DIY Alaska Bear Hunt- Heading Home- Part 9

Once we got my bear back to the cabin, I realized that during all the research and preparation for the trip, I had failed to find out the proper way to skin a bear to have it made into a rug. I knew that you didn't want to put any nicks or holes in the hide but I didn't know what to do with the head or paws. I figured the best way to do it was very slowly and carefully so that's what I did. It took four hours to get it skinned the way I thought it should be done. I cleaned it the best I could, rolled it in salt and hung it in a tree. I then started the butchering process. When that was finished, I went inside to prepare one last feast. None of us had ever eaten bear so I didn't know what to expect. I cooked up a big pot of stew with carrots, onions, potatoes and of course, lots of chunks of bear. I also whipped up a bunch of onion rings with all of the leftover onions ( I knew they were good ) in case my stew was inedible. I don't know how good it was but three of us each ate two big bowls, then Paul and Gary stood over the cast iron pot with forks and flashlights, picking out all the rest of the meat. I guess starvation is good for the appetite.
The following day while Paul and Gary were out hunting, Warren and I were taking stock of our remaining supplies for the trip back to Petersburg. Everything looked okay except for our gasoline supply. We were down to about two gallons....... "Let's go see John again."
John showed us where we could find a little gas here and there, in mostly empty barrels and cans and we managed to come up with five more gallons. I wouldn't be running wide open on the trip home. Warren turned down an invitation from Jim to come to his trailer to see his Led Zeppelin posters and whatever else a lonely Alaskan bachelor kept on his walls and we headed back to the cabin to finish packing.
The next morning, we put Warren back on the float plane and the other three of us started off towards Petersburg. The trip back was so smooth as to be almost boring. We made it back with at least two gallons of gas to spare. Ben met us at the pier to pick up the boat and made a quick inspection, commenting on how good the prop looked. I guess most people tear up the props running aground in the gravel. I couldn't let him get too far, "Before you brag on us too much, you might want to take a look under the console."
He quickly spotted my handmade plug sticking into the boat, "What happened, did you run over a tree?!"
As much as I would have liked to save myself the embarrassment, I couldn't lie to him. "I had a little accident, I shot a hole in it. Have it fixed and send me the bill." He didn't ask for any more explanations, just agreed to send me a bill.
The trip home was largely uneventful, oh, there was one delay waiting for a light bulb in the plane's toilet to be replaced.
The four of us have relived parts of this trip for six years now and I wanted to get it written down before one or all us start to lose our memory.

DIY Alaska Bear Hunt- The Bear- Part 8

Well rested after making an early night of it, we were up and ready to hit it hard Thursday at 4:30 AM. Gary had gotten over the "beaver fever" and was ready for coffee. We headed out into the main channel for a couple miles then made our usual round of Portage Bay. By 10:30 or so, we hadn't seen anything but a blacktail deer and everyone was hungry so Paul suggested going back to the cabin for a while.
We had seen a bear around noon one day so I asked to be let off where we had spotted it. " Just drop me off here. I'll shoot that bear when he comes out for lunch."
The others scoffed a little but gladly let me out of the boat.
The sun was out and it was warming up a little. I found a spot in the tall grass next to a large fallen tree. I spread my raincoat out on the grass and got just a little too comfortable.I let myself doze off and on, after all, bears are way more active in the early morning and just before dusk. On one of the occasions when I opened my eyes to glance around.... "HEY! THERE'S A BEAR!! Right there, less than 75 yards away was a big black bear. I slowly eased my borrowed rifle, a .375 Magnum, up to my knees and drew a bead, waiting for the perfect shot. The bear stopped broadside to me, facing the water. I thought to myself, "Perfect, I read somewhere that a bear will run in the direction it's facing when it's shot. It should run right to the edge of the bay and die. I can just beach the boat and load it up! Did I mention what an incurable optimist I am?"
I put my crosshairs right behind his shoulder and carefully squeeeeeeezed off a shot. The big gun roared and the bear leapt towards the shore! He took 2 steps in the right direction and then wheeled and headed straight for me! I quickly jacked another shell into the chamber, well, almost, I worked the bolt too fast and got the shell wedged crossways. "GREAT!" My gun was jammed, I'd left my pistol at the cabin and I was stiff from sitting on the ground for 2 hours.
"It's amazing how fast the mind can work. In the few seconds while the bear was charging me, I thought about all that transpired on this trip and wondered how I was going to burrow under this log to keep it from ending badly..............................."
The bear covered maybe twenty-five yards before turning and running into the woods. I could hear him crashing through the brush and tried to pinpoint where he was. Within ten to fifteen seconds, I heard a loud roar/growl , then everything was silent.
I took a minute to compose myself then pulled out my knife and began to extract the jammed shell from the rifle. When I finally got it out and put a fresh shell in the chamber, I got on the radio and let the group that I had a bear down somewhere in the woods. They were understandably excited for me and eager to come help me find him......RIGHT!
While I was waiting for them to show up, I cautiously made my way into the woods, looking for a blood trail or any trail. I found no blood but could see some broken limbs and freshly torn-up ground.
Southeast Alaska is like a rain forest. The trees are huge and the underbrush is thick. Wherever a tree has fallen it leaves a big cavern-like hole under the root ball. It seemed that there was a place under every tree big enough to hide a bear. I was certain I had made a good shot and my bear was laying dead somewhere nearby but when you're alone in that situation, you start to wonder. After twenty minutes of searching very slowly, I heard the boat pull up on the beach. I went to meet Paul, Warren and Gary. I suggested that since we were so close to the logging camp that we go borrow John's dog to find the trail easier. They all agreed that this was a good idea. John was glad to let me take the dog and the dog was excited to go for a walk.
We started looking where I had left off and found the bear within 20 yards of where I had been when the boat approached. The dog was walking about 5 yards ahead of us and stopped like he'd run into a wall. His back hair stood straight up so we assumed he'd found my bear, we were right. The bear had only gone about 100 yards from where I had first shot but it took us about 30 minutes to drag him to the beach. We had to go over, around or under obstacles every ten or fifteen feet. When we reached the boat and caught our breath, we loaded the bear and headed back to the cabin. Now my real work was about to begin!

DIY Alaska Bear Hunt- Gun Safety- Part 7

The following morning, we were back to Cheerios in coffee or peanut butter with Oreos, whichever was preferred, then back to the hunt. After all the boat pushing, I had visited the dump at the logging camp and found some pieces of 2" PVC pipe, which I cut into three foot lengths. We carried 5 pieces with us at all times, figuring on rolling the boat on them if we got stranded again. We paid more attention to the tide tables but still had to use the makeshift rollers twice. They were a big help!
As we cruised around the bay, we spotted the biggest bear we had seen so far. The wind was no good to try to put a stalk on him so we just beached the boat and took a long-distance ( 300+ yard ) shot. The bear was not even scratched and ambled off into the woods.
Now, I have been through hunter safety courses and always practice safe gun handling. I lay my gun down and slide it under fences and unload it to get into tree stands and would never put a loaded gun into a vehicle. However............. after shooting at this bear and missing, I put on the safety and handed my borrowed 375 magnum to Warren, who slid it into my case resting under the console of the boat.
We all four got back in the boat and continued south, glassing the beach as we went. Within 15 minutes we spotted another bear just at the edge of the timber, having his late-morning breakfast of fresh grass. I throttled the engine back to an idle and reached to slide my rifle out of the case. BOOOOOM!!! Somehow the safety had caught on the case as the rifle slid into it and the act of touching the stock had caused the hair-trigger to discharge. The roar of the big gun under the console was deafening! Gary, who was sitting up front, yelled out " Somebody's shooting at us!" I replied "It's me."
As the water spewed into the boat and the others started in on me, I calmly said ( while mentally kicking myself and wondering how I could have been sooooooooooo dumb ) " We'll be fine, I'll just run the boat aground so Paul and Gary can go after the bear. I'll figure out a way to fix the boat."
Paul and Gary headed up the beach to look for the bear while Warren stayed to keep an eye on me, " Didn't he trust my boat-patching skills?"
I searched and found a small alder tree with a limb that looked to be about the right size to make a plug. I cut two pieces about six inches long and whittled them both to the size and shape to pound into the hole, one to use and one for a spare. ( Safety first and always be prepared, still kicking myself)
Warren found a nice smooth rock for a hammer and I pounded the plug into the 3/4" diameter hole. When it looked good and tight, we shoved the boat back into the water and checked out the tightness of the plug. Success! It seemed to be holding and not leaking but we would keep a close eye on it the rest of the trip. We kept the spare plug and the hammer rock close at hand in case of failure.
That day, we went back to cabin early and spent the rest of the afternoon hiking through the woods and fields, exploring and hunting. I carried my shotgun in case we saw some grouse or other small game to expand our diet a little bit. The only animals we saw the rest of the day were blacktail deer, which were out of season, and songbirds. We could still dig more clams.
Gary didn't care too much what the rest of us ate, he'd come down with a case of "beaver fever", the Alaskan version of "Montezuma's Revenge." I don't know if it was the clams or drinking out of the wrong water jug, but noone else wanted what he had. It only lasted about 24 hours but that was plenty for him.
After all the excitement of the day, we were ready to turn in early. Everyone was so relieved that the boat was the only casualty of my stupidity, they didn't really ride me like they could have or should have, I'd already beat myself up pretty good.

DIY Alaska Bear Hunt- Dinner- Part 6

Somehow I had ended up as the main cook for the trip. I didn't really mind, it got me out of the water gathering trips. Since we were sitting on the ocean, someone had to go fetch water every day. There was a creek about a mile away, by boat, of course, everything was by boat. While I chopped onions and peeled potatoes to prepare for our first real meal in two days, Paul and Warren went to get water. They beached the boat near the stream and made the first trek, each carrying two containers. Paul left his rifle in the boat since it was afternoon and they were making lots of noise walking and talking. They had discussed carrying a gun and decided against it, "We're making so much noise, there won't be anything around."
You guessed it, as they approached the stream, they came upon a nice sized black bear. He wasn't too disturbed and just wandered off into the woods. They made their way back to the boat to get the second set of containers and had the same discussion. "There's no way he'll still be around." I guess the lesson to be learned here is.. "Always carry a gun when you're hunting, you can't shoot a bear with no gun." The bear was still unconcerned as it ambled back into the woods and out of sight.
As Gary, Paul and Warren took care of the water purification process, pumping the stream water through a filter into a clean container, I finished up dinner. I fried everything, fried fish,fried clams,fried onions,fried potatoes, everything tastes good fried, probably even paper towels. Gary had cooked some moose meat in a cast iron skillet over a fire. We devoured everything, something about eating Cheerios, peanut butter and Oreo cookies for two days makes anything cooked taste great.
After dinner, Warren and I paid a visit to John. He had told us to come by if we needed anything, they had a phone we could use.As we pulled away from the beach, Paul called out to us, "If anyone pulls out a banjo, RUN!" Apparently, we all had the same thoughts, not really about John but his brother Jim, living alone up there in his private trailer. We got a big laugh out of Paul's comment.
We decided that Warren would call his wife and let her know that we had arrived safely and she would spread the word. No mention was made of our adventure thus far, you know how women are, they'd probably dream up all kinds of bad things that could happen. " Hi honey, we're at the cabin, having fun, met some people at a logging camp. Call Cindy and Robin, love you, goodbye." After all, we were using John's long distance, didn't want to run up his phone bill. We visited for a couple hours, finding out about life apart from others. The kids were home-schooled, groceries had to be flown in and doctor visits were not real convenient but the logging company paid for trips to town. The conversation was winding down and we were about ready to call it a night when John piped up, "Hey, do either of you guys play the guitar?"
Warren and I looked at each other and tried to stifle a huge laugh, it wasn't really a funny question save for Paul's parting shot.
We had consulted the tide charts before going to John's, we'd learned our lesson and didn't think we could push that heavy boat with just the two of us. It turned out that the tide was coming in so we ran the boat onto the beach as far as we could and took the anchor as far as we could inland, about 20 feet. "That ought to hold it."
As we rounded the bend, we could see the boat, but it was about fifty feet from shore. I guess we visited too long. We couldn't believe we'd done it again! Warren looked at me and I looked at him, stupid grins on both our faces, "What now?"
Never one to avoid answering questions, whether I know a good answer or not, I said "One of us is going to have to strip down and swim out to get the boat." Since I'd come up with this brilliant idea, Warren thought it only fitting that I carry it out.
I stripped down to my wool socks ( didn't want to cut my feet ) and waded into the chilly water carrying a long stick. When I got in to about chest level, I was able to reach the anchor rope with the stick and retrieve the boat. NEVER a dull moment!
After sharing the night's experiences with Paul and Gary and getting another big laugh, we turned in to get ready for another big hunt tomorrow.

DIY Alaska Bear Hunt. Settling In Chapter 5

As soon as we got the diesel stove blazing, we hung all our clothes everywhere in the tiny cabin and relived the past few hours. We agreed that it was somewhat of a miracle that we were all okay. Warren confessed that he had made backup plans while waiting for us.Since the pilot couldn't land near the cabin we were staying in, he dropped Warren within a couple hundred yards of the cabin we were moving to the second day. There was a couple staying there, so Warren wasted no time introducing himself. I never found out what he promised them, but they offered to let him bunk with them if we didn't show up.
We still had one minor concern, our gas for the boat. We had used over 25% of our gas just getting to the cabin. The standard method for spring bear hunting was to cruise around glassing for bears and go ashore downwind and try to stalk within shooting range. We needed to save at least 6 gallons of gas for the trip back to Petersburg, leaving just under 10 gallons to run for the next 6 days. "Oh, well, let's turn in, can't do anything about it."
With the combination of the hot cabin and our adrenaline letdown, we were all quickly sawing logs. I was awakened a couple hours later with the sensation of suffocating and burning alive! It must have been 130 degrees on the upper bunk! I turned the stove back down and survived the night.
We were all up and around at daylight, about 4:30 in the morning. We ate whatever we could find in our mess, then loaded the boat to explore and hunt. It was warm that first morning, starting out about 35 degrees. As we idled around the bay, searching for bears, everything dark on the shore looked like a bear. We would spot something and all 4 would study it with our binoculars and rifle scopes. After a couple hours of peering intently at rocks, stumps and kelp, we came around a small island and spotted........ a small boat!
As we approached it, we saw a man and woman and two little kids fishing. Pulling alongside, we noticed that the kids were wearing light jackets and tennis shoes. The little girl was dressed the warmest, she had on one sock!
I couldn't get over running into someone out here 30 miles from town, let alone a couple with two kids. The man introduced himself, "I'm John King, this is my wife and the two snotnoses." That was a very accurate description of the kids.They lived in Portage Bay at what we thought was a bunch of abandoned buildings. It turned out that it was a logging camp and he was the maintenance man. He kept everything ready, generators in running condition,etc. When the lumber company got a big order for timber, the lumberjacks would descend on the camp, fill their order and vacate the place, leaving John and his family alone once again. John told us that that they would be moving to Prince Edward Island soon so his brother was staying with them. He would take over John's position when they left. Being left totally alone out there didn't sound too appealing to any of us! Too much like "The Shining" for my taste!
We left John to his family and went to load the boat and move to our new cabin, WOW, what a difference! The first cabin was about 16' X 20' and you had to go about 75' through the woods to the outhouse. The second cabin was a large A-frame with a sleeping loft, a wraparound deck and a wooden sidewalk leading to the large outhouse. We found out later that this cabin was handicapped accessible, explaining the need for easy access to everything.
We got all our stuff carried in and each claimed our spots. After settling in and relaxing for a couple hours, we headed back out for the early evening hunt. As we made our way to the beach, we noticed that the tide had gone out a little, well, not really a little. The boat was now at least 50' from the water! We all had tide charts and had looked at the times for high and low tide but hadn't really paid attention to what time it was or to how wild the tide swings were. "Okay, let's push the boat out and we'll pay closer attention to the tides from now on." The 18' boat that had seemed so small and light in the 6' swells the day before was now huge and so heavy. After much straining, dragging, pushing and cussing, we got to the water. " Let's not do that again!" It turned out that no matter how hard we tried to keep track of time and tide, we still got caught several times. If there was an Olympic boat-pushing team, we could have qualified!
The next day, after a hearty breakfast of Cheerios and coffee, we started our day's hunt. We spotted a bear after a couple hours of cruising and agreed to give Paul and Gary the first chance. The only place we could land out of sight was upwind of the bear, so the chances of making a good stalk were pretty slim, but they decided to try anyway.
Warren and I dropped them off and headed back out into the bay to watch the action from afar. Paul and Gary made their way up the beach towards the bear with the wind at their backs. Imagine their surprise when they came around the corner to find the bear about 50 yards away, still feeding and apparently undisturbed. Paul threw up his rifle and peered through the scope, seeing nothing but hair, evidently he'd left the scope on 9 power from using it to glass the beach. No time to dial the scope down so he took aim as best he could and squeezed off a shot. Warren and I saw the whole thing from the boat. The bear whirled and ran into the woods,crashing through anything in it's way. We went ashore and all four of us tried to find any sign that the bear was hit. The vegetation and fallen trees were so thick and tangled that you could barely move. It seemed that every ten feet or so you had to climb over or crawl under a big tree lying on or near the ground. We searched for a couple hours without finding any sign. We would have kept looking but Paul thought that because of the distorted view through his scope, he had most likely missed.
Our huge Alaskan breakfast of Cheerios had left us by now so we started back to the cabin to eat again. There was not much substantial left to eat, "Guess it's time to go catch those little halibut Ben told us about." He said that this early in the season and in that area, we would probably only catch 10-15 pound fish. "One of those would feed us all for a week."
As we approached the cabin, we saw another boat pulled ashore. We saw that it was John and Jim, come to visit. They had brought some moose meat with them, I suppose that was just neighborly. The tide was going out while they were there and I noticed several places on the beach that water was spurting out of the sandy gravel. "What is that," I asked. John replied that there was a clam at each of the small waterspouts. He showed us how to catch them and we soon had a big bucketful, some of them were HUGE. He said the big ones were geoducks ( pronounced gooeyducks ). We opened several and ate them raw right there on the beach. We told them we were going fishing later and he cut out a piece of the clam to use for bait.
Since they were being so helpful, we casually mentioned our gas predicament. John said it shouldn't be a problem, he had groceries flown in every week and would get us some gas. It would end up costing us about $10 a gallon but it would be better than paddling back to Petersburg.
John and Jim left and we headed out to catch the rest of our feast. Ben had told us to fish up close to Portage Islands and drift wherever the current took us. Within about ten minutes Gary had hooked a fish. The rest of us watched, anticipating at least a 5 to 10 pound fish. He pulled it into the boat, it was a halibut alright, maybe 3 pounds. We kept it and tried to catch some more. We ended up catching one more practically identical to the first. "That should be plenty to eat along with the clams, moose meat with onions and potatoes."

DIY Alaska Bear Hunt- The Boat Ride- Part 4

The conversation at Tongass Marine about the rough water and windy conditions didn't faze me a bit. After all, I had boated in thunderstorms at Table Rock Lake in southern Missouri without any problems. Still, I didn't mention any of this to Paul, Gary or Warren. No need to concern them with minor details. Ben did offer us a VHF radio to carry in case we needed help sometime during the week. He tuned it to the Coast Guard channel. " If you're in desperate trouble just turn this on and key the mike until someone answers. They can come rescue you. Be forewarned, though, the Coast Guard charges for rescues and it won't be cheap!" I zipped the radio in my coat pocket, "We won't need it but it's here."
Ben gave me detailed directions to Portage Bay, " Turn left when you reach the ocean ( Frederick Sound ) and stay near the left bank until you see two islands with the mouth of a bay on your left. That's Portage Islands and Portage Bay. It should take a little over an hour. Good Luck!"
We grabbed our tide charts and headed down to the pier, leaving Warren behind as planned to take the float plane. We asked Paul if he wanted to fly in, too, but after seeing the size of the plane he decided to take his chances in the boat. It was an 18' Lund aluminum boat with a 50 horsepower outboard motor and a 10 horsepower trolling motor. We carried 24 gallons of boat gas and 5 gallons of diesel fuel for the cabin heater. After stowing our gear, we all put on our rain gear and life vests and began the trip to our beach front home for the next week. WE'RE OFF!
Gary rode up front with the gear and Paul took the rear seat. I was where I wanted to be, at the helm in the middle. We motored slowly the first mile or so until we cleared the no-wake buoys. Then I opened her up! We were cruising along at about 20 mph or better for 20 or 30 minutes, smooth sailing!
The wind kicked up a little in our faces, the water got a little choppy and the refreshing salt water was spraying us pretty good. I moved Gary to the back with Paul to get the bow up a little and throttled back a ways. This worked for a while until the wind got stronger and the swells got bigger, they were 2-3 feet high by now. I slowed down more but the farther we went the bigger the swells got. I turned to check on Paul and Gary, they were both hunched over holding on to the seat. I think they were trying to stay dry but I hoped they were praying, too. I was not quite so confident as I'd been earlier. I felt in my pocket for the VHF radio, it was still there.
As we continued on our way, a big aluminum boat came alongside going in the opposite direction. A man came out from inside his enclosed cabin and yelled to us, "It's pretty bad up ahead towards Portage Bay. You guys should turn back." I replied, " Thanks, but we're OK and besides our buddy flew over a while ago and is waiting for us at the Portage Bay cabin." He went back to his protected boat and took off and we slogged on ahead. I tried to stay about 100 feet offshore, far enough out so we wouldn't run aground on any rocks but close enough that we could probably swim to safety.
As the swells reached 6 feet or more, I was reminded of a scene from "The Perfect Storm". Just like George Clooney's boat would point skyward and then crash down into the troughs between the waves, we were doing the same thing. I would gun the engine a little to go up the waves and let off as we fell over the crest. We had a good rhythm going, gas it then back off, gas it then back off. I finally saw the two islands off in the distance and hollered back to Gary and Paul. They really perked up at the thought of stepping out the boat instead of capsizing!
Just when the mouth of the bay came into view and we really believed that we weren't going for a swim, THE BOAT DIED! "GARY, PAUL, WE'RE OUT OF GAS! SWITCH THE TANKS! HURRY! SQUEEZE THE BULB"
This was the first time I'd really felt out of control. The boat turned sideways to the waves, floundering helplessly, rolling side to side. They finally got the new tank hooked up and primed. I cranked the motor and it roared to life! After just a few more minutes, we could catch glimpses of Warren standing on the beach waving. I don't know who was happier, him or us. When they'd flown over earlier, the pilot told him that those guys in the boat were in big trouble. The pilot's words kept coming back to him as he sat on the beach. "Great," he thought, " they're going to drown and I'll be stuck here without even a gun."
After spending almost 3 hours making the 1 hour trip to Portage Bay, we pulled into the calm water and beached the boat. WHEW! We were sure glad to be on dry ground.
We still had to go about a mile into the bay to our cabin so we loaded everything Warren had taken on the float plane into the boat and cautiously made our way farther into the bay. We were really loaded down now and ran aground as we approached the cabin. Gary and I were already soaked to the skin so we jumped out to pull and push the boat towards the beach. I was up front in knee deep water. As we moved the boat along, I stepped off in a hole clear up to my shoulders! Seeing me go down, Gary moved like lightning, leaping back into the boat! After all, we were floating now, he didn't need to push any more! I was all right and I don't think I could have gotten any wetter anyway.
We beached the boat one more time and carried all the gear to the cabin, where we immediately fired the diesel stove as hot as we could. WHAT A DAY!

DIY Alaska Bear Hunt. Getting There- Chapter 3

The months dragged by as we prepared and gathered equipment for the trip. I searched the internet for tips on hunting spring black bear and what to expect from the weather in Southeast in early May. We made the requisite trips to Dick's and Cabelas, buying raingear and the most important single item, a water purifier ( you'd think the snow melt water would be fine to drink but everything I read said to boil or purify your water ).
The day finally came and we headed for the Kansas City airport. Check-in was largely uneventful. (Note to air traveling hunters... "I will be checking firearms" creates less of a stir than "I have a gun in my suitcase.")
The flight on Southwest from KC to Seattle was pretty smooth so Paul was happy ( he really does hate to fly!)
Since there is only one flight a day from Seattle to Petersburg, we spent the night and headed for the airport early the next morning. Check-in was very easy, apparently, lots of people check firearms on Alaska Airlines. The flight itself was more interesting, though, Seattle to Juneau to Ketchikan to Petersburg with a plane change in between and the planes got smaller. We found out that Paul hates taking off and landing more than the actual flying itself. Nevertheless, we arrived safely.
Once in Petersburg, we checked in with Pacific Wing, our float plane charter service, borrowed an old van from them, and headed into town. We bought groceries and supplies for the week, working from a quickly scribbled list. High on my wish list was a package of Baby Wipes. I took a ribbing for that, but I knew that by the third or fourth day without a good washing, I'd have to share.
With all the groceries bought and hunting and fishing licenses in hand, we headed off to Tongass Marine to get our rented boat. Ben, the owner , was very helpful in all ways. He told us where we could most likely catch some fish close to our cabin. When I told him which cabin we were staying in, he strongly suggested that we try to change " You don't want to stay in that dump! There's a better place in the same bay."
I quickly got on the phone and tried to change cabins. It's not like changing rooms in a hotel but I got it done. We'd have to stay in Portage 1 for one night and move to Portage 2 the second day. Just like changing flights, I had to pay a change fee and the cabin cost $10 more per day.
As I was finishing up the rental transaction, a Petersburg resident that happened to be in the store asked where we were going. When I replied that we were going to Portage Bay he casually remarked that we might ought to wait until the next morning, "It's supposed to get a little windy this afternoon."
"We can't do that,"I replied," we're only here for a week. We're going to be on the Inside Passage, how bad could it be?"