SE Alaska & the Yukon River 2016

[stevej]

Jay,
Another c-brat chiming in to say thanks for all the updates. Thoroughly enjoy reading about your adventure and explorations, it keeps me enthused about my upcoming trip!

stevej

[rogerbum]

[Hunkydory]

Casey, after watching the filming here in Pelican & the ciircus around it, I think your name for them fitting.

Roger, your in the company of millions who seem to enjoy this kind of programming enough to watch it & I suppose that's why it's flourishing. To each their own. I did enjoy seeing first hand how they go about making an episode, but it didn't take long for even that to get old for me.

Steve, thanks for letting me know you are enjoying my sharing & hope you do too when you go.


May 24. With a overload of watching the antics of the Brown family being filmed in Pelican, we headed out this morning for the next little Alaska town between us & our return to Hoonah. Elfin Cove, much like it's name implies is another of SE Alaska's small water isolated towns in beautiful settings that are so enjoyable. The docks are still free, even with the addition of a complete new replacement of the outside one & & showers, laundry facilities & some groceries available.

On the way here, we stopped & anchored for several hours in the tidal flats of Port Althorp, a small inlet on the south east side of Cross Sound & like most of this type of inlet has grassy meadows & a river with wildlife aplenty in a beautiful setting at it's head. This was our first time into this inlet & with time to spare well worth the stop. Tomarrow or the next day we plan on seeing for the first time another similar inlet located just in from South Inian Passage that drops down to the south as the waters open up to form the start of Icy Strait, which is called Idaho Inlet. I've heard very good reports from others of this Inlet, though the cruise book has nothing of note.

This evening, I did manage to get my best scare of the trip so far & from a totally unsuspected source. As I was reaching for a towel to dry off from a shower at the laundry facilities, I came virtually nose to fang of the largest spider, I've seen in a long time. In my mind at least as big as Bilbo Baggins nemesis in Tolkien's "The Hobbit" Fortunately, no one, but me was in the laundry building, so the noise I made, went unheard. I've never gotten along well with spiders & this didn't improve my opinion of them.

On the water day 36, 34 miles & 1246 total

[doc]

Damned spiders. You're not alone, Jay. I hate them. We started with a bumper crop of them this year but surprisingly, they seem to have backed off. Last year they were everywhere all summer long. At least they aren't black widows. God, those creep me out.

[Hunkydory]

May 26. With good weather forecast again for a few days, we decided it was time to depart from Elfin Cove. Knowing the days are fast dwindling to when, we must be back in Auke Bay to pick up Louie & then head back to Skagway, so we decided to make our away through the fast currents of the Inian Islands to Dundas Bay, a unregulated section of Glacier Bay National Park. The sky wasn't blue, but at least the clouds were high & visibility good, except for seeing the white peaks, which in this area, there are many. For the first time of the now three times we've been here, we went up the North East Inlet & found it even more spectacular then the West. The east inlet at it's head, has many huge boulders on the flat area above the tide line, left by the retreating glaciers, which are surrounded by grassy meadows & fronted by beaches of white sand. This with the huge mountains rising in the background make for a visual feast. In the waters just off shore are numerous sea otters & all the usual birds. Surprising to us in this area & all of Dundas Bay! the two foremost wildlife, we expected to see were missing. No whales or bears, in fact we haven't seen a humpback whale since the lone, seemingly lost one in Sister Lake. In other years this general area has had the most numerous whales. The whale research people told us the whales left here really late last year & it now appears they are really late returning or not going to. In April 2012, with our very early to arrival & three month stay, We lost count of all the many humpback whales, we saw between Hoonah & Pelican.

After anchoring in several different places for a couple hours in each, we anchored for the night among the islands in the entry channel.

On the water day 38, 36 miles & 1282 total

May 27. With plans of crossing both North & South Inian Passages to make for Idaho Inlet, we timed our departure from Dundas Bay for ebb tide to the passes, slack tide in the passes & flood tide up Idaho Inlet. No doubt it saved us some fuel & a beating, but the best part by happenstance was being in the right place at the right time to see the bears swimming the channel between the islands as we passed through them after pulling anchor & a pod of killer whales in the middle of North Passage that came so close that one actually swam directly under the boat & with the sun shinning today, we could see it well, as it passed under. Then just before entering Idaho Inlet two humpback whales appeared. You can know in general what's the best areas for wildlife viewing, but the really grand shows, usually appear, when least expected, like today.

It's now late evening & the sun is still shining it's golden evening glow on us & our anchorage surroundings, which has us enjoying it to the fullest, knowing this also represents, the time we have left on this adventure.

On the water day 39, 35 miles & 1317 total

[Hunkydory]

May 28. We awoke this morning to still waters & blue sky's with a forecast of the weather to remain as such for the day, so pulled anchor & decided to make for Gustavus, the small town just outside Glacier Bay, where we had stopped, but could not dock, following our six days in Glacier Bay over a month ago. This time, the docks had been put back in place from their winter area. We were planning on a walk about the town, but the guy working for the game & fish department, that was checking fish counts from boaters arriving, said the town or what there was of it, was spread out over several miles & with JoLee's feet not up to that much trecking & much daylight left, decided to move on & check out Excursion Inlet, a place recommended by several to us & thought if we liked it too, anchor there for the night. We found it like most Inlets here, beautiful, but a large cannery there & many homes along the shoreline & other than an eagle, no wildlife, readily to be seen, so it's now 6:30 pm & we are slow cruising along, out in Icy Strait in very calm water, under blue sky's & heading back to Hoonah for the night. We left Hoonah 30 days ago, headed east & have now gone entirely around Chichagof & Baranof Islands & will be arriving back from the west after 905 wonderful miles of exploring & wildlife watching. The gamble, we took of starting this cruise, so early, has turned out much better than hoped for, with the weather this trip, the best of all our many cruises here.

On the water day 40, it will be 70 miles today upon arriving at the Hoonah Marina & 1387 total. I'm posting this using the IPad AT&T 3G service out of Hoonah, while out on Icy Strait.

[hardee]

Jay, I've been out for a while but just caught up. Really enjoy your descriptions, and the bit about the "Brown family". Not much reality there, and for me, I can't stand most of those shows. the only one I like is "Alone" on the History channel, more a survival game for real on the north end of Vancouver Island.

You do well with the connectivity, which is great for us. thanks for your efforts there.

You have me anxious for heading north too, although I won't make it as far as you I will get some wildlife watching and slow cruise time in.

Thanks for sharing, Stay safe and enjoy.

Harvey
SleepyC

[Hunkydory]

May 30. Today we finally toured the old cannery facilities on Icy Point, which is about a 1.5 miles north along the shore of Hoonah. They have done a beautiful job restoring all the buildings with the addition of a cruise ship dock & boardwalks & other walkways from the ship to all about the point. It can only be toured, when a cruise ship is in & then one can either walk or ride the bus to & from Hoonah. They keep a couple large campfires burning, a good museum showing the old salmon canning process, gift shops, coffee shop, eateries & the worlds longest zip line set up from the mountain above, which drops 6 people down about every 45 minutes. We seldom join in with the cruise ship tourist doing anything up here, but this complex area is big, the people well spread out & everything so well managed that it was a fun informative experience for both of us.

With the tour a good experience it still brought on a case of people overload, so shortly after arrival back to our boat at the Marina, we headed out for the more bears than people area at the heat of Port Fredrick, anchoring frost in beautiful small South Neka bite for a couple hours, then up to the Forest Service dock at Ten Fathom Bite for the night. On the way with field glasses we could see filming of the Bushman Alaska, Brown Family at there supposably homesite & their trawler Integrity, anchored off shore.

It rained hard off & on during the day, which this evening has turned to a sunset of blue & gold. The down side only being swarmed by biting gnats if boat windows are opened or stepping outside. We have never seen them this bad, but tolerable to be out & about with enough bug spray applied. We have found the ThermaCELL mosquito repellent to work extremely well on mosquitos, but totally ineffective on these burrowing gnats. They are set up for making it through the fur on the animals here & find our hair & clothing openings, not much of a hindrance. We both react pretty severely to their bites, so make sure the spray is on & cloths tight, if out & about, morning & evening. I'm finding the Electric Windless for the anchor, a huge help. In past years, most of my bites came during the anchoring process. Know one, we've talked to seems to know why they are so bad, here around Hoonah, but they are much worse at the Marina or here at the Forest Service Dock tonight, then in the past, when I was out in places like Red Bluff Bay, right in the swampy grassy areas, viewing bears in early morning & late evening.

Whale numbers are still way down, but did enjoy seeing two coming up here this afternoon.

On the water day 42, 24 miles today & 1411 total

[B~C]

for the record, I think Jay's adventures and the resultant write-ups are far better than any of the fine AK reality TV shows

I like hearing that the weather is nice, hope it stays that way

[Hunkydory]

Harvey, I enjoy your checking in with comments & know what's it's like to count down the days toward heading out. Gotta love the slow cruising on auto pilot.

Ken, thanks for the thumbs up on this reality show we're on, as for sure it's real. While at Elfin Cove we walked out on the east side of the cove & looked over all the preparation going on at Eagle Charters. They were busy as bees in preparation for it must have been your arrival or at least all the coming clients anyway. We think this location for the lodge better than the old. We also really liked the new outer dock the state put in.

May 31. My 68th Birthday & very happy to be where we are, though the grandkids did a fantastic job on Facebook of making me miss them with their renditions of the Happy Birthday Grampa songs & good wishes from the eldest, Sweet Anna.

We are now back at the dock in Hoonah following a fun & exciting run up the Neka Bay tidal slough in the C-Dory, where previously, I had only been in the Mokai & Jo-Lee never. The perfect thing to do on my birthday & a very good winding, shallow water running practice for the Yukon River. No ice cream on this trip before today, but made up for it by consuming a half gallon this afternoon.

Thursday, if the weather cooperates, we plan on working our way toward Auke Bay with stops at Swanson Harbor & Foggy Bay, along the way. My mind is now in transition mode from the ocean to river with all the adjustments, that must be made in order to fully enjoy the adventure, but keep the boat above the water & us safe in the process.

On the water day 43, 32 miles & 1443 total

[thataway]

Thanks for the heads up on the Icy Point Cannery--I had thought that was just a fake re-creation for the tourists. Last time we were there, we passed on the $10 a piece bus ride up to the cannery--we had asked about taking the dinghy ashore there and were told 'no"....

I wonder what the cruise ships have done to the local economy and issues?

[Hunkydory]

Bob, the price for a round trip bus run to the Old Cannery site is now $3.00 & the only charge occurred if not purchasing food or trinkets or wanting to ride the zip line.

From speaking with a variety of the locals it would appear to be about 70/30 ratio of pro & con for the cruise ship addition. The other jobs are in decline in this area & Hoonah like most of the other small isolated towns need jobs to keep their youth in the area. Disfavor stems mainly from the politics of where the dock for the cruise ships would be located with many favoring a closer to town location, that could have been much more beneficial to to the town proper. As it is, public money was used in a joint venture with money from the Native Corporation, so it directs people mainly to the Cannery Complex. This with dissatisfaction from many natives who now can't use this land, as they have in their youth, along with the top tier jobs being non native & profits meager for the lower tier natives, many resentments fester on. For the others who benefit in all manner of small & large ways & us who just visit, it's a good addition for the town.

[thataway]

Jay, thanks for the report on the current situation.

We were last there in 2007--2 or 3 years after the "cannery" was restored...I don't know if I have any photos from the 1990's when we stopped there a number of times, but there was not much of a cannery which was visible at that time--an old abandoned dock is about all I remember at the point. --Where as there were a large number of other old abandoned canneries we have visited. The road basically stopped at the barge/ferry dock in the early to mid 1990's. I don't think that the cliff was fully blow out along the way. It was vans or a small buss then, not the tram like vehicle I see in current photos.

I understand that there is now a 400 feet dock there for the cruise ships, and they no longer are lightened in from a anchored ship.

In 2007, there seemed to be a lot of resentment about the cannery, and cruise ships. Folks we talked to felt that all of the good jobs were not given to Hoonah residents. Alcoholism and drug use was a major problem in the 90's. I remember one of the native owned fishing boats, had a midnight opening, and the skipper told us he was leaving at about 10 PM...the next morning the boat was still tied up. All of the crew was drunk and didn't show up for the opening--even though it would have meant at least a thousand dollars each from a good catch.

We didn't see much change in the town between 1992 and 2007.

I read that the State put in $14 million and the native corporation put in $8 million to build this new dock--160,000 tourists are expected to land there this summer season! Has to have a major impact on a village of about 750 people... Hopefully it will retain its charm, and the problems will be less. An internet search shows that there are several drug and alcohol rehab programs in Hoonah.

[Hunkydory]

June 1. There was quite a show here at the dock this evening. We are tied up on the transient dock, very close to the fish cleaning facilities & two boats came in with many halibut & other fish. Some of the remains were tossed into the water making a tasty treat for the local huge male sea lion & the 20 or so eagles & many other birds about the marina area. In order to swallow & not choke on the larger pieces the sea lion does some pretty dramatic huffing & puffing along with violet jerks of his head. This scatters smaller pieces about, which all the birds tussle over with the eagles swooping in rotation. One of the small fishing boats, also had three dead sea otters aboard & we were told the Native Corporations pays a very good bounty on them. They don't want them in Port Fredrick, because they go after the crabs & clams. One high school kid made $16000 dollars last year in bounty money, but only natives are allowed to do this.

I did some helping with moving the fish around & was rewarded with halibut stakes for dinner.

Yesterday, we shared some of our travels here with a lady we met & today she asked us if we would be willing to be interviewed by a reporter, sometime following our arrival back in Juneau. She got our phone number & said the reporter would be contacting us. Now if one does, it will be interesting to see how this somewhat people adverse couple handles it.

44 days on the water

[jkidd]

How'd did that fresh halibut taste? It sure sounds good.