June 26 - Day 57 - Warm Springs to Hidden Falls to Appleton Cove

 

 

June 26 – Day 57 – Warm Springs to Hidden Falls to Appleton Cove

 

The sky is bright this morning but still with high clouds, which hopefully will clear.

 

 

The inlet behind the boats this morning. Took the Jet through there yesterday.

 

Looking back

 

 

We are now headed for Hidden Falls, a short distance (about 4 miles) up the strait.  This will be a short stop for a visit as we need to move on closer to Sitka for a crew change in a few days. 

Hidden Falls is a fish hatchery that we stopped at in 2016.  That year they gave us a tour of the facility; very interesting.   They also had at that time a number of ‘resident’ brown bears that stay there year-round and do not hibernate.   Hey, where there is free and easy food, why go anywhere else.    

 

Due to covid they are not giving tours inside the buildings this year.  But we were able to talk to some workers outside.  They had just released the first batch of little ones into one of the outside tanks this morning and while we were there they released another group.  

 

This one did not survive the transfer to outside

 

There were three brown ‘grizzly’ bear there, two were sitting on the rocks waiting for the adult fish to arrive.  The third was grazing in the grassy meadow across the river.

 

Just waiting, but no fish in sight

 

 

 

Still watching.  Check out those claws. 

 

 

Bored but waiting

 

Back to the boats, head out and have some lunch.    Next stop Appleton Cove.  Hopefully some crabbing there.

 

The views along the way are amazing

 

On the way in we noticed on AIS that m/v Tonic who we met earlier in the trip, was in the bay.  So after anchoring the guys went out to drop the pots.  

 

 

Shortly after we arrival Steve and Brian from Tonic came over to visit.  We exchanged stories about places visited.   They have been on what they called the ‘appetizer’ tour.  They have stopped into a lot of places and seen a lot, in a relatively short time.  We are going in the opposite directions so our paths had not crossed.  They said they’d been watching for us, and said that they saw three boats headed into this bay and said, it must be them.  We had a great visit and will be watching for them in Glacier Bay as our permits are for the same timeframe.   We told them about Hidden Falls, Waterfall Cove, Warm Springs (hot springs), Red Bluff Bay and Gut Bay all as must-see places.

 

There is a forest service rental cabin in this bay and it was occupied.  The group at the cabin kept setting off loud fireworks and in the evening ones with skyward bursts of color.  If there were bear in this bay they are all hiding way away from the water.