 Alaska Cruise Excursion
Luke's
Beachcombing Experience
from the M/V Sikumi
Cruising the Inside Passage always appealed to me, I just wasn’t impressed by the atmosphere of large cruise ships or the opportunities for exploration they offered. I chose to cruise aboard the Sikumi because of the unique access if offers to otherwise inaccessible locations. While larger ships merely pass through the Inside Passage, we were going to be exploring it, up close and personal.
I got a taste for beachcombing a few hours into my cruise. After being underway for a couple hours, we pulled into a little bay and boarded one of the skiffs that the Sikumi hauls. The Captain whisked us to the beach, where our guide led us on a killer hike to an old abandoned copper mine.
The ground that we covered seemed completely uninhabited and scarcely explored. I was refreshed to see a complete lack of human presence in this beautiful place – no footprints, trails, or trash anywhere. Luckily, our guide knew the way to the old mine site, and stopped at many different places to point things out and answer any questions. One that single hike she must have shown me twenty different plants and flowers that I had never seen before. She also knew a great deal about the geological history of the region, taking time to explain how the area had developed over the years. The climax of our hike was at the mine site, where we found old equipment, remnants of some small homes, and a seventy year old truck.
           
The week held many other exciting beachcombing experiences for me and my fellow passengers. The relaxed atmosphere of the crew and the cruises they conduct made it very easy to make or change plans on the fly. As we were cruising, if we saw something
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