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The owners of Quartz Creek Lodge, the Pingrees, ( http://www.quartzcreeklodge.com/ )delivered eight live tanner crabs to us as we drifted in the middle of Northeast Arm on the first day. They had more than they could eat and told us to throw back what we would not eat. They were enormous and ready to shed their shells soon as they were very fat, very hard-shelled, and very good. They were quickly butchered and steamed in sections, eaten hot and bare. The following morning, a huge crab and marinated artichoke heart omelet started the day just right. A huge ice chest packed with Island Seafoods shaved ice lasted the entire trip and kept the crab nearly frozen.

The mountain that guards the entrance to Northeast Arm, Uganik Bay, Dog Ear Mountain.


The guide in the area, Dick Rohrer, proved a crafty fellow by working at keeping us off a couple different bears, but failed to recognize the fact we were not leaving the area without a decent bear. He showed up early in the hunt and set up to glass despite the fact we were drifting down the arm with two glassers sitting on the roof, looking hard for bears. The following evening we found them sitting on the little island and ducked into a small bight to watch what would happen.

One of the guides always glassed the north flank of Dog Ear Mountain and was dropped off twice with clients in a channel that disappeared back into the brush. Jeff and I ran back into the channel one day just to take a look. A strong SE wind was blowing over the top of the mountain and down into the lake, funneling huge gusts at the water�s surface, when the rest of the bay seemed nearly flat calm.

The cottonwoods and Kenai birches growing in the slot were stunted and stressed, with large burls on both species. A trapper had left skinned otter and fox carcasses in a pile between the lake and the ocean. Birds had cleaned the bones and rot was taking care of most of the rest. It is an interesting hole with an abandoned wood and fiberglass set netter skiff returning to more basic elements. Sections of an old dock showed use as a hiding hole for commercial fishermen in serious weather.

Otter skull


Jeff turned an ankle that would swell to double and obviously hurt badly for the duration of the trip, especially the steep final climb

Coming out of the bight from the small lake a strange boat was immediately visible in the middle of the bay. It took a second to realize it was the Emerald Rose; a questionable anchorage, rising tide, a strong offshore wind, and adjacent deep water had combined to lift anchor and drag it off the edge where it proceeded to sail across the arm, unmanned.

Black oystercatchers were everywhere chattering, chirping, posturing, preening, and giving us the red-rimmed evil eye for disturbing them. They never allowed us to cause them any more problem than moving a short distance away before mating, again.



One morning late in the hunt the bay was like glass. Within an hour of taking a glassing stand to watch directly up the ridge coming down to Starr Point. One bear was spotted well up the hill moving north before the rain drove us back to the boat. Within minutes it was snowing too hard to see the mountain and the wind rose from the North with horizontal snow squalls.

Through the day the snow intensified through grapple; light, cold snow; and then huge, wet, heavy stuff diminishing into fine cold snow as the front worked past. But changes seemed random and the wind alternated directions repeatedly. Wind direction is difficult to figure in Northeast Arm under good conditions because of the ringing mountains and water with Sally Island sitting in the middle.

The following morning, Mothers' Day we awoke to total white with over an inch already accumulated and by 5PM we had over six inches of snow on deck as it warmed up and huge flakes replaced the fine cold snow.