Wrangell to Sarkar Cove June 9-June 12, 2013

Wrangell, Red Bay, El Capitan Cave Forest Service Float, Sarkar Cove – June 9- June 12, 2013

     Steve and I flew back into Wrangell on Saturday June 8 and the weather is beautiful.  We rode our bikes into town and stocked up on groceries as the stores in Wrangell are closed on Sunday! Everyone arrived back to Wrangell by Sunday morning and we decided to stay one more night to give people the chance to grocery shop on Monday morning so half of us went to golfing at Muskeg Meadows golf course – a USGA 9 hole course which you can play twice if you want 18 (two flags on every green!).

      Dinner was Pizza at the local Bar which was quite an experience.  We went there at 8:00 not realizing they closed at 9:00.  They had been slammed and were out of lots of things and clearly not ready for 13 people to show up an hour before closing.  They had many to go orders ahead of us and their oven can only make 2 pizzas at a time – we ordered 5 so they came out over a 45 minute period about an hour after we ordered them!  In addition every time someone ordered a beer it was a different kind as they ran out of virtually everything. Some of us tried to order fish tacos and were told if we wanted fish tacos we would have to go catch the fish and the cook would whip them up! We wish we could catch fish – not luck yet!

     We left Wrangell in the afternoon for a 4 hour cruise to Red Bay – a beautiful shallow bay that was quite interesting to navigate with lots of obstacles in the way.  We put down crab pots, had margaritas and appetizers on the top of the Nelsea as once again the weather is spectacular! We pulled our pots in the morning and Steve had another 5 crab!  It’s a crab feed tonight as we have 10 crab for 13 people!  We left for El Capitan Forest Service Float in the afternoon which you get to by going thru Shakan strait and El Capitan Passage.  This is a 4.6 mile long narrow passage with shoals and rocks which required alert piloting. We tied up for the night on the forest service dock and had a crab feast. We have had amazing weather and food this trip! 

    Another sunny day and we signed up for a tour of the El Capitan Cave which is the deepest cave in the U.S. The caves were discovered again in the mid 1990’s and cover thousands of square feet with over 2 miles that have been mapped by paleontologists and archeologists.  There are 370 wooden steps leading up to the cave entrance and the 2 guides were great – they did a wonderful job of telling us about the cave and rock formations. Once inside the cave it was amazing – I have a million pictures again!  We left the float for Sarkar cove and more adventures at about 5:00.