Hot Springs, Bear Encounters, and Big Waves!

Cabins, boardwalk, and waterfall at Warm Springs Bay

We left Takatz Bay on the east side of Baronof Island on a beautiful, sunny morning. We stopped to pick up our shrimp pot at the entrance to the bay, but there were only three little ones—not worth heating up water to cook them—so they got to go back in the sea. It only took ninety minutes to get to our next overnight spot—Warm Springs Bay with its small community of Baronof. We were very lucky to get spots at the dock which is usually jammed with fishing boats so their crews can sit in the hot springs. We noticed right away that several guys were fishing and catching coho salmon right off the dock. Rod and John were not so lucky—John caught a little bait fish and Rod not a thing. However, a guy off another boat took pity on Rod and gave him one of his salmon. Later, Roxie traded fresh-baked cookies for a coho. That night’s dinner for the four of us was barbequed salmon and several filets went into our freezers!

Carver's wares at Warm Springs

Our truly amazing experience of the day was walking on a boardwalk to the Baronof Hot Springs--three natural pools of varying hot water next to a raging river at the top of a waterfall. We all four sat in the hottest pool and enjoyed the beautiful setting. John took some pictures that I will try to send along in a future blog post. This community pipes this hot water into their summer homes. The residents have also put a public bath house at the top of the dock—three rooms with big tubs that are constantly filling up with the hot mineral water.

Alaskan garb at Baronof Hot Springs

Warm Springs Bay was so great that we decided to spend another night here. There was time for more fishing the next day and Roxie caught two cohos, sharing one with us. We also took a nice hike up to Baronof Lake. The path to the lake was easy, but too short, so we took a scramble up a rock face to see the great views. That evening, we enjoyed Happy Hour on the flybridge of Xanadu and were joined by a young Alaskan couple cruising on their sailboat. Dinner was crab omelettes on our boat.

Yachts at Red Bluff Bay

The next morning we left early and headed for Red Bluff Bay which seems to be a no-miss destination among boaters. After spending a night there, we agree. We shared the large anchorage area with several large yachts, a first for us in Alaska. The attraction is the beautiful scenery and a bear meadow at the head of the bay. The sport of the evening for the yachtsmen seemed to be taking their dinghies or kayaks and getting as close as possible to the brown bears (grizzlies) on the beach. I saw two from my kayak but stayed my distance. Tip: John has some great pictures of the grizzlies in Red Bluff Bay on his blog: www.xanadulove.blogspot.com.

Red Bluff Bay waterfall

The next morning Rod took Katie, as usual, to the beach for her business. He described his experience as follows: “We have been told that when encountering a grizzly bear, don’t panic and above all, don’t run. EASY to say, HARD to do. When I saw the bear about a hundred yards away ambling his way down ‘our’ beach, my thoughts were to get myself and Katie back in the kayak as fast as I could. The comical part was my boots sinking six inches in the mud. No way could I run. We both managed to get soaked and very muddy getting in the kayak and were extremely disappointed when we got back to the big boat to find that nobody had seen our adventure. In the meantime, the bear continued to amble, ignored us completely, and disappeared into the woods.”

In spite of the bear scare, we left very early (5:55 am) to try to catch calm water to go across Chatham Strait. The forecast was for 20 knot winds and four foot waves. This is a bit much for us, but it is usually calmer in the mornings than predicted, and it did not sound like it was going to get any better for several days. It was not bad at first; in fact, I was happily cooking the 38 shrimp we had just picked up in our shrimp pot. Then the waves got bigger and closer together. For the first time on this trip, I felt queasy. Later, Rod told me that the waves were more like six to eight feet! We were very happy to get in the lee of Admiralty Island and calm water again. By the way, Katie was a real trooper in the rough water. John and Roxie’s cat, always a barometer of rough water, was sick as a dog (?). We anchored in Chapin Bay, a lovely big inner bowl with a great beach for Katie to play and walk on. Also, there were no signs of bears, thank goodness. The next morning John and Roxie left before us to go out to Frederick Sound to try to catch a halibut. Rod and I retrieved our crab pot in which we found one legal one. I killed, cleaned, and cooked the crab while Rod took Katie to shore and then we were on our way too. We found out when we got out of Chapin Bay that John and Roxie had caught two halibut—one at 17# and the other a whopping 87#! We all met in Lord’s Pocket (a local name) in the Keku Islands. Roxie and John spent many hours taking care of their halibut and we had a wonderful dinner of it that evening. They were generous with their filets and some are in our freezer too for future dinners.

Tomorrow, we head for Rocky Pass, a route south towards Prince of Wales Island, which is not taken by too many boaters because of some significant navigational challenges.

 Signing out,

Susan, Rod, and Katie