2025-07-04 Anchor Pass Trip

My philosophy is that if the opportunity arises to make trips with good friends, you should take advantage and make it happen.

My friends Brian and JoBeth approached me about making a trip up to the cabin in Anchor Pass. They are avid canoers and experienced outdoorsmen, and they wanted to see some new territory. I have been to Anchor Pass in Western Behm Canal many times and I knew it to be a beautiful area. They also have a relatively young dog, Dilly, and they wanted to give her a chance to stretch her legs.

Here's a map snippet that shows the run up there. Actually, this is the InReach track from our return trip, and it shows a little detour into Naha Bay, but more on that later.

And so, a plan was developed. We would load up their canoe on my boat in my slip at Bar Harbor on the night before departure. Then the next day I would pick them up at Knudson Cove in order to shorten the time Dilly had to go without a potty break. It's a pretty long run up there.

Here's a shot of how we (I should say they) loaded the canoe across the foredeck of Faraway. It was fine with the only drawback being that I could not see to pilot from the lower helm. In the summer I pilot from the upper helm almost all the time anyway, so that was not a problem.

The run up there was long but pretty uneventful. Seas were exceptionally calm, and the weather was pretty nice.

Here's a shot of the USFS cabin in Anchor Pass.

Here's a shot of Faraway on the mooring buoy that is located right in front of the cabin. The water up in this area is a wonderful shade a green, almost like a muted jade color.

Here's what it looks like from the shore in front of the cabin.

There were many beautiful Iris's along the beach areas.

It didn't take them long to get settled into the cabin. Here's a shot and a short video of Brian, JoBeth & Dilly in their canoe.

That first evening we had dinner by the fire out in front of the cabin. Good food, good friends, good weather - you can't beat that!

They spent most of the next day exploring the area in their canoe while I just hung out on the boat, one of my favorite things to do.

Here's a small map snippet that shows the Anchor Pass area in more detail.

The area marked with "1" is the approximate location of the USFS cabin.

We dropped a large shrimp pot in the general area marked with a "2."

The area marked with a "3" is the entrance to Blind Pass. When we left the cabin area, I dropped them and their canoe at the entrance to Blind Pass. Then I went around the outside of Black Island and met them on the other side as they canoed through.

Here are a couple of photos and a short video of the calm water inside Blind Pass. Apparently, this was Dilly's first time to go swimming by herself like that. Quite a milestone!

The run back down Western Behm Canal was uneventful, with somewhat rainy weather to deal with. We swung into Naha Bay because I wanted to see the improvements to the Naha dock. There was no room for us at the dock as the big work barge was still there.

I dropped JoBeth and Dilly off at Knudson Cove and Brian came with me back to the slip in Bar Harbor.

It was a very successful and enjoyable trip.

We logged 117 nm on this trip in Faraway, but I don't know how many miles they logged in their canoe.