I responded, "Great, when and where?"
It turned out to be a trip to Marguerite Bay, in Traitor's Cove, Western Behm Canal.
I've been there many times, and it is one of my favorite places to visit.
My buddies from my former job at First Bank were organizing a multi boat trip to the bay and they had invited me to join them.
I pulled out from Bar Harbor about 9 AM on Friday morning.
Had no crew with me on this trip, but would meet up with other boats and friends out at the bay.
The weather was snowy, overcast, and cold. It is January after all!
As I've reported previously here in this blog, my primary navigational device the Garmin 3210C has been unreliable and has a tendency to die at the most inopportune moments.
On the trip out to the bay there were several snow squalls that brought visibility down to just a few feet, so radar was required. My primary nav unit has radar, but my secondary unit does not. It has GPS charting and depth, but no radar.
I made my way north up through Clover Pass, and saw my buddies loading gear at their dock.
Their boats are much faster than mine so I forged ahead.
They both passed me about a half hour away from the entrance to Traitor's Cove.
That worked out well because there was a lot of ice around the USFS dock, and they pushed it way with their practically indestructible metal boats.
There were critter tracks in the slushy ice behind the dock.
Not sure what made them, perhaps a martin or a mink?
For the first night there were just the three of us, three guys and each with his own boat.
So accommodations for the night were pretty simple to figure out.
One of my buddies had brought a snow machine, and the other had brought a 4 wheeler.
I brought a good pair of boots and some snow cleats.
Some photos taken from the dock.
We didn't do much over the short afternoon, mostly just hung around the dock.
One of the guys had brought a fire pit which we lit up almost right away.
We also had deck chairs, so sitting around the fire was the order of the day.
It got dark around 4 PM, and then the fire pit was even better.
One of my buddies prepared a great dinner of barbecued steaks, baked potatoes, and salad.
Since my boat had the biggest main cabin we all convened there to enjoy the meal.
We all turned in early this evening. Being out in the cold wears you down a bit, and I think we were all tired.
On Saturday morning the other guys were doing their own thing, and we were kind of waiting for a couple of other boats to come in.
I got geared up for day out in the cold, made a lunch, packed my back pack, and headed up the logging road at about 10 AM.
There really wasn't much snow on the road, but it was cold.
Walking up the road builds up body heat, so I had no trouble staying warm.
I walked down to the bear and fish viewing platform, even though I knew there would be no bears or fish. Took a few pics while I was down there. In the summer they fly tourists in to the dock and the run them up the road in a van. Of course it's more interesting when there are bears and fish to look at.
I think these are squirrel tracks.
I usually see wolf tracks on this road in the winter, but not this time.
Margaret Lake is about a mile up the logging road.
There is a bridge across the outlet from the lake, and I think it is an Alaska state law that you have to take pictures of the lake from the bridge.
That's my pack sitting out there on the bridge.
An icy cold wind was blowing down the lake.
I had intended to sit on the bridge and eat my lunch, but with that wind I decided to find a more sheltered spot.
I found a nice little spot amongst the trees and sat down and enjoyed my lunch.
I was just starting to make a decision as to whether I should walk back down the road, since I had not seen any of my buddies yet.
Just as I started back down the road they showed up.
Now that's travelling in style, and colorful too.
Now it was time to get serious about ice fishing.
One of the guys had brought a couple of boxes of gear so the guys bored holes in the ice and set about trying to catch some fish.
I just wandered around and visited with all the guys, some of which I had not been able to talk to for over a year. It was good to get caught up.
Success!
That evening we had another fire on the dock, and a nice dinner with everyone aboard my boat again.
Two of the guys that had come in on Saturday morning needed bunks for the night, so they slept on my boat. The diesel furnace was much appreciated during the night.
The next morning, Sunday, I just had a quick breakfast and made preparations for departure.
For me it was about a 3 hour trip home, while for the other guys it was less than an hour.
In addition, the weather report said it was going to be getting rougher as the day went on, so I wanted to get back to the harbor as soon as possible.
I pulled out about 9:30 AM.
I was piloting from the lower helm on this trip.
It was so cold that the flybridge was all iced up with no visibility.
I prepared the lower cabin for rough water but didn't do much up above.
Once I got out into Behm Canal I had a pretty good beam sea running.
It was tossing things around on the flybridge.
I could hear it happening, but there was nothing I could do about it, since I could not leave the helm.
After getting tossed around a bit I made it into Clover Pass, and then into Tongass Narrows.
The closer I got to town, the calmer it got.
So I made it safely into the stall about 1 PM.
When I went to check the flybridge it looked like it had been vandalized.
The strangest thing was that one of my survival suits had somehow managed to make its way out of its storage bag, unfolded itself, and stretched itself out on the floor.
It was nice to get the boat out and stretch her legs a little, and to be able to catch up with some of my former colleagues.
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