Shoup Bay Trail

From top to bottom. Photo 1:The beach. Photo 2: A butterfly. Photo 3: Down the path we go! Photo 4: Bog Adder's Mouth. Photo 5: Our class. Photo 6: Myself

Numerous trees and grasses including: alders, dandelions, chocolate lilies, stinging nettles, ferns, horsetails, salmonberries, devil’s club, (some pretty large) cottonwood, false hellebores, bog adder’s mouth, cow parsnip, yellow paintbrushes, peat grasses, daisies, shooting stars, rockweed.

Animals: Slug, ravens, seagulls, swallow, mussel and clam shells, barnacles, a crab’s leg.

It was a beautiful day for a hike! Today we’d head down the Shoup Bay trail. It’s a trail west of Valdez leading all the way to the Shoup Bay glacier. We wouldn’t be going that far out though, as it’s a “two-day hike”, and I myself didn’t bring enough Wheat Thins.

The first thing I’d noticed was how the all the plants and trees came made the path seem more like a green tunnel. I could stretch my arms out and touch the plants on both sides of the path. Due to the presence of bears in the area, we had bear spray which Dr. Julie and I carried. There were plenty of alders and ferns on this path, with quite a few chocolate lilies, salmonberries, false hellebores, and cottonwoods as well. We’d seen the salmonberries on Dock Point, but it still took us a second to identify them and NOT mistake them for raspberries. Our group made sure someone was constantly talking or making noise, this would make our presence known in the area and bears are less likely to attack if they hear you coming. (I’m still a little skeptical about that rule. Are they sure that making noise doesn’t just make yourself easier to find?) The mosquitoes on this trip were unbelievable! The bug repellent that people in our group were using had sun block in it, and I never use sun block, so I didn’t use any…Boy did I pay the price…We came upon a clearing with an excellent view of the mountains. There’s was evidence that a bear had been in this clearing, as there was a hole dug as if someone (or something) had been looking for food, and there were plants that had nice sized bites out of them. In this clearing was an orchid known as a “bog-adder’s mouth’ as well as some cow parsnip and yellow paintbrushes among the common grasses.

We passed over a creek as we came out of the “green tunnel” and into a large opening just before the beach. Words can’t describe the beauty of this area! This opening had green grass growing up to our waists, and an EXCELLENT view of the mountains behind us and the mountains across the fjord as well! There was a still wind blowing, and there was a swallow flying left and right into the headwind. The ground was wet under the grass, and despite our best efforts, our feet still got wet. There were daisies and ‘shooting stars’ among the grasses. It was a slow and careful trek across the grass towards the beach. The beach itself was very muddy and littered with rockweed and other seaweeds. We found some clam and mussel shells, a crab’s leg, rocks with barnacles, and worms that live under the rocks on the surface. Alaska’s tides move very fast, and that prompted us to start heading back towards the path and back home. We were a little lost at first, but everything turned out fine, and all of us exited the path safely!