet was yet to come.

Our bushwhacking group in the woods

Once we got back on the beach we got much more rain plus we could feel the full force of the strong winds.  However, we kept exploring.  There was a small creek flowing out of the woods down the beach a ways.  There were salmon at the mouth of the creek.  We did not see any going up the creek, but we walked in as far as we could hopefully to find some bears feeding on the fish.  We did not find anything and had to turn around.

When we came back down the creek it was about time to head back to the ship, so we all congregated at the mouth of the creek waiting for the skiff.  That was a mistake.  

The skiff arrived, we got our life jackets on and we climbed aboard, but the skiff was stuck.  It would not budge.  We were probably caught in mud or other material that had washed down the creek.

The crew (just our guide and the pilot of the skiff) had us move to one side of the skiff.  No go.  They had everyone that could easily get on and off the skiff (not us) get off.  Still no go.  Finally they had everyone get off.  It wouldn't budge, even with the guide pushing and the pilot gunning the engine.

Finally, with both of them pushing they were able to break it free.  Of course, the water was well above the top of their boots.  I am sure that felt great.

Pulling the skiff back into shallower water after breaking it free

The skiff was now free, but they decided we should not board here or it would just get stuck again.

They were afraid if we all got in the skiff at this location it would get caught again, so they decided to take it down the beach a couple hundred yards.  Off we went across the rocks.  Unfortunately somewhere during the process of  climbing over and around things in the woods, the Frog had injured his knee.  It made it a very long walk for him.

A long walk across the rocks.  Obviously water on the case is causing the weird distortion in the center of the picture

By this time the people on the ship were getting worried about us and sent out a couple of people on a small craft to see if we needed any help.

Getting ready to load up again

As it turned out we didn't need any help.  Besides being very very wet by now, we all made it down the beach and into the skiff.  We were glad to be back on the ship and change into something dry.

I had already made the decision I was not going out in the rain again for our scheduled afternoon adventure, a skiff ride.  However, before that came up the crew announced they were moving the ship.  The wind was so strong the anchor could not hold the ship in place.  They hoped to find someplace better for the afternoon activities.

We were soon underway, but it wasn't too much longer that the announcement went out--no more off ship activities today.  There was just too much wind.  Instead the guides would coordinate an activity in the lounge--a game of Jeoparty (obviously a take off on Jeopardy).

Jeoparty with "host" Tara in a bear costume

It was actually pretty well done, but they had to keep changing the rules on the fly.  Part of the problem was too many people from outside the U.S. that had not seen Jeopardy.

We made it through and at least we were dry.  While we were doing this in the lounge, the crew finally found a somewhat protected spot to anchor the ship that would be within easy range for our trip into Sitka in the morning.  We had another great dinner, followed by the slide presentation of our week on the ship.  It was hard to imagine it was already coming to an end.