2026-10-29 Marguerite Bay Trip

Everything finally came together to allow me to get out for a couple of days. I have multiple commitments that sometimes keep me in town. And of course, there is the weather, which is notoriously bad at this time of the year. But there was a 2-day window that appeared and I was ready to take it.

Here is the track from my Garmin InReach. This track shows my return trip, but the trip out was exactly the same route. Occasionally there are glitches in the InReach tracking and that happened on my outbound trip. It does not show the entire trip, but I will call Garmin support about that.

It's about 26 nm one-way to get out there. It took me a little over 3 hours. I have to go slower than my usual cruising speed for the first couple of miles due to a speed limit near town in the Tongass Narrows. I also stopped briefly on the way out there for about 20 minutes to pull down my 2 crab pots and get them prepped and baited and ready to drop.

Marguerite Bay is a cove inside of Traitors Cove. There is a USFS dock there and a system of logging roads. It is a popular destination for cruisers at all times of the year, but specifically at this time of year it is popular with hunters. They bring their 4-wheelers and they can access miles of remote areas by way of the logging roads.

As I approached the dock I could see that it was fairly crowded already. I dropped my 2 crab pots in about 60 - 70' of water in front of the lagoon. There were already several crab pot buoys in that area.

Fortunately as I got closer to the dock I could see that there was just one spot open that was large enough for me to fit, so I was able to get in and get tied up to the dock.

The larger boats were Bayliner 4788 models, about 47' in length. "Selah" was tied to the outside of the main float, and "Sun Chaser" was tied to the side near the big rock. They boat had smaller boats with them but they were thoughtful enough to tie them off to their sides rather than to take up dock space with them. Technically the front of the dock is supposed to be for loading & unloading only. There are big signs on the front of the dock. But many times boats ignore the signs, especially in the winter when there is less boat traffic at the dock.

There was also an Amak Towing work boat named "Poseidon" anchored out in front of the dock with a small barge tied alongside. Poseidon has been here almost everytime I have visited over the summer. I think it is supporting the workers that work on the road and on other projects in the area.

A little later in the morning as the tide rose the Poseidon pulled anchor and moved over to the loading ramp area that is just up the road from the dock. They unloaded lumber and some equipment there as the Poseidon sat there in gear pushing the barge up against the ramp.

Right after lunch I geared up and took a hike up the logging road. They recently completely rebuilt the Bear & Fish viewing platform and I had not seen it since that was completed, so that was my goal for the hike.

Check out the interesting frost lines on the decking. It was quite cold so there was a lot of frost on the dock. The areas where the sun hit it had thawed the frost. But some areas were in the shade and the frost remained. Cool!

The Bear & Fish Viewing platform is about 3/4 of a mile up the logging road. In the summer they fly in tourists and then drive them up there in vans.

They have an outhouse right near the trail that goes down to the viewing platform. It takes about 10 minutes to walk down to the platform from the logging road.

There is a very long walkway leading to the viewing platform. It is gated at both ends, presumably to keep the bears out and the tourists in.

The platform itself looks nicely done. I noticed the large beefy supports that look like they support a roof system of some kind - yet there was no roof. Maybe in the summer they put a camo tarp over everything?

Of course at this time of the year there are no fish and therefore there are no bears.

Margaret Creek is quite loud.

This area is so steep and tumultuous that the fish cannot negotiate it, so a fish ladder is there to allow them to get around it.

And if you are wondering, yes, the fish just find there way to the fish ladder. Instinct I guess.

I had a quiet night at the dock. I had been planning (and looking forward to) having a fire there on the dock. But it was just so cold that I decided against it. In the morning it was 29 degrees on the back deck. I was very thankful for my diesel furnace which kept me toasty warm inside.

On the way out of the cove the next day I pulled my two crab pots. They were completely empty - not even any smalls or females. Makes me wonder if someone pulled them before I got to them.

The ride back was uneventful. The weather was just beautiful and the seas were calm.

I got into the slip at a little after 4 PM after logging a little over 53 nm for this trip.