Mother Goose was up and at ‘em at 0730. By this point in the trip, crews are running like a top and the fleet got under way from Rescue Bay in record time.  The morning mist hung low, shrouding the ancient hemlocks and cedars as the flotilla made their way up Mathieson Channel.  Mother Goose fleet had the good fortune of being joined by a pod of Dall’s porpoises. Their white markings, sharp against their black bodies, flashed here and there as they rode in the bow wake of one boat after another. We couldn’t tell who was having more fun, the porpoises or our crews! Eventually, and after many photos, the porpoise peeled off and our fleet headed into Kynoch Falls. After the recent rains, Kynock Falls was absolutely roaring, and crews were able to boat in close to the falls. Deception’s crew helped their naturalist to an exceptionally close “look” at the falls. After some toweling off, the fleet continued on to Culpepper Lagoon.

While waiting for high slack tide to cross Culpepper Lagoon Rapids Mother Goose spotted four brown bears along the shore – including a sow and her two cubs! Mamma bear took no notice of us as she was busy teaching her two-year-old cubs how to dig along the shore line for crustaceans. Brown Bears, according to a John Muir, eat everything but granite- meaning mamma bear has a lot to teach her cubs about foraging prior to them setting out on their own in their third year. As our fleet departed, mamma and her cubs noticed a male bear down the beach and she hustled her cubs up the rocks to watch from a reserved distance. With a backwards glance at their distinct figures, our fleet left the company of the brown bears to cross the Culpepper Lagoon Rapids into Culpepper Lagoon.

Our Mother Goose boats, rafted together, small beneath the old growth forest and nestled comfortably against the shore, made our very own six boat neighborhood in the quite lagoon. Deception hosted a social hour prior to a short dinghy tour up the nearby creek. The artic lupin and black lilies dotting the sege grass as mating pairs of common mergansers and harlequin ducks paddled with us in the current.  On our way back, Todd rounded out the evening’s fun by catching some crab! It was another full day for the Mother Goose flotilla.