2025-10-08 Marguerite Bay Trip

This was supposed to be a Port Stewart trip, but on the way out there I spontaneously changed my destination to Marguerite Bay, which is in Traitors Cove in Western Behm Canal.

Here is a map snippet from my Garmin InReach that shows my track. I took exactly the same route out and back.

My slip in Bar Harbor is near the red flag at the bottom of the map. It is about a 27 nm run to get out there, which takes me about 3 1/2 hours.

I am big on planning, and I rarely make spontaneous changes like this, but this day I did exactly that.

I left my slip in Bar Harbor at about 7 AM, when it got light. Since I hit that object while running in the dark about a year ago, I have not been leaving before it is light enough to see.

About 8 AM I stopped in the entrance to Clover Pass and pulled down my 2 crab pots. I prepped them and got them all baited up and ready to drop. I didn't want to have to do that while sitting in front of the dock at Marguerite Bay.

I of course had checked the weather often before this trip. It was supposed to be sunny with very little wind. I was surprised when I came out from behind the protection of the islands to get hit with significant swells and chop coming right out of the North in Western Behm Canal. I was piloting from the lower helm, and the front windows were getting doused regularly. It wasn't dangerous, just unexpected.

I arrived at Traitors Cove, and then Marguerite Bay, a little before 10 AM. There were no boats at the dock. I went over to the side, kind of in front of the creek that dumps out into the bay and dropped my crab pots in 65 - 80' of water. Then I went over and got tied up at the dock with no issues.

This dock is almost brand new. The USFS (US Forest Service) is responsible for the dock. They hired a private contractor who over the summer rebuilt the entire dock. I was tied up by about 10:30 AM.

Here are the obligatory shots of the Faraway tied up at the dock.

I had the dock to myself for a very brief period of time. A smaller boat, about 24', came in and tied to the side dock off to my starboard side. Later in the evening, after it got dark, a commercial boat came in and tied up over on the side opposite to me.

This is a very beautiful area, especially on a nice sunny day like this.

Here are some scenic shots I took around the area. Lately I've been taking shots with my phone more so than in the past. I recently learned how to transfer those photos over to my laptop.

Deer hunting season is open now (Aug 1 - Dec 31) and this area is popular with hunters for 2 reasons. First, it has a dock where they can unload their 4-wheelers, and second, there is an extensive logging road system here which gives them access up into the mountains.

Some of the hunters drop off their 4-wheelers early in the hunting season and just leave them here during the season. That way they can just run out here in their boats and have the 4-wheelers already here. I saw several up on the road just a short distance from the dock.

Of course, there is a USFS cabin and facility right up near the top of the ramp as well. The USFS is responsible not only for the dock, but also for managing the Tongass National Forest, which is all around us here. When USFS personnel come here and they need to stay overnight they have a nice cabin in which to stay.

The white shower stall on the porch is relatively new. I could not work out the source of the water that it would need. I didn't want to actually go up on the porch and look too closely; that's probably a federal offense.

Just within the last year or two they have added a very nice outhouse right across the road from the USFS cabin. I'm not sure what they used to use before this outhouse was installed.

There is another outhouse just like this one about a mile up the road near the cutoff down to the bear and fish viewing platform.

During the bear viewing season, roughly July 6th through the end of September, they fly tourists in from Ketchikan to go up and see the bears at the viewing platform. The float planes land down in the bay and tie up at the dock to load and unload. They (the tour companies) keep vehicles here in order to transport the tourists up the road. There were 4 such vehicles still here. I assume they are waiting for a barge to come to transport them to town, although I guess it is possible that they will be left here all winter.

I think it is unlikely that the vehicles will stay here all winter due to the high risk of vandalism. It's sad to say but if they are left here all winter it is unlikely that they will still be usable next July.

That evening, I had a fire on the dock using my fire pit. I put a layer of plywood and a layer of stainless steel under it to prevent it from burning the dock. I typically carry my own firewood, but since this was supposed to be a Port Stewart trip, where there is no dock, I did not bring any firewood with me. I did have an artificial fire log, and I had an axe. So, I walked up on the road system for a bit and brought down a small supply of firewood, enough for an evening fire.

While sitting out on the dock enjoying the fire the sun started to set. Each time that I thought it had peaked it got just a little more intense. I felt very privileged to be able to experience that sunset out here in this beautiful setting by an open fire.

And then finally it peaked!

My neighbor for the night on the smaller boat came over and sat with me at the fire for a bit and we had a nice chat. He seemed a bit obsessed with the possibility of mice getting onto his boat. I told him that I have been coming here for decades and have never had any issues with mice, but that did not seem to allay his fears.

Later that night, after it was full dark, and we had both retired to our boats, I heard some activity back behind my boat. He was muddling around back there with a headlamp on, but I could not work out what he was doing until morning.

The main dock and the side float where he was tied up are not physically connected. There are 2 big metal sheets connected to hinges that lay down to cover the gap between the docks. This was what he did as part of his efforts to keep mice away from his boat overnight.

The next day I tinkered around the boat and did some chores, did some work on my laptop, and took a couple of walks up the road a short distance. I would have liked to stay 2 nights but the wind app that I use was predicting some stronger winds on Friday, so I wanted to get back before dark on Thursday.

I pulled out a little before noon on Thursday.

The first task was to pull my 2 crab pots.

The first pot had only 1 crab in it, a male, but he was just a bit too small to keep.

The second pot had 2 females in it which cannot be kept no matter what size they are.

So, no crabs to take home on this trip.

Here are the 2 females still in the pot and the too small male in the orange bucket.

I had a great lunch on the way home courtesy of one of my boating buddies who had given me a can of Sockeye salmon. Yummy!

I made a spread out of it with mayo and chopped up pickles, and it made a great sandwich.

I lingered a bit on the way home because the weather was so stunningly beautiful and I had no real reason to get there before dark.

I got into the slip a little before 5 PM and it got dark at 6 PM.

I logged about 55 nm on this trip.