George Inlet Lodge's Boat Tour Around Revillagigedo; 6.8.2011

The George Inlet Lodge has a new boat that we use for the Wilderness Sightseeing and Crab Feast tour. We go to a nature estuary where they pull up crab pots to show the guests how they catch the crabs that the guests will later eat. They all get a chance to hold or touch a live Dungenous crab. I talked about this in a previous blog. Anyway, they would also like to use the boat for special sightseeing trips that go around the entire Revilla Island.

So, the owners invited all the employees from the four lodges that they own; The George Inlet Lodge, The Cedars Lodge, The Clover Pass Lodge and the Silverking Lodge. This was sort of a practice run to see how long it would take and what different sights they could go to. All in all it took 12 hours. That included boating into the Misty Fjords where we had a box lunch and then stopping at the Silverking Lodge for a Seafood Boil, before ending where we began, at the Cedars Lodge.

 
The Lodge had this boat built to their specifications. I'm guessing that it is about 40 to 50 feet in length, holds about 62 passengers and has 3 diesel engines. I can't remember what the horse power is, but I do know that they burn 13 gallons per hour - each. And we could go about 26 knots per hour. It is all enclosed but with lots of windows, is heated and has a bathroom (with a marine-flush potty).

We were able to invite spouses, so, as it was Dan's day off he was able to go along with me. I'm sure it would be cool to see, from sea level, the sights that he normally sees from between 500 feet to 2 thousand feet.

Somebody brought doughnuts. Yum!

 

 

As I said, we started out from the Cedars Lodge about 9am, although they had asked us to arrive at 7:45am. We headed southeast from Ketchikan between Pennock Island, past Mountain Point and along the side of Bold Island. That's Bold Island in the picture on the right. As we headed around Point Alva and into the Behm Canal, the water was more open, so it was a little rougher. But the catamaran hull of the boat took it very well.

Bold Island

Bow spray from plowing through swells

Once in the Behm Canal we passed Rudyard Island on our left, Point Nelson and Smeaton Bay on the right and Smeaton Island on the left. And the water was calmer in the narrower canal. We were coming up to New Eddie Stone Rock, across from Ella Bay.

I have told you about New Eddie Stone Rock in previous blogs. It is the core of an extinct volcano whose sides were stripped away by glaciers. There are trees that have grown out of the rock, and there is an eagle's nest in the top of the tallest tree. The eagle was in the nest as we passed by, but my camera could not get a good picture.

New Eddie Stone Rock

Some of the gang

The big guy is Kirk Thomas, one of the owners

Just after Eddie Stone, we turned right around Point Louise and into Rudyard Bay. Another quick right and we headed into Punchbowl Cove where that 3,000 foot granite wall is what you see on the Mist Fjord Flightseeing Tour. We are now in the Misty Fjords. I have seen it many times from the air when I have ridden along with Dan on a Misty tour, but never from this vantage point. I know that it looks big from the air, but, man it is huge from sea level!

We came out of Punchbowl Cove and turned right back into Rudyard Bay, past Nooya Lake and up into the head of Rudyard Bay. This is where we were going to have our lunch. And it couldn't have been a better, more beautiful location.

It was so peaceful and quiet. And it was a great time to also get to know all the employees from the different lodges. Some of the people I have only spoken to on the phone, so it was great to put a face and name to a voice.

l to r: Jayne, Amanda, Katie, Tess

Jayne, me, Wanda

Time to get going again. We headed back into the Behm Canal going toward Walker Cove. Of course there was plenty of time for some cutting up and goofing around with our new friends.

Jayne is trying to keep balanced with her eyes shut and Wanda and I don't think she can do it. Or is she just nuts standing there with her eyes closed on a very fast moving boat?

I am taking a picture of Jayne taking a picture of Michael taking a picture of the breath-taking scenery..................I'm getting dizzy.............

Asako (center) is singing and entertaining (from left) Tess, Amanda, Jayne and Bob. That's Carstens coming in the door. He is Trish's (not pictured) husband. Trish is owner of George Inlet Lodge and Experience Alaska Tours (who I work for). Hope you got all that, there will be a test at the end.

Michael is taking pictures of Bailey Falls

Our next beautiful site was Bailey Falls. Of course we had to stop and take a ton of pictures. I took pity on you and only included one. The rest look just like this one, except from different angles. But seriously, Bailey Falls are just gorgeous, as you can see. They are big now because of snow-melt run-off. The fact that we have had a lot of rain probably helps as well. Later in the year they are much smaller, so we were lucky to have seen them now.

Just a little way past the falls, along the shore line, we came upon a bunch of seals sunning themselves. We tried to get as close as we could to them without spooking them. We didn't want to disturb them and we didn't want them to slip back into the water. The white one did lift his head to take a look at us. He must have determined that we were not a threat.
(if you double click on the picture, it will zoom in on the seals)

Our next right turn took us into Walker Cove. Ryan, our boat captain had a very good eye. He spotted this bear on the shore and quietly motored into the cove to get close enough to clearly see him, but not so close as to scare him away. He was eating the tasty new grasses and only looked up at us occasionally. When we got too close for his comfort, he kept looking up at us, turned, and eventually walked back into the forest.

You get a really good look at his face if you zoom way in

Bye bye Mr. Bear

Time to get a move on or we would be late for our Seafood Boil at the Silverking Lodge. So it was back into the Behm Canal and a quick run up to Point Wahley. We turned left at Point Wahley then right into Anchor Pass. Here the canal gets narrower. Ryan slowed down a bit. Even though it was narrow, it was still quite deep. It was amazing being so close to both shorelines.Bell Island was on our right, and we turned left into Bell Arm. We were going to go around three sides of Bell Island. On the end of the island is Bell Island Hot Springs Resort. Or, what used to be the resort. It was built in the 1970s and was the swankiest resort around. It was sold a couple of times and the most recent owners just let it go to ruin. That is quite a shame as it probably was beautiful in its day.

If you squint real hard, you can see the resort behind Jayne

We were really going to have to get a move on it. We were supposed to get to Silverking by 5:45pm. So we booked it and were unable to stop in at Neets Bay were there are supposed to be a lot of bears. We also had to by-pass Traitors Cove where I went bear viewing last time we were up here. Past Traitors Cove the canal opens up a bit. Something caught our eye out in the canal on the right. It was long and dark and looked like a whale on the surface. As we got closer, we saw that it was much bigger than a whale. Much, much bigger as we realized that it was a Trident Nuclear submarine! The Behm Canal in that area is over 1,000 feet deep. The navy has a testing facility there where they bring in their nuclear subs to test how quiet they are. They try to get them to be very, very quiet. Then the navy records their signature sound, sends it to the fleet so that the sub can be identified. We couldn't get close enough for good pictures, but the picture below is the best I could do. You might be able to zoom in to see it.

We turned into Grant Island where the Silverking Lodge is located. We were only about 10 minutes late. Practically on time. The lodge is pretty neat. There is a large carving, out of a dead tree, of an old sailor holding a lantern. In fact there are a lot of carvings around the lodge. One of their guests, who was a competitive chainsaw carver, carved a new statue every time he came there.

While we waited for the seafood boil, we were invited to walk along their boardwalk to go see the largest hemlock tree in Alaska. The walk alone was just beautiful. But then we came upon that massive tree. It really was huge! So, of course, with this bunch, we all hammed it up for pictures.

Laura, Asako (center), Mary Ann

Benjy

 

This tree is really big. This is no trick photography.

Wanda

 

 

The dinner was ready for us. And just in time, too, as we were back from our walk and really hungry. We couldn't wait to get our hands on that food. And get our hands on it we did. There were no plates, nor utensils. They covered the tables with heavy duty plastic and then newspapers. And everything was finger food. There was crab (Dungenous of course), large shrimp, clams, mussels, pearl onions, garlic cloves, baby red potatoes, andouille sausage, and small corn on the cob. It was deeelicious!!

What a feast!

How much can you eat?? Trish (owner of George Inlet Lodge)

This is Kirk Thomas with Dan. He wrote a children's book about Grandpa being a bush pilot. Of course you know we just had to get one for Karynn and one for Thomas and Colin. He also is a partner in all four lodges plus he leases two turbine otters to Promech (Taquan's competitor). He's a really nice guy - very down to earth.

Dinner is over, our tummys are full. And it is time to get back to Ketchikan. By the time we got back to the Cedars Lodge, it was 9pm.; twelve hours later. Dan and I slept very well that night.