June 8th Cruise up Clarence Strait to Meyer’s Chuck.
Meyer’s chuck has good AT&T cell phone service.
There is no good chart for Myer’s Chuck so I included our track below. As the guide books state you just come in the bay sticking to the middle of the green and red markers at the entrance. You then turn south around the red marker and head over to the public dock at the south end. Has plenty of depth the whole way but this is a small harbour.
Had thought about staying two nights at Kassan to join a community fun run and maybe walk the logging roads but we decided to move on to Meyer’s Chuck
Cruise up Clarence strait. Saw a couple whales who disappeared quickly. Clear cut for about ½ way along the cruise on east side of the passage. Arrived at Meyer’s chuck and there was dock space, alex did a great job. Harmony Bay was there already. There is a nominal charge of 22 cents/foot for docking.
We walked to two tiny short trails along the shore. Allowed dog swimming, checked out the gallery (alex bought a knit beanie hat), looked at the gallery operators beautiful home (used to be the school house and they bought it and renovated it…they live and have home in Mill Valley).
You can walk a little further down the trail past the Art Shop but it ends quickly.
We then took the short hike down the trail to the left of the dock past the small portable log mill.
Had cocktails on the boat with Barbara and Robert then dinner was leftover fish in sandwich form for alex and black bean soup for the two of us. DIARRHEA DOG…too much junk being eaten …hoping one bout is all! Leisurely morning the next day. Had fresh baked cinnamon rolls delivered by Cassie in her dinghy in baskets at 7 am. Order the day before!
June 9th – 10th Meyer’s Chuck to Berg Bay (Eastern Passage around Wrangell island)
Berg Bay has no cell phone service.
Later start around 10 am. First part of cruise finishing up Clarence strait (north end to round the curve eastward) was bit bumpy. Then eastward in Earnest Passage. Passed deer island (has some good anchorages on southwest side). Had a pod of Dal’s porpoise (AKA false killer whales) bow surf for an hour or so (and they dabbled in the wake too) so that was fun. Saw a whale breach far off in the distance…can’t wait to see these guys closer. Passed Anan Creek where the big bear watch is from July 5th through Aug 25th which must be when salmon are running. Turned up Blake Channel and arrived at Berg Bay around 4:30pm.
We went up all the way to head of the bay and anchored almost directly west of the USFS float in front of the cabin. When we checked in dinghy had deep water all around us so felt good with our short 120′ short scope in 50′ or so of depth. All the steep shore side you can see at waters edge dropped off steeply and the only shallow spots found where near the float or at the couple spots where there small spots with shallow slopes going in to the waters edge.
Berg bay is only 15 -20 miles from Wrangell but very remote feeling and beautiful. There is a forest service cabin, a hike and beautiful setting with high mountains with green without trees on steep areas. Supposedly we might see mountain goats up the hillsides.
Of course me worried about bears but still have not seen any. Lots of mosquito’s so if we hike we shall need bug spray and will use dogs bear bells and make noise! Need to be careful. Dogs make risk of attacks higher if they piss a bear off. Alex deployed two crab and one shrimp trap. Big catch on crab!
Berg Bay was beautiful. We rarely saw the mountain cause of rain and clouds. Alex deployed two crab and one shrimp trap. This resulted in 19 crab (?) and no shrimp. He got soaked as rained the entire time. We checked out the cabin and the boardwalk trail but did not walk due to rain and mosquitos.
Would revisit in better weather. The last two outs involved dumping dogs on the forest service cabin float which was cleaner.