After what seemed like endless rain and wind there appeared a short weather window with no rain and little to no wind. I had not been to one of my favorite spots, Marguerite Bay in Traitor's Cove, since mid-October of last year. I tend to avoid this area in the summer because starting in about mid-July they fly in tourists and take them in vans up the logging road to the bear and fish viewing platform. The float plane pilots get very possessive of the USFS dock, and it's just easier to avoid the hassles and go at other times.
For this trip I wanted to get there pretty early in the day because I could only stay one night. So, I decided to leave early while it was still dark.
On Friday morning I pulled out of my slip in Bar Harbor at 6:15 AM in full darkness. When running in the dark I have to run fairly slowly because while the radar and the GPS show you a lot, they do not show logs and other debris in the water. And sure enough on the way out of town by the ferry terminal I hit what must have been a log. Thankfully I was going slow so hopefully there was no damage.
When I got into Clover Pass I stopped briefly and prepared my 2 crab pots so that I could drop them on the way into the USFS dock.
I arrived at the USFS dock at about 10:30 AM and no one else was there, so I got my usual spot to tie up on the north side of the dock.
I have recently learned how to shoot video with my relatively new Nikon D7500. Here is a panorama of the dock area. Solitude is one of the reasons I come to places like this.
I got my gear ready and took a walk up the logging road.
Looks like the last group here was shooting off fireworks. I'm glad I missed that.
The sign at the start of the logging road. I've never understood why the navigational charts refer to this area as "Marguerite Bay" while many of the signs refer to it as "Margaret Bay" and "Margaret Creek."
This is the USFS cabin just a couple hundred yards up the logging road from the boat ramp. They stay here when they are working in the area. No one home today though.
About a mile and a quarter up the road there is a cut-off that goes down into the woods a short way to the bear and fish observatory. This is the sign at the cut-off.
This a lean-to type shelter which I assume they use for staging the tourists. I think one group waits here out of the rain while the previous group finishes their time on the viewing platform.
These are the signs they have at the bear and fish viewing platform. Of course, at this time of year there are neither fish nor bears.
They call it a "creek" but after weeks of rain it is more like a raging river.
At the bottom right you can see the beginning of the fish ladder. The fish come up the creek to spawn in the lake and they cannot make it up and over these falls, so the fish ladder provides a way for them to bypass the falls. Somehow, they instinctively find the alternate path around the falls.
Here's a better shot of the beginning of the fish ladder.
Up on the road right near the cut-off to the viewing platform there is an outhouse. I guess it is just for tourists because every time I come by this way it is locked.
I walked up to the first bridge over the creek. It is about 2 miles from the dock. I have to say it was much easier to make this walk when I was young. Now it really tires me. The road system goes on for many miles, but that is for people that have 4-wheelers. This is about as far as I can make it on foot.
I took a short video from the bridge.
When I got back almost to the boat, I stopped at a big landing area and flew the drone for just my second flight ever. This flight was much better than my first one. That flight ended in a crash into a thicket of alders. No damage to the drone though.
I don't have photos or videos from the drone flight to show you, to be explained later in this post.
I was pretty pooped by the time I got back to the boat.
In the evening I got my raft prepared because I wanted to run out at first daylight and check my crab pots in the morning.
I pulled the first pot from the raft. I usually set them in around 30 - 60' of water, but these were set in a little over 100'. Pulling them by hand was difficult, so I decided to pull the second pot on the way out and use the electric pot puller on the boat.
I only got 1 very small crab in this pot today.
On Saturday the weather was very nice so I decided to try to fly the drone from the dock so I could get some photos of the boat from up in the air.
The flight was going well, but then the drone just took off on a wild flight over towards the beach. I lost track of it for a minute, then saw it hovering near the beach. I tried to fly it back to the dock, but it crashed into the steel ramp, and then careened into the water. Goodbye drone.
I pulled out from the dock a little before noon.
Here is my pot puller. It is pretty wimpy as far as pullers go, but it serves my needs. It stows away into a nice canvas case, and I can store it away when not in use.
I pulled that second pot. There were 2 crabs in it, but one was very small. The other one was a legal-size male, but it's just not worth the effort the set up the cooker for only 1 crab. So, he got a get out of jail free card today.
I stowed the crab pots and the pot puller and headed to town. My plan was to get there right before dark, which I did.
53.4 nm for this trip.
Already planning my next trip.
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