Geographic Harbor

27 Jun Geographic Harbor

There are places you arrive at and places that arrive at you. Geographic Harbor, tucked into the southwest corner of Katmai National Park, is the second kind.

                                                                                                         Our track from Dutch to Kodiak

We pulled in early in the morning after an overnight passage from Castle Bay, and the world was completely still. The water off the Shelikof Strait had laid down overnight and stayed that way, and by the time we rounded into the harbor the surface was glassy enough to mirror the hills. No wind, no chop, no rush. Just Starr sliding in quiet and easy as the light came up over the mountains.

We spent three days there, and it took about five minutes to understand why people make the trip.

The bears showed up on day one. We took the tender out to cruise the waterfront and that’s where we started finding them, four brown bears over the course of our stay, working the beach at the water’s edge. We kept a respectful distance, close enough for a good look but with plenty of room to run the throttle up if anyone decided they didn’t like the company. Two more we spotted from Starr with the binoculars, tiny dark shapes moving along the shore that the glass brought right into the cockpit. There is something about watching a brown bear from a small tender in a remote Alaskan harbor that recalibrates your sense of where you sit in the food chain, in the best possible way.

                                                                                                          We called this one “Scarface”

                                                                                                               Scarface on the prowl

John and I took the tender out fishing while Don and Karen held down Starr on the hook. The pass at the mouth of the harbor is the spot, and drift jigging the bottom produced Pacific cod and rockfish in good numbers. It’s one of those techniques that feels almost too simple until it works, and then it feels like you figured something out.

                                                              John Lattanzi with his behemoth Rock fish

The mountains close in around Geographic on three sides, steep and green and enormous, with waterfalls threading down through the brush. The kind of scenery that makes you feel small in exactly the right way. We had the harbor largely to ourselves, with two float planes coming in from Kodiak during our stay, bear watching tours doing the circuit.

                                                                                           Local Eagle watching us as we move along

                                               Undoubtedly Sharry Checking in on us to make sure Don, the crew and Starr are safe and sound

                                                                                                The spectacular mountains in the evening

John collected driftwood off the beach and we got a fire going one evening, the four of us around it with the harbor going orange in the fading light. The standing rule ashore was simple: collect all the wood you want, but do not go into the tree line. John was warned more than once. He complied….. Most of the time

                                                                                             The lovely fire John built on the beach

                                                                                                             Don and Karen watching the fire

                                                                                         Starr at anchor in Geographic Harbor

Three days in Geographic Harbor and I don’t think it would ever be enough…

Related posts:

1082nm from Los Cabos, 09d 55.00 N, 122d 54.00 W – Friday, 23nd March, 2001 Mainland Coast of Mexico: Puerto Vallerta to Barra de Navidad – December 17, 2000-January 18, 2001 Seattle to Mexico – November, 2000 Seattle, Washington – September, 2000