Misty Fjords, Alaska

Saturday, June 15 we walked to Starbucks for breakfast, and to post the last email/blog. We picked up a block of ice on the way back to the boat, and got ready to leave for Misty Fjords. David, our friendly fisherman neighbor arrived back from his night of work and gave us a small salmon to take with us. We stopped for fuel on the way out of town. The fuel dock was used mostly by fishermen, and as we were fueling a boat came in making a huge wake just to annoy the yachties at his dock. He gave us a big grin as he zoomed in. Two very different fisherman experiences in a short time. Two whales spouted and dove, showing us their flukes as we left town.  It was a beautiful warm sunny day with light winds. We spent the entire day in our shirtsleeves – a first for this voyage. The locals from Ketchikan were taking advantage of a warm sunny Saturday, and there were many boats out fishing.

New Eddystone Rock, Behm Canal, AK

We headed north up Behm Canal, headed for a USFS buoy at Ella Creek Cove. As we approached New Eddystone Rock, a remarkable volcanic plug 230 feet high rising out of water 900 feet deep, we spied another sailboat headed for our buoy. It was the first cruising boat we had seen all day. We sped up and forced him to abandon his goal and head for a different anchorage. We felt slightly guilty at being so pushy, but were pleased to be there. The view of the mountains across the canal was wonderful, though the buoy did seem to be a bit exposed. There was no wind and the water was flat, so we figured we were OK. Once we stopped moving, it was incredibly hot and uncomfortable. The temperature was in the 80’s with a high humidity. We plan to go ashore and hike up to a lake in the morning.

Sunset, Ella Creek Cove, Misty Fjords, AK

Punchbowl Cove, Misty Fjords, AK

We were awakened in the middle of the night by the motion of the boat. The wind had come up, and was sending waves into our exposed location. We got very little sleep, tending to the mooring and the dinghy, but did get to see the sunrise at 3:00. We decided to skip breakfast and get out of there. Heading out into Behm Canal it was a sunny day with 20 knot winds blowing from the north. We made slow progress against the waves, but finally arrived in Rudyerd Bay, a spectacular glacial valley. Essentially it is Yosemite Valley flooded with water. A 3000’ vertical cliff rises straight out of the sea, and there are waterfalls everywhere you look. There is one buoy in Punchbowl Cove but it was occupied by two powerboats rafted together. They said they would be leaving around noon, so we anchored in 60 feet off the mouth of a creek, the flow of which kept us in place. The advantage of the buoy is that you don’t have to worry about the anchor dragging, and you get a much better night’s sleep.  After taking Schooner ashore for his long delayed walk, we had a late breakfast of pancakes and strawberries, and generally relaxed and did chores. This fjord turns out to be a major attraction for the cruise ship passengers arriving in Ketchikan. They get on floatplanes and fly over here, so there was a pretty regular parade of planes flying past and/or landing and taking off. The place is so large that it wasn’t as much of a problem as you might think.

Rover, Punchbowl Cove, Misty Fjords, AK

We pulled up the anchor and moved to the buoy when the boats left. Once again, it was a sunny hot day, and we put up our sunshade. By then the wind had come up. The weather in these fjords is dominated by daily heating and cooling regimes. During the day the mountains warm up, and draw the air up the fjord, getting stronger as the day progresses. As the sun sets, the mountains begin to cool, and the wind dies. Overnight the cold air from the mountains sinks down into the fjord causing a wind in the opposite direction. There is no radio reception here, so we have to just take the weather that arrives and deal with it.

Bunchberry, Punchbowl Lake Trail, AK

At 3:00 we rowed ashore and hiked up a trail of sorts. One advantage of being in a National Monument is that there are several trails to hike. Generally when we go ashore there is no place to go – just impenetrable rain forest. This trail went to an alpine lake, and began as a rotting boardwalk about 2 feet wide through a skunk cabbage swamp. It then started to go pretty much straight up. Sometimes they had constructed ladders of a sort by cutting notches in logs, but mostly it involved finding footholds in rocks and roots, and finding things to grab to provide balance and security. After close to an hour of this, it became apparent that this was not a good activity for two senior citizens who had gotten little or no sleep the night before. We began to have concerns about getting back down without getting hurt, and this would be a very bad place to get hurt. When we arrived at an overlook of a large waterfall we rested, ate a candy bar, drank a lot of water, and generally felt revived. We decided to forgo the rest of the hike and head back down while the getting was good.

Rudyerd Bay, Misty Fjords, AK

Waterfalls, Rudyerd Bay, Misty Fjords, AK

When we got back down we found a group of three kayakers who had just arrived after a ten hour paddle. They were from Fargo, North Dakota and were enjoying the mountainous terrain, not to mention the sunshine. Shortly thereafter a couple arrived from hiking up to the lake and back with a baby in a backpack and a three year old tottering along. Suddenly we felt very old. After dinner a South African couple on the other boat anchored here came by in their dinghy to chat, and offered us a crab. We’re doing OK for folks not harvesting any seafood. There were three brown bears (aka grizzlies) on the shore having dinner. As the sun set, late at is was, the wind died, and we had a merciful quiet night and got a great night’s sleep.

On Monday we left Punchbowl Cove relatively early, and travelled up to the head of Rudyerd Bay to see the sights. It is mile after mile of glacially scoured granite, snow capped peaks and waterfalls plummeting several thousand feet into the sea. It is beautiful, but it lacks the softness of a place like Yosemite. There are no meadows full of wildflowers, rivers or streams to make it more welcoming. It’s not a place you want to stay.

Rudyerd Bay, Misty Fjords, AK

Rudyerd Bay, Misty Fjords, AK

Walker Cove, Misty Fjords, AK

We were anticipating a strong headwind and waves out in Behm Canal, so we took some time to put our dinghy onto the deck, and get the sails ready to raise. We returned against the strong inflow winds, and were pleasantly surprised to discover that the winds outside, though strong, were from the south. We tore off on a broad reach for the rest of the day, going faster than we probably should have. Certainly Schooner thought so. The skies gradually clouded over with a high thin cloud, but no precipitation in sight.

Waterfall, Walker Cove, Misty Fjords, AK

We entered the next fjord to the north, Walker Cove, and went screaming up on the afternoon inflow wind. Stopped taking photographs, as spectacular scenery is getting to be old hat.  Also, if you’ve been to a place like this, you know that the essence just cannot be captured in photographs.  We tied to the USFS buoy tucked in a cove out of the main wind. We are in a bit of a bowl, and sitting in the cockpit there are fourteen visible waterfalls. By a waterfall I mean a single stream falling several thousand feet into the sea, each of which is made of multiple huge waterfalls.

Walker Cove, Misty Fjords, AK

We went ashore to find a sand beach backed by thirty yards or so of grass and sedge meadow. This is because there is a gorgeous river that comes in here. This allowed us to go for a reasonable walk along the shore, which was clearly the high point of Schooner's day. There were a lot of bear tracks, so we made a lot of noise and didn’t go sneaking about in the bushes. By the time we returned to the boat, the inflow winds were really blowing. This place has awesome scenery, but it is a bit intimidating. We haven’t seen another boat since we left this morning, and here we are alone at the end of this amazing fjord with vertical cliffs and snow covered mountains all around us. The wind is howling through the rigging, and we are totally dependent upon this boat. There is no way in the world we could get out of here by foot. Due to the topography there is no way we could contact anyone with our VHF radio. When we go ashore we have to be cautious because the creatures in the bushes could easily kill us. In all our years of backpacking, we have never felt so isolated and vulnerable. We’re really glad we came here, but will be equally glad to get out of here.

We prepared a great dinner of chicken tagine, had a glass or two of wine, put some music on the ipod, the wind died down around 10:00, and things looked a lot better. Another quiet restful night with the sounds of waterfalls rather than rattling rigging.

 Landslide, Behm Canal, AK

On Tuesday morning we left early to avoid an anticipated strong headwind, and motored out of a calm Walker Cove with high clouds and occasional spots of sunshine. It tried to sprinkle a few times, but didn’t amount to anything. The water here is an opaque milky green from the glacier flour brought down by the rivers. Another interesting feature here is the large number of landslides. The bedrock is very smooth, polished by the glaciers, and very steep. Thousands of years have allowed the formation of a few feet of soil on top of this, but it is not very stable. Once something starts to slide there is nothing to stop it, and the whole shebang ends up in the water to sink or float away. What is left is a bright granite slope surrounded by green forest. There is no debris at the bottom; it just ends at the water. We saw a boat today, passing us headed south.

Rover, Fitzgibbon Cove, AK

We arrived in Fitzgibbon Cove on the northeast corner of Behm Canal around lunchtime. By this time the sun had come out, and we sat at anchor eating lunch outside in the cockpit. We spent some time watching the bird life. There were marbled murrelets, common loons, and mew gulls going about their business. A bald eagle thought our anchor buoy looked tasty and took a crack at it. Our buoy is a bufflehead duck decoy, and the eagle was sorely disappointed.

Later in the afternoon the powerboat with the South African couple we had seen the other day anchored in the cove with us, and invited us over for dinner. They live on their boat, a very nice Nordhavn, in Oxnard, CA. They have been south to Costa Rica, and are now headed north. They are very pleasant people, younger than the average cruiser up here, and had lots of stories to tell. One involved Neville going overboard with their inverted dinghy in a bad storm in the Sea of Cortes. He hung on for six hours until rescued by the Mexican Navy. Lot of good lessons in that story. They had a wonderful box wine, which turned out to have been boxed just for them by a friend with a winery in Paso Robles. They had to buy an entire barrel of wine (close to 300 bottles) to have it done, so had wine bladders stashed in all the crevices of their boat. We drank way too much of their good wine, Neville drove us back in their fancy dinghy, and we slept like the dead.

Wednesday we slept late (7:00), and  headed east across the top of Behm Canal. One advantage of cruising alone is that we leave whenever we are ready to go, rather than rushing to leave at a time agreed to by all the boats the day before. This Misty Fjords trip would have been difficult with three boats, as there haven’t been good anchorages that could accommodate that many. Also we have changed our plans midday a number of times, and that is difficult to do with a group. Another advantage is that we don’t have to keep the radio on for communication with each other, so don’t have to listen to all of that noise. On the other hand, we do miss the companionship and the security of having backup help nearby. A notable event was the appearance of a light on one of the points. This is first navigation aid we have seen in four days.

Yes Bay, AK

We made a cautious entry into Yes Bay. Yes is the local native word for mussels. Farther south bull kelp grows on most of the shallow rocks, giving you good clues about spots to avoid. Up here that is much less common, so rocks are just hiding there under the water, and you need to watch the chart carefully. Yes Bay has some tight spots. Just as we got securely anchored a summer storm arrived, and poured down an enormous amount of rain in a short time. This repeated itself a few times, and ended our dry stretch. It had not rained for eleven days. We were sort of getting used to it. It also has been awhile since we built a fire in our stove; must be getting near summer. The rain showers stopped and it became very still with pretty low mist hanging over the hills. Another quiet night.

Thursday morning we awoke to some light sprinkles. Waldo, our bufflehead anchor buoy was nowhere to be seen. He turned out to have a few talon holes from his eagle encounter and had taken on quite a bit of water, making him considerably less buoyant. He’s going to need some repair. In the meantime we do have a female bufflehead backup down in the bottom of one of the cockpit lockers. We travel well prepared. The sprinkles soon stopped, and it became what the English call a “bright” day. No sun to be seen, but not all that gloomy. We had wind on and off out in Behm Canal, and had some pleasant time sailing over to Naha Bay on Revillagegedo Island. There seems to be a big salmon run on, as there were over a dozen purse seiners working in Neets Bay.

We tied up at a floating dock which serves as the trailhead for the Naha River National Recreation Trail. There were two other boats there, and we filled up the dock. They were both locals from Ketchikan, and conversation tended towards fishing and hunting. Upon learning that we were from Oregon, one fellow immediately noted that was a great place to hunt elk. He and his wife had sailed their 32 foot boat down to Mexico, out to Hawaii and back to Alaska twice. The other fellow’s wife wanted him to retire and move to the Rogue Valley to get out of the rain, but he didn’t want to move to a place with such bad fishing prospects. As the tide dropped, large quantities of sea foam came drifting out of the forest. There is a lake upstream, and when the tide drops it becomes a waterfall, falling into the sea. We’ll have to go look for that tomorrow.

Naha River Trail, AK

We decided to spend Friday at the dock in Naha, and hike part of the trail. It was a morning of heavy mist/light rain, temperature in the mid 60’s. The humidity was really high, so the hike was a bit uncomfortable wearing our rain parkas in the “heat.”  The trail was about ¾ boardwalk, carrying us over swampy places and otherwise keeping us off the ground. Everything is covered with a thick layer of soaking wet moss. When this moss is worn away on a trail it becomes thick black mud. The boardwalk is about two feet wide. Sometimes it has a railing, but usually not. There were numerous places where the boardwalk was destroyed; mostly by falling trees, but frequently just broken – probably by some heavy creature walking on it. The piles of bear poop on the boardwalk every few hundred yards pointed to likely suspects. The seasonal bear treat seems to be the roots of skunk cabbage, as they had dug up large areas to eat the roots, discarding the leaves. We, as usual, made a lot of noise. Seeing bears is neat, but not on the trail in front of you as you come around the bend. The trail wound around the shore of an attractive lake, and then went up the river. We went a couple of miles and turned around. We are not getting much walking done on this trip, and are getting out of shape.

Naha River, AK

The forest is Sitka Spruce – Western Hemlock, and if you are familiar with the Oregon Coast or the Olympics in Washington, it would be a familiar cast of botanical characters, though Douglas Fir is gone, and Red Cedar is replaced by Yellow Cedar. It just seems more lush and wetter here, though the trees are smaller. The few rocks we could see beneath the moss and ferns were all schist. The Misty Fjords was mostly granite of the coastal batholith, but now we are out in one of the terranes that have been accreted to the continent. I don’t see how geologists work here, as the rock is completely covered with thick vegetation. They must follow the stream beds to get exposures until they get above timberline. Of course timberline is not very high up here.

Moser Bay, AK

Saturday morning we emptied our anchor locker of both anchors, chain and nylon rode, dumping it onto the dock to clean out all of the silt and bits of seaweed that had accumulated there and were clogging up the drain. Just another romantic morning in Alaska. We then headed back to Ketchikan to reprovision after eight days away from civilization. This was a day of considerable interest, as we almost immediately starting seeing homes along the water. We are close enough to town, and getting out of the national forest. Some are obviously weekend cabins, and some permanent homes. It is fun to peer at them with our binoculars, and see what people have constructed. A number of them are quite elaborate, and no doubt cost a great deal; and many showed either a charming sense of whimsy or remarkably bad taste – hard to distinguish.

As we got closer to town the weather continued to improve from the morning clouds until we had our standard Ketchikan experience of blue sky and warm sunshine. There were many boats out fishing, and we played crossing tag with a tug and barge on the way in. We went in search of a possible place to leave the boat over the winter that someone had suggested. We first ended up at the abandoned pulp mill, and eventually found the small, somewhat marginal boatyard. Probably not the place for us.  Back in the harbor we were directed to a spot that turned out to be full, and eventually got ourselves snugged in between a couple of fishing boats. A black lab from one of them immediately ran over and jumped aboard to visit with Schooner (and see if we had anything to eat).

With our first cell phone signal in eight days, we checked out the old messages we had received, and made a few calls. Our return to civilization was confirmed when the neighboring boat’s very loud and annoying burglar alarm went off. Eventually the harbormaster called the owner who arrived to turn it off. That only took about half an hour. We’ll spend tomorrow here, doing the usual routine of laundry, groceries, water, fuel, ice, looking for replacements for broken boat bits, finding an e-mail connection, etc. We’re headed next to Wrangell, but have not yet decided upon a route, so don’t know how long it will take.