Neka Hotsprings Adventure

A couple weeks ago in Mid-June Pat and I went with our friends Sarah and Torsten to the Eight Fathom Bight cabin, which is at the tip of Port Fredrick south of Hoonah. There is a gravel Forest Service road that extends from the cabin 9.5 miles to the Neka Hot Springs site, which has a cedar hot tub built up that fills with the hot spring water. We loaded up the boat with 4 mountain bikes, fishing/crabbing gear and Barley, and headed for a 3-day weekend down there.
Again, we had 85 plus degree weather and sunny, blue skies, making it a hot trip!!

Bagging up herring for crab bait before the trip...

Four Mountain bikes loaded up for the trip- plenty of space!

The Eight Fathom Bight cabin. It was built by Icy Straights in Hoonah and barged to the site. It is by far the nicest Forest Service cabin out there, and almost as big as our house!

We decided to halibut fish the first night we got there, but since it was so hot and there was no wind, the bugs were TERRIBLE! This is Jackie attempting to avoid her face getting eaten.

Barley trying to avoid the swarms....

Swarms of bugs around Torsten....he tried to fend them off with Barley's blanket.

Sarah wrapped up in the Zodiac cover.

We lastest about 10 minutes, and then decided there was only one option- pull the lines and head back to the cabin for a fire....

Enjoyed a beautiful sunset....

Flock of geese in the sunset.

Then Torsten and Pat built us a cedar fire.

Tip of Port Fredrick, the boat anchored in the morning for our bike ride adventure.

Beach around the cabin.

Since we didn't need to use the stove due to the weather, we used it as zodiac storage overnight to avoid attack by the local brown bears.

Cabin porch hang-out.

Start of the ride to the hot springs...

Bear country....

Huge old growth forests- Sarah's got nothing on this tree.

Barley needed a rest- running 20 miles alongside bikes in 85 degree weather isn't easy.

Biking hard.

Shade break for Barley.

Successful trip to the tub!

All Barley wanted to do when we got to the hot springs was get in the water, but it was (obviously) too hot for him!

I jumped right in the tub- time for a libation! Barley wondering why he can't get in.

Waiting for the tub to fill back up after we drained it to replace the water.

Panorama of one of the views during the bike ride back from the tub.

They had these signs around directing us to the hot spring tub.

Barley was so tired after the bike ride that he passed out the entire afternoon on the boat while we went halibut fishing....

The boat loaded back up and headed to fish....

Sarah floating in the middle of Icy Straight while we halibut fish.

Nice view!

Torsten dealing with Sarah's tube.

Sarah and Barley soaking up some rays.

Torsten taking a nap while trolling around the Sisters.

This is what you do with Mountain Bikes so that you can fish on your way back to Juneau!

Dungy!

Too bad King Crab is out of season.

Torsten's first halibut.

Orcas!!