12 Jun 23

Another solid night’s sleep. Dawn, or at least the part of it that we saw, broke overcast, but warm-ish. After breakfast, we had a quick chat with the couple from last night. They enjoyed their night in the cabin.  They are a couple of teachers from Ketchikan and just popped out for a couple of days for camping in their Lund 16 foot open skiff, from 1988, including the 1988 Evinrude outboard. They are braver souls than we. We got going just before 09:00.  Back out in Behm Canal, we decided to divert over to get a close look at New Eddystone Rock. When we got close, we found a couple of humpback whales feeding nearby, so we stopped to watch them for half an hour. We finally turned into Rudyerd Bay at 10:40. Superlatives just do not do the place justice. It is indeed like driving a boat into Yosemite. We must have taken 500 or 600 photos during the course of the day. After motoring all the way to the head of the inlet, we just drifted for about half an hour while we had lunch and enjoyed the views. Then, we motored back down the inlet, turning into Punchbowl Cove, which is the only solid place to anchor in the entire bay/inlet. When we got there, we found one other boat, “Encore” out of Portland, OR, anchored, and the USFS mooring ball was unoccupied, so we thankfully grabbed it, tying off at 14:40. Punchbowl Cove is bounded on the east side by a 3000 foot high nearly vertical granite cliff (batholith) not unlike the Halfdome at Yosemite. I unlimbered the dinghy and rowed over to reconnoiter the “trail” up to Punchbowl Lake, but it is in bad shape. I made it about half way before I decided that Terri was never going to be happy with this trail; truth be told, I was not too happy with it myself and it was somewhat harder (and more dangerous) going downhill than it was going up. I did not encounter any bears, but I did see 3 or 4 BIG, fresh today, bear footprints on the trail. After dinner and a few dozen sunset photos, the breeze died down completely.  

55-31.665’N, 130-46.922’W; Log = 28.2, Sum = 919.8 N-m; Eng. hrs. = 4.9, Sum = 3258.8