Jay,
It is interesting how we all have different experiences. In our exploration of Dundas Bay, in the West Arm, two other boats anchored there during our two nights there. There was one boat in the East Arm, and one going into the West Arm when we left. Our most recent trip was in June/July 2009.
Ford's Terror: we have been in there three times, and every time we saw at least one other boat. One time we were in there for a week, and a charter boat was there 3 days, kayakers were there the rest of the time--not always where we anchored, but we had a high speed RIB and often would explore other arms of places where we anchored. Last time we went into Ford's Terror, there were two other boats and 4 kayaks waiting at the entrance.
We have always seen other boats near Holkham Bay, Tracy Arm, Stephen's Passage and Fredrick's sound.
Agree that the outside of Chichagof and and Baranof are less likely to have other boats--but these are not on the "normal" first time inland passage trip. However we did see several boats along the way in both of these parts of cruises. Part of this may be due to our speed, since much of our Alaska Cruising was in the Cal 46, and 6.5 to 7 knots was our usual speed. Plus we explored areas in the RIB once we anchored the bigger boat. There are so many places to hide!
We always saw vessels in Icy Straights/Cross Sound area--both recreational and commercial fishing. The "usual stops" will have anywhere from 2 to 6 boats during the summer months. There will be both commercial and recreational vessels along the way or usually in radio contact--with the exception of some of the deep Fjords.
The only place I have been where I felt I was really off the Beaten track was a week trip up into the sounds North East of Bramham Island BC (Seymour Inlet, Belize Inlet, Fredrick Sound) We were with a trawler (Puffin DX, Ernie Harding of Nanaimo. Ernie has made more inland passage trips than anyone I have met--I would guess at least 30, and still is at about age 80! ) and the only other civilization we saw was at a logging camp way up one of the arms. The charts for this area had just been released the year prior to our trip. Nakwakto Rapids, at the entrance have Currents which can reach 11.5 knots on the flood and 14.5 knots on the ebb. There is a nice cove out of the current where you can wait for high slack.
Here is a link to an article about this area done in 2008:
http://tinyurl.com/3r8d3pc
When younger I did a lot of back packing into areas without trails, just using a topo map and compass. Those were really remote--and you had to be absolutely independent. No radio, cell phone, or other people.
It is interesting how we all have different experiences. In our exploration of Dundas Bay, in the West Arm, two other boats anchored there during our two nights there. There was one boat in the East Arm, and one going into the West Arm when we left. Our most recent trip was in June/July 2009.
Ford's Terror: we have been in there three times, and every time we saw at least one other boat. One time we were in there for a week, and a charter boat was there 3 days, kayakers were there the rest of the time--not always where we anchored, but we had a high speed RIB and often would explore other arms of places where we anchored. Last time we went into Ford's Terror, there were two other boats and 4 kayaks waiting at the entrance.
We have always seen other boats near Holkham Bay, Tracy Arm, Stephen's Passage and Fredrick's sound.
Agree that the outside of Chichagof and and Baranof are less likely to have other boats--but these are not on the "normal" first time inland passage trip. However we did see several boats along the way in both of these parts of cruises. Part of this may be due to our speed, since much of our Alaska Cruising was in the Cal 46, and 6.5 to 7 knots was our usual speed. Plus we explored areas in the RIB once we anchored the bigger boat. There are so many places to hide!
We always saw vessels in Icy Straights/Cross Sound area--both recreational and commercial fishing. The "usual stops" will have anywhere from 2 to 6 boats during the summer months. There will be both commercial and recreational vessels along the way or usually in radio contact--with the exception of some of the deep Fjords.
The only place I have been where I felt I was really off the Beaten track was a week trip up into the sounds North East of Bramham Island BC (Seymour Inlet, Belize Inlet, Fredrick Sound) We were with a trawler (Puffin DX, Ernie Harding of Nanaimo. Ernie has made more inland passage trips than anyone I have met--I would guess at least 30, and still is at about age 80! ) and the only other civilization we saw was at a logging camp way up one of the arms. The charts for this area had just been released the year prior to our trip. Nakwakto Rapids, at the entrance have Currents which can reach 11.5 knots on the flood and 14.5 knots on the ebb. There is a nice cove out of the current where you can wait for high slack.
Here is a link to an article about this area done in 2008:
http://tinyurl.com/3r8d3pc
When younger I did a lot of back packing into areas without trails, just using a topo map and compass. Those were really remote--and you had to be absolutely independent. No radio, cell phone, or other people.
