August 21, 2004
Young Bay (N 49° 25' W 126° 13')
We slept terribly at Hot Springs Cove with the fishing boats' generators running all night, and got going early Friday morning to move to Young Bay before the first float plane landed. Young Bay is just a few miles from Hot Springs Cove and when we arrived we found it had the two features we wanted most: 1) it was unoccupied and 2) it was quiet!
After arriving, we waited for high tide so we could take the dinghy to shore where the guidebook assured us "an easy walk" of 1/2 a mile would take us to a lake suitable for swimming and bathing. The guidebook wasn't clear where in Young Bay the trailhead was, however another guidebook said it was on the south side of the bay. We decided not to bother putting the engine on since Young Bay is small, and how hard would it be to find the trailhead anyway because the guidebook says it's on the south side. So John rowed all over the place putting Linda ashore at a couple of different spots to search for the trailhead. As Linda started to investigate one faint trail she managed to land her foot right smack dab in the middle of a very fresh pile of bear scat. She quickly decided that she would not be following that trail any farther! Fortunately the scat consisted of mostly crushed berries which only stained the bottom of her reef walker shoe bright purple.
We eventually found the well-indicated (by surveyor ribbon) trailhead up the creek on the east end of the bay (which is where Linda suggested we should have started in the first place; I guess sometimes it's better to ignore the guidebook). Unfortunately it was a very rough trail, definitely not "an easy walk." We struggled along for 15 minutes only to reach the first of two ponds before you get to the lake itself. The ribbons seemed to go to the pond (which was surrounded by logs in the water - no shore) but it was impossible to tell where you were supposed to continue from there. At this point Linda was feeling a bit like she would scream at the slightest thing (after finding the mother of all daddy-long-legs crawling on her hat), and we were both sweating bullets. Figuring a bath in a freshwater lake was kind of pointless if we were going to have to get all sweaty just getting back to the dinghy, we high-tailed it back out of there! We opted for showers right away and opened a bottle of wine with dinner to soothe our frayed nerves.
We were supposed to leave today for Matilda Inlet but since it was raining we decided to sit tight to see if it would clear. We haven't had many "rain days" so we were looking forward to sitting below drinking tea and reading. Unfortunately the discovery that the head was clogged put an end to that. Of course this discovery occurred after the holding tank was full and to clear the clog we would have to empty the tank. Of course, catch 22, the clog is what was preventing the tank from emptying. In the end we sacrificed the hand pump we use to change the oil to pump the contents of the tank overboard through the pump-out fitting. Then we put vinegar and baking soda (Linda's special de-clogger recipe!) down the pump-out fitting. We let that fizz for a while then poured boiling water down the hose after it. It took two applications, but we were able to clear the clog. We came through the experience well enough, only gagging a couple of times while pumping the tank out.
We're going to give the trip to Matilda Inlet a try again tomorrow. The guidebook says there's a warm springs within "an easy walk" of the anchorage. I hope we don't need our rock climbing gear for this one.
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