July 10, 2008 Baranoff Hot Springs

The community of Baranoff HS, no bear in sight


Hot pools at Baranoff HS, no bear in sight


We decided to stay an extra day at the hot springs. It is a very pretty place with snowcapped mountains surrounding the bay a large waterfall cascading into the bay just in front of the dozen or so cabins and houses that make up the community of Baranoff. We are anchored across the bay in front of the entrance to the small lagoon. The entrance is only about 15 feet wide and can only be entered with a dinghy at higher tides.

It rained hard the night of the 8th butt cleared off on Wednesday and we had some sun breaks and even some warmth for a while in the afternoon. The pattern seems to be clouds and rain at night and in the morning with clearing in the afternoons followed by a day of relatively nice weather followed up by clouds and rain. So we have alternated sunny days with rainy days for the last week or so.

The wind picked up a bit coming down from Angoon and we took a bit of spray over the top of the boat but it was a comfortable ride nonetheless. Today is cloudy but it looks like the sun will make an appearance a bit later.

We walked up to the hot springs yesterday afternoon, a distance of about half a mile on a boardwalk. We were advised by several people that there was a large grizzly hanging around the hot springs changing area and one lady had been in the hot pool when the bear wandered on by about 50 feet away. Others heard it in the brush grunting while they were bathing. We hiked past the hot springs because we did not know where they were and ended up at the lake where there are two or three public use rowboats and canoes. No paddles or oars but several boats. We opted not to venture out on the lake and spent some time taking photos and then headed back down. No sign of the bear yet. The rest of the crew had hiked on ahead of Glen and I as we ventured to some higher ground for better views and on our way back down we took a side trail that was muddy but well traveled and found the hot springs and bathing pools which sit right next to the raging river that drains out of the lake. The rest of the crew had missed this turn so we spent the next 20 minutes enjoying the pools by ourselves. Still no bear.


We hiked on down to find the others still in search of the hot pools and when we told them it was back up the trail only Liz opted to go back up with Glen. Debbie and Chris decided to use the three bathing tubs in a three room covered bath house.

The locals have built the bath house for public use and it is cleaner and much more convenient than the hike to the rock pools above. Hot water is piped from above and flows into the tubs.
Liz and Glen returned about an hour later reporting the hot pools were a busy place with half a dozen others enjoying them and still no bear sighting. The locals said there are two or three local grizzly bears that wander in on a regular basis but they seem to behave themselves and do not seem to mind people to much. They know when the bears are around because the local dogs keep barking until they move along. It still makes one wonder however when you see the locals walking along the boardwalk with a shotgun slung over their shoulder and a shotgun leaning against the wall just outside the door.

The entire town is community is built on stilts along the hillside and above the bay. A couple of the cabins have collapsed and lie as they fell along the shoreline. A couple of industrious US&R rescue types could easily jack and shore up the two buildings and make them usable again. They are for sale and would make for a great fishing lodge if someone wanted to spend a little time fixing and finishing what someone has apparently abandoned. Of course it would help to have someone who knows how to fish so you would have satisfied clientele to keep the place going.

There is a small store here and the girls along with several other boatloads of people waited patiently for it to open. The locals said the owner usually opens late in the day for a few hours or whenever she feels like it. Right on Schedule the door opened at 5 pm and we quickly ran the ladies over for a shopping spree. Ice cream, soap and books were apparently the hot items that we could not do without.

I tried my hand at fishing again and sure enough the fish won another round. We had hot information that the entrance to the bay was a good spot for halibut. If I could have stayed on the 120 foot depth it might have worked but the wind just kept blowing the dinghy and I into 500 foot water and I don’t have that much line. I saw salmon jumping but they apparently do not like the lure that I have so they are not biting either. So far it would have been cheaper to buy fish from the local vendors than to buy the fishing license. I did get stopped by the state police in Angoon while we were fishing and they checked my license so even up here you better stay legal because you never know where these enforcement guys might be lurking. The looked like any other small fishing boat up here until they were 20 feet away and then it was obvious they were not fishing. They were a couple of nice guys out of Juneau, running around on a rainy windy day. They said it took just two hours to run down from Juneau while it took us a day and a half to run that far. Nice work if you can get it on a nice day but it did not look like much fun on this day. The little three sided shelter in the boat was big enough for one guy to stand and drive while the other guy had to huddle behind the driver to get out of the wind and rain while they zipped around at 30 mph. The girls thought the officers were cute.
They asked if we had caught anything and if we had any crab on board. I of course had to answer truthfully and say no. They said that seemed to be the same response from everyone, no one was catching anything.

I digress, back to Warm Springs, and a lazy afternoon and evening and we are ready to move on again, this time we are heading just a few miles down the coast to Red Bluff Bay. Were probably not going to go down to Tebenkof Bay on this trip and will save it for another time. We will slowly start heading east towards Petersburg.