South OZ Adventurers - Adventure, Travel, Expeditions


Haines to Hoonah

Lynn Canal flows up from Admiralty Island to Haines and Skagway. This was to be our highway for the next three or four days.

We had left Skagway on one of the largest tides of the year, and with 25 foot tides flowing in and out of Lynn Canal each cycle we had to paddle on the ebbing tide if we wanted to make any headway at all.

About 15 miles south of Haines is the small Anyaka Island, it was here that we spent our first real night of the expedition. We had decided to stay out here in the slim reasoning that there wouldn't be any bears on the islands, even though it was only about a mile from the mainland, an easy swim for a bear, but still a swim none the less!The island divides in 2 at high tide, and we camped on the top of the smaller one, with not much more room than to place the tent.

The next morning we missed the tide at 5 and relaxed in the sun waiting for the tide again in the morning. We had only been paddling for about 13 miles when we came upon Eldred Rock. An island not much more than 100 metres round, but with one of the most amazing lighthouses that I have ever seen. It is octagonal and must have almost 20 rooms inside. We pulled up to have a look and were greeted by four coast guard maintenance crew. They had been out there for three weeks repairing the outside of the lighthouse, but leaving the inside as not much more than a derelict wreck. It was enough to break our hearts.

They were more than happy to offer us a bed, especially Kim, I think. Four guys who had been on a rock all by themselves for three weeks without any visitors.....

We were off on the high tide the next morning and had a good 5 hours of paddling dwon to Berners Bay, where we pulled up and waited for the tide to turn again. After an eearly dinner we were on water again, paddling along the coast, about to become more scared than we had been in our whole lives.....

It was starting to become dusky, with the sun slowly starting to dip below the horizon for the few hours of half darkness we would get for the night. There was a low booming we could hear coming up the canal. At first we thought that it must have been someone shooting, but we soon saw a humpback breaching not more than 150 metres away from us. We stopped and watched the whale for half an hour with the whale slowly coming closer. We sat there waiting for the whale to breech again. After 4 full minutes with no sign of the whale we were starting to get a little anxious. What would happen if the whale landed on us? We'd decided that it would probably smash the boats, and us it it happen to hit the boats where we were. Best we don't really think about it! After what seemed like an eternity it surface not 30 metres behind us with a loud blow, which just about gave us both a heart attack.

With nerves in a tatter we pulled into a public use cabin just south of Berners Bay sometime around midnight.

With Tides waiting for no man, or woman, we were back on water by 6 the next morning stopping off at Lincoln Island around midday to wait for the tide to turn. After an early dinner we were back on water headed towards another lighthouse at Point Retreat on Admiralty Island. With the highest concentration of brown bears in Alaska, and therefore probably the world, we weren't looking forward to camping on Admiralty Island. There were 2 silent sighs of relieve when we pulled in and saw lights on in the house. There was a carpenter, Mike from Juneau who had been doing up the house on and off for the last 4 summers. It only took Kim about 4 minutes to find out that a friend of hers Nicola had spent the previous summer there counting Orcas. There were two more sighs of relief when Mike offered for us to stay in the house for the night.

The sun had gone when we got up the next morning and it was five miles of paddling through the rain to Funter Bay. As we were entering the bay a large boat was pulling in as well. we pulled up to the state dock at about the same time as the Toba and were promptly thrown a couple of beers then invited back on board for a drink. When they asked us what we would like our reply of "What have you got" brought forth one of the most impressive bars I have ever seen. So after a couple of rums we headed out to an island in the middle of the bay, with the slim belief that 100 metres was too far for a bear to swim.

The next morning we had our first good winds and it was time to test out our new sails. We made the 6 mile crossing of Chatham Strait in not much more than an hour, and then the 6 miles across Icy Strait to Hoonah in another hour. Thank you Pacific Action!

The contentedness that had come from leaving the bears of Admiralty behind was swiftly shattered when we were told that there are more bear on Admiralty overall but the northern end of Chichagof has a higher concentration. So it was another small island in the middle of the bay where we spent the next couple of nights in Hoonah....