Baranof Warm Springs

Photo: Extreme low tide looking at the Warm Springs main dock, boat grid and two of the cabins pushed downhill by a winter snow slide.

July 10-16

What a happening place this week! More than two dozen seine boats used the bay in between their twice-weekly Sunday/Thursday fishing openings. Some boats rafted three deep at the dock and the rest dotted the bay and adjacent coves at anchor, using their big seine skiffs for shore runs. 

There was a lot of traffic in the bay, at all hours of the day and night, but it wasn't quite as busy as in some previous years, when it seemed the entire SE seiner fleet gathered in Warm Springs Bay.

2008 Photo: Salmon spotter plane for some of the Petersburg seiners.

Abundant fresh water at the dock adds to the attraction of the hot spring pools that border the top of the waterfall, and the more accessible enclosed soaking tubs shoreside. The lake behind the falls was popular with fishermen and hikers too. 

Photo: Japanese soaking tub at Warm Springs. 

Photo: The view from inside a tub room.

We always look forward to a stay in beautiful Warm Springs, hoping to score moorage at the dock and enjoy the lively sociability there. The nearby coves are peaceful and scenic, but it’s just more fun at the dock. The Capt’s timing was perfect: we arrived just as two boats were leaving the dock, so we slid right in and tied up. 

Photo: The dock just after our arrival - it really filled up when the seiners returned!

This year’s stay had the added bonus of visiting with old friends Lee and Diane (M/V Sonata), as well as getting to know several other cruising boaters and some of the commercial fishermen. We shared dinners and happy hours, played Mexican Train, traded books and stories, and walked the trails to pick berries. There was even a guitar serenade and an evening of fireworks.

Bonus: I traded a small, fresh-from-the-oven homemade pizza for a large bag of cracked, cleaned, and already cooked Dungeness crab. I just love “dock fishing!!"