Baranof Warm Springs Lay Day

Whoo-Hoo! Another beautiful sunny day this morning! Flat calm bay surrounded by steep cliffs of rocky outcroppings and tree-covered ridges rising vertically up 2000 feet to snow capped peaks! Thea took full advantage of the calm conditions and took off this morning to Takatz Bay to find some fish, by 2:00 they had returned with another halibut, 4 more rock fish and 4 brown bear sightings! Konrad and Lea on La Vida decided to take an alternate route to Tracy Arm with plans to catch up with the fleet again in a few days in Explorer Basin. John and Gail on Arctic Star have decided to rejoin us tomorrow in Red Bluff Bay.

Cheryl, Rick and Floyd of Eldean, and Nancy of Exact all met for a kayaking excursion around Brown Bear Bay. Meanwhile, the Brother’s-three, Joe, Mark and David of Bonum Vitae took their dingy into Warm Springs for a hike to the hot springs. Finn and David hiked up to the knob overlooking Lake Baranof for a spectacular view of the lake.

Before the Thea crew went out fishing, they generously offered up their kayaks for the rest of us. We retrieved the kayaks and Floyd, Cheryl and Rick ventured into the shallow lagoon through the 15 foot wide entrance at slack tide. It is a narrow entrance flanked by mussel & barnacle covered rock walls. It is calm and seemingly simple to enter at slack but beware, it is a different situation as the tide rushes through like a boiling river at high or low water! During the slack, below the water a bouquet of colorful anemones and sponges adorn the bottom. The narrow passage opens into a beautiful, calm lagoon surrounded by hemlock and spruce trees. The silence is only broken by a lilting flute-like whistles of the birds and the lone harbor seal that occasionally pops up to assess the situation.

Later in the afternoon, many of us hiked up the salmon berry lined boardwalk for a dip in the natural warm waters of the bath houses or, a bit further up the trail to the natural hot springs. The bath houses are a simple design of 3 private rooms with large clean tubs of hot springs water and a beautiful opening with a view if the snow-capped mountains as a backdrop to the raging falls. The natural hot springs are rocky pools of varying temperatures surrounded by a spruce forest and located at the top of the rushing waterfall. Both choices offer a warm, relaxing experience with splendid views!

Cheryl decided on an evening kayak from the dock, out to Brown Bear Bay where she visited with the crew on Deception and awaited Rick and Floyd’s water taxi service back to Eldean. Exact met up with some friends of theirs that happened to be in the area and anchored in Brown Bear Cove; they shared a freshly caught salmon dinner together with their friends.