I like to make a trip to Anan Creek to see the bears about every other year.
I also like to tie to the USFS float that is in front of the USFS cabin in Anan Bay so that I don't have to anchor in the bay. In order to use the float you have to rent the cabin.
The bear viewing season is so short that the USFS cabin gets rented out for the whole season almost as soon as it becomes available. These cabins are available for reservations via a website, but you cannot reserve them more than 6 months ahead of your arrival date. Last year I was late and by the time I tried to make a reservation the cabin was indeed booked for the entire season.
This is one of many links to information about the Anan Creek Bear Observatory:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r10/specialplaces/?cid=fsbdev2_038752
This year I was ready. By observation I determined that the website operates on East coast time, and that the cabins open up for new reservations at 6 AM AK time. So exactly 6 months ahead of my desired arrival date, which was July 13th, I was at my computer at 5:55 AM hitting that reservations button continuously. Sure enough it paid off and I was able to reserve the cabin and the float for three days, July 13 - 15. These cabins operate on a noon to noon basis so I actually had them reserved from noon on July 13th until noon on the 16th.
In addition, now that the USFS manages the facility, trail permits are required in order to walk up the trail. Four permits per day come along with the cabin, and they include the day you arrive and the day you leave. Therefore even though I had reserved the cabin for 3 days, I had 4 days of trail permits available for my use. The cost for the trail permits is $10 per day per person, and you can pay for them ahead of time through the Wrangell USFS district office, or pay at the trailhead. Since I wasn't sure which days we would be there or how many people we'd have I chose to pay for them at the trailhead.
In any case, I digress.
The original plan was to depart Ketchikan sometime on July 11th and spend 2 nights enroute. I thought perhaps Meyers Chuck the first night, and then perhaps Frosty Bay the second night. Frosty Bay is literally just around the corner from Anan Bay so it is an easy run to make it there at noon exactly.
However, the weather in Clarence Strait is the real determining factor for a trip like this. It can be brutal, and I didn't want my crew (or myself!) getting beat up.
Speaking of crew, for this trip I had my wife Lisa, and my two grandsons Tyler (age 8) and Bryan (just turned 7) on board. My step-daughter Cristina and her 4 year old daughter Aliyah were scheduled to meet us in Wrangell.
The weather in Clarence Strait was not so good on Thursday, but much better on Friday, so I made the decision the get all the gear and people on board on Thursday evening, sleep on board, and then make an early departure on Friday morning.
So that's exactly what we did. I pulled out of our slip in Bar Harbor North at exactly 5 AM on Friday July 12th.
I could make it all the way to Anan Bay in one day, but it's supposed to be fun, and I didn't have the float until Saturday at noon anyway, so I did not want to push it and get there too soon.
I had hoped to get pictures of the crew near the boat before departure, but it was so chaotic that that was not possible.
Here is a chart snippet that shows the route (blue line) from Ketchikan to Meyers Chuck.
Here is a detail chart snippet that shows the entry to Meyers Chuck. Don't you just love the name of that nearby island, Misery Island?
We pulled into Meyers Chuck at about 9:45 AM, having logged 36.2 nm to this point.
Some boats prefer to anchor in the chuck but I prefer to tie to the dock if there is space. The pilings are placed in such a way so that boats can tie to either side of the dock, so there is quite a bit of room at the dock. If you end up tying up to the inside you'd better check the tides to make sure there isn't a -4 in the near future or you could get stuck in there for awhile.
Here is the crew at the Meyers Chuck community dock.
Meyers Chuck is a community with an attitude. I have been here numerous times over the years and have dozens, perhaps hundreds of photos of the area. I will only show a few here in order to move along with the adventure. But if you are looking for an interesting place to visit - Meyers Chuck is the place.
Here is the famous Meyers Chuck phone booth and community bulletin board. There used to be a phone in it, but that seems to have disappeared this year.
We took a walk along the beach around the trail, which of course is obligatory if you do stop here. The kids had a blast playing along the beach since it was low tide. I had bought them each their own little digital camera so they could shoot their own photos.
The cottages and other buildings along the trail (that's right, trail, not road) are all unique and interesting. If you want to see more photos let me know via the comments section.
Here is a view of Faraway at the community dock, in the pouring rain of course. Since we arrived fairly early in the morning the dock was relatively empty, but I knew others would be arriving, so I tied up very close to the end to leave room for them.
While we were walking around seeing the area we came upon this deer in one of the yards.
Here are a couple of shots of the cabins and cottages taken from the dock where we were tied up.
The boys spent literally the whole afternoon and most of the evening fishing from the dock and catching lots of dock fish. I had to drag them inside for dinner, and then drag them in again about 9:30 PM for bed.
This night they were bone tired from having so much fun and being outside in the open air and they dropped off to sleep like turning off a light switch.
Fresh water:
All boat owners have a list of things they don't like, or would want to change about their boats. At the top of our list is our fresh water supply. Faraway only carries 70 gallons. For a vessel with a potential range of 300 - 400 miles, that is just too little. I will eventually get a water maker... someday.
In the mean time I struggle with fresh water. I carry 12 gallons extra in jugs, but even that is little help.
In any case, here is the story of the fresh water.
Wouldn't you know I would be asked to give away the one resource that is most precious to us. A kayaker was in the chuck for the night and he was wandering the dock trying to get someone to fill his water bag. No one responded on the other boats and he eventually got down to the end of the dock to my boat.
I was very reluctant, but agreed to fill it up for him. It was a flexible hydration bag a lot like long distance runners use. Looked like it held about a gallon.
I filled it up for him, he thanked me and went back to his camp (which was a tent set up on the dock.)
I guess God takes care of people who take care of people because the next day he came over and said you know, there's potable water out of a hose right there on the dock. I never knew that Meyers Chuck offered fresh water. It was too far to run a hose to the boat, and it didn't look easy to move the boat, so I filled the 12 gallons that I had in the jugs into my tank and then made multiple runs with the jugs to fill up the main tank and the 2 jugs again, leaving plumb full of water.
We only use this water for dish washing, brushing teeth, and showers (if we have enough water for showers). We use bottled water for cooking.
Side note - I did not use the water in the jugs for the rest of the trip, and when I got back to Ketchikan I emptied them. As the last few ounces sloshed out of the jugs, so did a light brown sediment. Hmm...
Saturday July 13th -
We got up about 7:30 AM and had a somewhat chaotic breakfast, and then prepared the cabin for travel.
For those of you who are uninitiated to the world of cruising on small boats, unless you have a large yacht, the rule of thumb is that you have to move 5 things to get to the 1 thing that you want. Our boat is not made for this many people, so for night time we have to -
Clear enough junk off the built-in table for the bar stool to sit on top of it
Move the main cabin table over to where the bar stool was
Roll up a couple of the throw rugs that I have all over the main cabin floor
Pull out the couch and turn it into a double bed
(Which of course fills the whole cabin so no one else can easily move through it)
In the mornings we reverse the process to put the cabin back into "day use" mode.
In any case we got a relatively early start for Anan Bay.
Here are two chart snippets that show the route for the day. The first chart is from Meyers Chuck to the south end of Deer Island, and the second chart is from there to Anan Bay.
While we were on that first leg, in Ernest Sound approaching Deer Island, we were joined by porpoises. They swoop in and out and seem to genuinely enjoy narrowly missing the bow as we cruise at about 7 knots. I was busy steering so could not get pictures. I thought the boys were getting pictures, but now they tell me they kept missing them. The porpoises are fast and if you are not right on it you will just get a picture of the splash where they used to be. I haven't looked at our video clips yet, so there might be something there. I think I have had porpoises join me in this area every time I have passed through here in the last several years. They are quite a thrill.
We pulled into Anan Bay at about 1:30 PM, in a dense rain, with dark overcast skies. This is Southeast Alaska, what can I say? 67.7 nm to this point.
The first thing of note that I saw upon entering the bay was this massive sailing yacht, the Athena. I had seen her in Ketchikan a few days previously. What an amazing yacht!
Here is a short blurb I picked up from a website that claims to know about this yacht:
Built for entrepreneur Jim Clark (Silicon Graphics and Netscape) the mega yacht Athena sports one of the best media lounges found on the high seas, in a bridge-deck penthouse with all the latest gadgetry to watch one of the thousands of DVDs kept in the film library. Another of the notable gadgets used in the sailboat is the SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) system used to monitor and provide up to 2,600 alarms for all the yacht's technical systems, helping to assure safety and efficiency while under sail.
As mentioned previously, I rent the USFS cabin so that I can use the float. There is a 25' float out in front of the cabin that is reserved for the holders of the cabin permit. Faraway measures about 36' overall, so we do sort of hang over a bit. But it is surely nice to have even that small dock there.
Here is a picture taken on Sunday in the sunshine of Faraway tied to the float.
Here's a picture from the other angle, which shows the USFS cabin. This cabin has been rebuilt since the last time I was here.
We hurriedly got our gear together, and I put the raft in the water, with the outboard, and off we went to see the bears. The protocol from this location is to run the raft to shore (a very short distance as you can see from the above photo). Then, take the motor off and carry it up above high tide line, and then move the raft up and tie it off. I have small retractable wheels on the raft that make it a little easier to do that last part.
There is a trail from the cabin over to the head of the lagoon where the USFS staff awaits. They take payment and give you a little orientation.
No food, no dogs on the trail
Stay together as a group while walking up the trail
Make lots of noise as you walk
"We own the trail"
(I was not told that this time, but have been told that in the past.)
When approaching the observatory wait for clearance from the ranger there to make the last part
(Many times there are bears right on the trail near the entrance to the observatory)
I always carry both bear spray and a .45 semi-auto pistol. Thankfully I have never had to use either.
I also carry bear bells, which help with the noise.
It was difficult to get good pictures today because of the heavy rain. There is an enclosed area of the observatory from which you can see bears and take pictures, but there were lots of tourists there and it was hard to get a good location. Fortunately we had better weather and fewer tourists the next day.
In any case, here are a few bear pictures from Saturday.
The last time I was here we saw no brown bears at all, so it was a treat to see them so soon. We were to see this group several times during our stay here.
A few words about bears in trees. This is the largest bear I've seen in a tree. Usually we see cubs up the trees. I've always been told that the cubs have to scamper up the trees rapidly or the bigger bears will kill them and eat them. I have seen big bears chasing cubs and the cubs go up these trees faster than you would believe if you haven't seen it. I always thought the big bears were too heavy and could not climb.
This guy (gal?) was quite at home on those seemingly spindly and weak branches. He would stand up from time to time and change positions. Sometimes he would scratch his behind on the main trunk making the whole tree sway.
You can see him scratching his nose in this shot. The tree shook - he didn't seem to care.
We were quite wet and tired when we got back from seeing the bears so we dried out and had a good dinner aboard.
After dinner the boys fished from the dock for a bit, and then when there was a brief respite from the rain we took a short ride in the raft. Tyler got his first raft driving lesson - he loved it.
After that I set up my laptop, downloaded all photos from the day, projected them up on the rather small TV screen in the main cabin, and we looked at pictures from the day.
We converted the main cabin into night mode again and hit the sack about 10 PM. Once again the boys went out like a light.
Sunday July 14th -
We were up about 7:15 AM and had a good breakfast.
Tyler and I went for a ride in the raft and did some casting as well. There were Pinks everywhere, and I hooked a couple, but could not land them.
Here's where the plot thickens.
Cristina and Aliyah were originally scheduled to meet us in Wrangell on Tuesday so that they could go on the Stikine River charter with us. However they decided to join us early so they flew to Wrangell on Sunday and grabbed a transport down from Wrangell to Anan Bay. Breakaway Adventures was nice enough to transport them down.
Here is a picture of them arriving in the jet boat. As you can see, it is a warm sunny day, quite different than yesterday. They arrived about 11:30 AM.
You can see a large charter boat anchored in the background. It was called the Snowgoose, registered out of Juneau I think.
Here is a picture of the whole crew on the float in the sunshine, right after Cristina and Aliyah arrived from Wrangell.
After a frenzied lunch, (almost everything with this crew is frenzied) we packed our gear and headed up to see the bears again. This trip Lisa stayed on the boat with Aliyah. We had a couple of reasons for that. The walk is hard for Lisa and she had seen the bears yesterday. We were concerned that Aliyah would be frightened by the bears. The original plan called for Cristina and Aliyah to meet us in Wrangell, and so I only had 4 trail permits. Sometimes they have extras when groups cancel or show up short a few people, but sometimes not. We decided not to chance it and so just Cristina and I and the two boys went up the trail this time.
This picture shows me and the two boys waiting for the USFS person to appear. When there is no one around they tend to drift into the trees somewhere and appear when you yell for them. They are more geared to tour groups and they know when those are scheduled to arrive. We mavericks "from the cabin" tend to arrive on our own schedule and it seems to throw them off a little.
We got the orientation, paid our fees, and headed up the trail. The ranger at this check point radios the ranger at the observatory to let him/her know that a group is headed up the trail. Reassuring that someone is keeping track of us.
When you first head up river from the check in point you are not really at the creek proper yet. You are at the lagoon. Here is a shot of the lagoon at a fairly low tide. When the tide is higher the jet boats from Wrangell shoot right through and can maneuver inside the lagoon with ease.
We walked up the trail in the sunshine on a beautiful day in Southeast Alaska!
As you walk up the trail towards the observatory for the first portion you follow along the lagoon, and then eventually meet up with the creek proper.
As we approached the creek we saw the sow brown bear with the 2 cubs eating fish along the trail side of the creek. I snapped a few shots with my telephoto, but when she glared at me I knew it was time for us to move along. Here is the "glare" shot.
At this point I could show a couple dozen good bear pictures, but I won't. It's hard to pick out just a few, but I have tried to do just that. If you are interested in more, contact me and I can send you a DVD with more bear pictures than you have ever wanted.
Here are just a few of my favorites from the excursion.
If you have to use the outhouse that is up near the observatory you must work it out with the ranger. Frequently there are bears on or near the trail which runs right by the outhouse. So he/she will tell you when it is safe to go to the outhouse. When you are done you must peek out the door and watch for the ranger to signal you that it is safe to return to the observatory. A complicated process, but necessary. I have numerous photos similar to this one where there is a bear, or bears, near the outhouse.
The ranger told us this was a 4 year old "teenager," but on his own. He fished for quite awhile before finally getting this fish. You find yourself rooting for them and hoping they will get one soon. Another interesting thing about the browns and the blacks is that there definitely is a pecking order. Even this relatively small brown bear scared away a few much larger blacks. He did not threaten them - they just ran as soon as they saw him.
We see other things of interest there as well, such as eagles. Sometimes (actually many times) the bears don't eat the whole fish and there are scraps to be had. There are birds everywhere, and lots of eagles around. This one was right across from the observatory and he was very vocal.
It's interesting to watch them eat the fish. Sometimes they will the entire fish, every bone, scale and fin, all the way from nose to tail. Other times they eat just the best parts and let the rest just drift away. They don't "throw them away," they just seem to lose interest in them. They look elsewhere, loosen their grip, and the remains drift away. As observers we sometimes want to shout out "Hey, you spent a long time fishing for that fish, you shouldn't waste it." But, they are bears, they do what they want.
Another interesting thing is that if you watch the bears closely you'll see that some of them don't actually fish, they just pick up the remains that other bears have discarded. Later in the season many of these are pretty raunchy, and you wonder how their digestive systems can handle them, but they seem to do OK I guess.
We had a little excitement when we were walking down the trail back to the boat. We passed another group heading up the trail and they warned us that the sow brown bear and the 2 cubs were on the trail and walking up as well. We pressed on but were extra vigilant and jingled our bear bells and whistled and made as much noise as possible. However, sure enough, we turned a corner on the trail, and just off the trail in the brush I heard the cubs bawl like they do when scared, and then heard the sow growl.
We beat a hasty retreat back up the trail and stopped to decide on a course of action. While we were doing that the 4 year old brown seen in earlier picture crossed the river and stepped onto the trail heading our direction. We backed up even further and then realized we were now back at the observatory.
Apparently the group that had warned us had also told the rangers because shortly after we got back to the observatory one of the rangers from down below had come up the trail and pronounced it bear free, at least for the time she walked up.
So we headed out again and this time made it back to the boat without further incident.
Tyler had been just aching to show his Mom how he could drive the raft so after we got back we all went for a ride in the raft with Tyler at the helm.
Monday July 15th -
Monday dawned calm, but foggy.
We had breakfast and the pulled away from the Anan Bay float at about 9:45 AM, destination Wrangell.
Here is a chart snippet that shows the route for the day. Anan Bay is at the bottom right of the chart. It is about 30 miles from there to Wrangell.
We arrived in Wrangell at about 1:45 PM, and tied up at the older Reliance Harbor.
Here we are at Reliance Harbor in Wrangell. You can see Al Johnson's Slo-Belle tied up behind us. There was a First Bank golf tournament being held on the weekend, and there was a Little League tournament going on, so there were several boats from Ketchikan tied to the float along with us.
Lisa and all the kids went up to the local pool to shower, but I stayed and showered on the boat.
We went to the Stikine Inn for dinner this evening. Good food and a good view. It is owned and operated by Bill and Cheryl Goodale, and they took good care of us this evening.
We stopped by Shakes Island on the way back to the boat and let the kids run off some steam in the nice green grass.
We had nice sunny weather while we were here which produced some very beautiful sunsets as well.
Tuesday July 16th -
This day was a blur of grocery shopping, laundry, and other mundane chores which are necessary for human existence.
We did go to the museum, which I highly recommend if you get to Wrangell and have some time.
Wednesday July 17th -
There were two things that were the underpinnings of this trip. One was the Anan Creek bear viewing experience, and the other was a jet boat charter up the Stikine River. And today was the designated day for the Stikine River trip.
Here is a short blurb from Wikipedia that sets that stage for this experience:
The Stikine River /stɪˈkiːn/ is a river, historically also the Stickeen River, approximately 610 km (379 mi) long,[1] in northwestern British Columbia in Canada and southeastern Alaska in the United States. Considered one of the last truly wild major rivers in British Columbia, it drains a rugged, largely pristine, area east of the Coast Mountains, cutting a fast-flowing course through the mountains in deep glacier-lined gorges to empty into Eastern Passage, just north of the city of Wrangell, which is situated at the north end of Wrangell Island in the Alexander Archipelago.
The name of the river comes from its Tlingit name Shtax' Héen, meaning "cloudy river (with the milt of spawning salmon)", or alternately "bitter waters (from the tidal estuaries at its mouth)".
I had been on one trip up the river many years earlier when my own children Jennifer and Karen were youngsters, but had not been up since. I really wanted to see it again, and I wanted Lisa and Cristina and the grand kids to see it. So I chartered a 6 hour excursion with Breakway Adventures in Wrangell for today.
We met the jet boat down at what they call the Summer Float. We brought our own lunches, drinks, cameras, etc. We were lucky enough to get a jet boat that was big enough to hold 15 or 16 people, but we were the only group on board for this day.
Here are a few shots from that excursion:
This is a moose we saw swimming across the river. At first we thought it was a cow (moose) but then saw that there is the beginning of an antler on the right side. Apparently they don't always grow both sides at the same rate - who knew?
I had a hard time picking just a couple of shots from Shakes Lake and the ice as we approached Shakes Glacier. It was a hot sunny day and we were in t-shirts prior to this. Now we were in jackets and sweatshirts! The guide had to nose his boat up to a couple of small bergs and push them aside to make a pathway for us to be able to get up to the glacier face itself.
And then Shakes Glacier itself. We drifted out in front and ate our lunches. Perfect.
We also stopped at the hot tubs. There are two; one is enclosed in a small hut with a clothes changing room, and the other is open air. The open air tub had been left with only cold water flowing in so it was really not usable when we were there. But the kids and Lisa and Cristina had a good time in the enclosed tub. The bugs were thick here, but the guide warned us and provided bug dope.
After the hot tubs we ran up to the US - Canada border, which the guide says is about 40 miles from salt water. You can see a slash cut in the trees on the mountain side, which he says is cleared again and again every few years.
Here is a picture of the happy crew and the boat we took at the end of the day. He dropped us off right at the harbor where we were tied up.
After that adventure we weren't eager to put a lot of energy into dinner, so we just bought pizza from the place right near the harbor.
I had secured reservations at the Grandview Bed and Breakfast for Aliyah and Cristina for Wednesday night and Thursday night, so they were picked up by the hosts and went there, while the rest of us went back to the boat for the night. Cristina reports that the B & B was wonderful, a great place to stay.
Thursday July 18th -
This day was kind of a blur too, but Lisa and the boys and myself did go to the Diamond C Cafe for breakfast. It was excellent, if a little spendy.
Around 2 PM we took a little expedition to the Petroglyph Beach. I had heard about this beach for some time but had never visited, so this afternoon we made the trek. I think it is only a mile or so from the ferry dock, but with 3 little kids, and a very hot day, that was a challenge.
The kids enjoyed the petroglyph beach more than I thought they would, and we stayed there quite awhile, even though the bugs were pretty bad. The signs said there were over 40 petroglyphs hidden amongst the rocks on this beach. We found several, but certainly not 40.
After this adventure we had another frenzied and chaotic dinner on board (spaghetti) and then Cristina and Aliyah went back to the B & B.
Friday July 19th -
Not much happening this day, just killing time, waiting for the early evening flight back to Ketchikan. Lisa and I were taking the boat back and all the others were flying.
I went over to the fuel dock in mid morning and took on some fuel, and managed to get back into my same spot in Reliance Harbor.
We did some shopping and the kids bought toys for the wait at the airport and the flight. One of the shop keepers said "Welcome to Alaska!" to us. There was a cruise ship in town and I was carrying a camera, so I guess she mistook us for cheechakos.
After getting them all into a taxi at about 3:30 PM Lisa and I fired up and left Wrangell at about 4 PM, in good weather.
I pushed Faraway a bit harder than I usually do because I thought we might stay the night in Meyers Chuck and I didn't want to try to enter the chuck in the dark under radar.
As it turned out we got to Meyers Chuck at about 9:30 PM and the water in Clarence Strait was flat calm. I didn't want to waste flat water sleeping so I made the decision to keep on plugging towards home.
When it got full dark I had to run on radar and GPS alone, and I had to slow down considerably. My radar does not show logs and other debris so I must go a lot slower.
The ride back was long but relatively uneventful. I saw the lights of a few other boats, but other than that it was just a peaceful ride home.
We pulled into the stall at 2:45 AM, logging 181 nm for the entire trip.
It was a grand adventure, and I'm glad everything turned out so well.
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