For the trip this year I had my grandson Tyler, aged 9, and my long-time friend Bob Hammer going along as crew.
I wanted to make the trip without having to take a day off from work, so I had everything ready to go before Friday morning and I went on to work very early that day so that I could take off for the weekend at about 1:30 PM. I went over and picked up Tyler a little early from school, and Bob met us down at the boat. We pulled out just a little ahead of schedule at about 3 PM.
The weather was sunny with light SE winds. Pretty good traveling weather.
The above two map snippets show the route from my home stall in Bar Harbor north up into Behm Canal, and then into Traitors Cove, and then into Marguerite Bay. Total distance one way is about 28 nautical miles.
There is a USFS dock there that is first come first served for moorage, and the lake is about a mile up the logging road. A friend of mine has a small metal skiff hidden in the brush near the lake which would allow us to get out on the lake and fish.
We had a rough ride for the last portion of the trip, probably about a 6 on my 1 - 10 list of rough water. I'm sure it was the roughest water that Tyler had experienced. I was piloting from the flybridge helm and Tyler was in the cabin down below so I asked Bob to go down and check on him, and also to clear things off the counters that might go flying. Tyler was struggling a bit but he held his own and managed to hold his lunch down until we got into calmer waters.
Once we got inside Traitors Cove we prepared the shrimp pots (3) and crab pots (2) and dropped all of them before heading in to the dock. There were some guys there from Ketchikan Redi Mix working on the road, but other than that, the dock was clear and we got a good spot at the dock (very important for this expedition).
Here is my contented crew at the USFS dock on Friday evening. Tyler was breaking in the brand new fishing rod and reel that I had gotten him for this trip.
We were treated to a beautiful sunset that evening, and I had one pretty happy and excited grandson.
We spent the remainder of the evening getting our gear organized for a long day of fishing on Saturday.
On Saturday morning we were up early and had a cold breakfast so that we could get moving more quickly. The weather was on and off, with rain showers now and then.
The protocol here was to load all the gear we'd need into my rolling cart, and walk the mile or so up the road to the lake. Sorry I forgot to get a picture of the loaded cart before we headed up the road. We had to take the 4 HP motor (53 lbs), extra fuel, tire pump, life jackets, life cushions, oars, canvas deck chair, firewood log, and of course we each had our fishing gear and our own personal gear in our back packs. The little cart was fully loaded.
It was a tough haul getting all that gear up the road, but with Bob and I both pulling we made it in good time.
Once up at the lake we left the cart along the side of the logging road and then busted through the brush to where the skiff was hidden. Then we paddled the skiff back to where the cart was and mounted the motor and loaded the gear aboard. It was tough work, but having a skiff and a motor on that lake made it very much worth it.
We spent the whole day fishing the lake, either from the gravel bar at the head of the lake where the inlet stream comes in, or from the skiff. Weather was good and bad throughout the day. I wore my rain gear all day, so that tells you a little about the predominant weather. We had several rain squalls, at least 2 or 3 intense hail storms, interspersed with periods of blue sky.
Here are several shots taken throughout the day at various times that show how we did. Obviously I could not take pictures during the drenching rain storms or the pelting hail storms, so the pictures may not give a true impression of the weather situation. But at least you can see that we did catch a few fish.
Tyler said that he caught all his fish on his "lucky lure." But when I asked him if he had tried any other lures, he said no. Hmm, how does that work?
Bob brought both fly fishing gear and spinning gear.
I had brought along one of those Presto Log type firewood logs, thinking we could have a nice fire on the gravel bar. But frankly it was so breezy and cold that even though it did light, it did not provide much warmth or even much esthetic value.
Bob hates to wear rain gear, preferring wool gear, so the fact that he actually put his rain gear on shows you what it was like just previous to this picture being taken.
I know I have posted numerous pictures of Margaret Lake from the bridge, but it is such a beautiful setting that I cannot resist posting yet one more.
After re stowing the skiff, and loading the cart we then had to walk back to the boat lugging that cart with all the gear, plus now we had fish to deal with. Thankfully it is mostly downhill on the return trip.
Here's a proud little boy with a pretty good stringer full of trout.
That evening after dinner we had a couple of visitors, one I could get a picture of and one that I could not. We saw this heron (or crane?) fishing near the boat and that was cool. But then, way across the bay, on the other shore, I saw movement and put the binoculars on it. It was a wolf walking along the beach. Too far away to take a picture, but that is way cool, because you just don't see wolves that often in this country.
On Sunday morning we took the time to enjoy a hot breakfast of bacon and eggs. After that Bob and I took Tyler up the road and gave him the opportunity to shoot his first real firearm, my old .22 rifle that I've had since high school. Darned if I didn't forget to take my camera up the road with us. He really enjoyed it and he actually made that Mt Dew can dance!
We pulled out from the dock about 8:45 AM and pulled the pots. Got only 1 keeper crab, but a pretty good load of shrimp.
Tyler was impressed with the baby Tanner crab that was in the pot.
We tried a little bit of halibut fishing on the way home, but all we managed to do there was to lose some gear after getting hung up on the bottom. I guess the fishing Gods were telling us that we're only allowed to have just so much fun on one trip.
I shut down the engines and we drifted out there while I cooked up some hot dogs for lunch.
We just ran to town from there, going through some rain squalls and a little chop. Tyler sacked out on the couch down in the main cabin while Bob and I ran from the flybridge.
We got into the harbor about 3 PM with total trip mileage of about 56 nautical miles.
Another successful adventure on Faraway!
