From our Daily Program Newsletter: “For centuries before the Russians came at the end of the 18th century, Sitka was the ancestral home of the Tlingit Indian nation. Unfortunately for the Tlingits, Russian territorial Governor Alexander Baranov came to covet the Sitka site for its beauty, mild climate, and economic potential. In 1799 Baranov negotiated with the local chief to build a wooden fort and trading post some six miles south of the present town. He called the outpost St. Archangel Michael and shortly after moved a large number of his Russian and Aleut fur hunters there from their former base on Kodiak Island. The Indians soon took exception to the ambitions of their new neighbors, and attacked Baranov’s people, burning his buildings. Fortunately for Baranov, he was away at Kodiak at the time. He returned in 1804 with a formidable force ad attacked the Indians at their fort near Indian River (site of the present-day 105 acre Sitka National Historical Park), and drove them to the other side of the island. When Russia sold Alaska to the USA for $7.2 million in gold, the transfer was formalized here on October 18, 1867, and it was Sitka that eh American flag was raised for the first time over Alaskan soil. From 1867 until 1912, Sitka was the capitol of Alaska.”

We LOVED Sitka. This was a gorgeous city. So quaint, so beautiful, so much like a mountain resort. Paul, Abigail, and I went on a 3 hour hike through the Tongass Temperate Rain Forest and it was an amazing experience!

And we saw bears! Coastal Brown bears - bigger than the Grizzly, but smaller than the Klondike. A sow and her 2 twin cubs were wandering around the area and we got a peek at them when our bus was heading to the Mosquito Cove Trail head. We had the bus driver drop us off at the Estuary to get a good look at the rare bear sighting. After several photos, we headed to the 1.5 mile hike, taking a loop around Mosquito Cove. The Estuary was the second part of our hike, but because of the bear sighting, we had to skip it and move on to the Muskeg Trail. A few hundred yards up the trail, our guide shouted, “Stop! Don’t move! Look big! Bear!” We gathered slowly into a group and backed away from the Mama bear we had seen earlier, but now it was directly on our trail, roughly 20 feet away!!! Paul, Abby, and I were in the middle of the pack and didn’t actually see the bear, but the realization of how close we were to her was more than enough for our bear encounter experience. Someone in our group actually managed to snap a photo and we were indeed so close that you could see the individual hairs on the bear’s butt!

The excitement of our morning hike with bear sightings on two of the three trails also meant that the afternoon hikers were going to have an extremely short excursion!

Sitka photos can be found on Fotki.