South OZ Adventurers - Adventure, Travel, Expeditions


Stephens Passage

Stephens Passasge seperates mainland North America from Admiralty Island. It is about 10 miles wide at its widest and we had to cross it here on our leg south from Holkman Bay to then continue south for about 40 miles through to Kake.

We camped at the deserted kayak rangers campsite across from Harbour Island at the entrance to Tracy and Endicott Arms, and had planned to paddle south on the ebbing tide to the forest service cabin in Gambier Bay. The tide turned at about 4 in the morning and so we had planned to be on water as close to this as possible. As it was we weren't on water until about 5, but this wasn't such major issue.

With good winds and an ebbing tide it took us less than three hours to paddle and sail the 15 nautical miles to the bottom of Glass Penninsular, on Admiralty Island. Dodging three cruiseships on the crossing of Stephens Passage. Once we were inside the 'protection' of Glass Penninsular we lost all but a slight puff of wind, and it seemed to take forever to cross the bottom of Seymour Canal. However having made it to the entrance of Gambier Bay by 9:30 we decided that there was no real reason in going to the cabin. We'd just sit there all day, and with such a good day we'd be better to take advantage of the favourable weather and press on further south.

With the tide beginning to turn we decided that it was time to get off water when we dropped to about 2 knotts. We rested in a small cove just north of Point Pybus whilst the tide came up and started lapping at our feet. We'd been told that there was excellent camping on the north of both of the Brothers islands, but we just kept on paddling past towards the Sea Lion colony on a small island just south of the Brothers. It was definitely well worth the effort. With over 200 sea lions we could hear the colony long before we could see it. For the first time in the trip we managed to see some wildlife without it taking flight the first moment it saw us. Whats more to add to the scene there were probably over 50 Humpback Whales feeding in between our campsite and the Sea Lions. We had decided to camp on an island north of the colony, we weren't sure how territorial they were and had heard of them attacking people, not something that we wanted whilst we were trying to sleep. Especially now that we were on an island 10 mile from any bears and had the prospect of our first real night of safety in the trip.

The next morning we planned to be on water to catch the ebbing tide down to Kake, a distance of only about 16 miles, nothing compared to the 35 that we had paddled the previous day. We were on water and to the sea lion colony by about 5:30. However I think that they were a little more intimidating than our Australian Sea Lions, and firmly believe that they chased us away from the colony, a far cry from the playful pups I rememeber from home playing with us in the surf....

The weather presented another beuatiful day, and as one fella in the Nugget Inn in Kake remarked the next day, "One sunny day in Southeast Alaska makes you forget all of the rainy days." This is one of the truest things that has been said since time begun, and it seemed like a thousand years ago, rather than two days, that we had had 3 days of non-stop rain.

The 16 miles into Kake were some of the hardest miles that I have ever paddled. It seemed that the previous day had been harder on my body than it seemed, there were aches that I hadn't had since the beginning of the trip. But to make it even worse my sunglasses had broken and we spent the entire day paddling into the sun. With my eyes burning and my body aching it was with great relief that we finally made it into Kake and pulled up into the city dock. Imagine our surprise when we discovered that the one store at the top of the dock was the local liquour store, and that they had cold beer.....