You've seen pictures and heard stories, so you know it's true: kayakers exploring Alaska's wild coastline paddle across glassy waters mirroring calm, cerulean skies, while warm sunshine caresses exposed flesh. But a more realistic picture involves overcast, rainy, 50- to 60-degree days, chilling winds, and more rain. And that's in midsummer. The rest of the year is cooler, wetter, stormier. Calm, cloudless days are rarity in the North Pacific. In most of Alaska's prime sea kayaking locales, you can go days or even weeks without seeing the sun. Thank goodness, then, for public-use cabins.
Many kayakers use public cabins as a kind of "base camp" from which they explore coastal surroundings on day-long paddling trips; long-distance voyageurs may instead prefer to go cabin-hopping or mix cabin stays with tent camping on extended expeditions. Whatever a kayaker's paddling strategy or desire, there's no question that cabins provide dependable protection from Alaska's maritime weather.
Maybe it’s middle age, this desire for the simple comforts of cabins. But somehow it makes all the difference to spend the day paddling in wet, raw, windy weather, and then, when sufficiently soaked, return to a heated shelter. Here you can spread out your soaked clothing, pull up a chair and read a book beside the stove, while your paddling partner grabs fresh greens from the cooler and prepares dinner. No crowding, no leaky tent, no soggy sleeping bag—and a lot less worry of a bear or other wild critter getting into your food supplies.
Balancing these comforts is the wildness found just outside the cabin. Most are located in remote areas that can be reached only by boat or plane. Built to blend with their surroundings, many cabins are hidden beneath the forest canopy, usually within a short hike of the beach. Virtually invisible from air or water, they have a minimal impact on the aesthetic sensibilities of backcountry travelers.
Scattered along the North Pacific coastline, public-use cabins can be reserved in several of Alaska's most popular sea kayaking destinations: from the Panhandle's Misty Fjords and Admiralty Island national monuments to Southcentral Alaska's Prince William Sound, Kodiak Archipelago and Kenai Peninsula. Besides the contacts listed for each area, a good general reference is How to Rent a Public Cabin in Southcentral Alaska (Wilderness Press, 1999), by Andromeda Romano-Lax.
A low-lying island whose high point is only 660 feet above surrounding Gulf of Alaska waters, Shuyak is small as well as flat, the seventh-largest island in the Kodiak Archipelago and an unnamed dot on many maps of Alaska. More significant than its size are Shuyak's large stands of old-growth rain forest. Only the island's storm-battered outermost fringes remain bare of trees; there, long benches of tundra meadows sit atop steep rocky bluffs.
Shuyak's forest is home to brown bears, Sitka black-tailed deer, porcupines, squirrels, beavers, eagles, and songbirds. Its coastal environments offer even greater wildlife riches: more than 100 species of birds have been identified here and numerous marine mammals inhabit the waters: sea otters, seals, sea lions, porpoises, and whales.
The abundance of wildlife, combined with a ruggedly picturesque coastline and views of distant mountain ranges, make Shuyak's outer coast a kayaker's paradise—when seas are calm and skies clear. Yet even when storms stir up outer waters, plenty of kayaking opportunities exist thanks to an intricate network of protected inner channels and bays. With dozens of coves and lagoons to visit, this network offers a bounty of hideaways.
For all its wilderness appeal, Shuyak's cool, wet climate and remoteness (250 miles southwest of Anchorage, accessible only by floatplane or boat) keep the crowds at bay. It also helps, for those in search of solitude, that there are no towns on Shuyak. No place to buy groceries, fuel, or souvenirs. No roads, airstrips, or harbors. No year-round residents.
It wasn't always this way. Ancient village sites suggest that Native peoples lived on Shuyak for thousands of years. But by the mid-19th century, they abandoned the island. Humans returned in the early 1900s, drawn by herring and salmon fisheries. Commercial seiners still harvest silver salmon each August, but Shuyak is now mostly a recreational retreat, used by hunters, anglers and boaters. Kayakers have come in growing numbers since the mid-1980s, following the birth of Shuyak Island State Park (expanded from 11,000 to 46,000 acres, it now encompasses nearly the entire island).
Besides boosting Shuyak's recreational profile, park managers made it easier to endure the island's often stormy weather by building four public-use cabins. Capable of housing up to eight people each, the 12-by-20-foot cabins have many comforts of home: propane lights and two-burner hot plate, wood-burning stove, bunk beds with foam pads, picnic table, and cooking utensils. There's even a kitchen sink, storage shed, outdoor shower stall, and outhouse. Propane and firewood are provided. Placed within Shuyak's inner passages and hidden beneath the spruce forest canopy that offers added protection from storms, each cabin is a short walk from shoreline. All are located on the island's western edge, one to three miles apart, a convenience for those who wish to go cabin hopping.
Shuyak's recreational cabin system—the first to be established in any of Alaska's wilderness state parks—has proved extremely popular. Beyond the cabins, development has been kept to a minimum to enhance the park's scenic wildness. There's but one ranger station, few trails, and no campgrounds or other visitor facilities.
Cabin Beta: Shuyak Island State Park
Cost: $50 per night.
Reservations: Up to 6 months in advance.
Maximum stay: 7 nights.
For more information: Alaska State Parks, Kodiak District Office, HCR 3800, Kodiak, AK 99615, (907) 486-6339; or, DNR Public Information Center, 3601 C St., Suite 200, Anchorage, AK 99503, (907) 269-8400.
Homer residents have officially proclaimed their community the "Halibut Capital of the World," but they could just as easily tout their town as the gateway to Kachemak Bay State Park. Nearly all park visits begin and end at this coastal town on the lower Kenai Peninsula (220 road miles south of Anchorage).
Officially, there are two state parks across the bay from Homer: Kachemak Bay State Park and Kachemak Bay State Wilderness Park. But for the most part, these side-by-side parklands are treated as a single entity. Together they encompass 380,000 acres of mountains, glaciers, lakes, river valleys, ice- and snow-fields, coastal rain forest, alpine tundra, tidal marshes, sheltered bays, steep-walled fjords, waterfalls, storm-wracked outer coast and ocean. No other Alaska state park—and only a couple national parks—can boast such diverse habitats, wildlife and recreation.
Yet for all its abundance, Kachemak Bay remains one of Alaska's lesser-known parklands. Visitors to Homer may marvel at the wilderness across the bay, but only one in four will set foot in the park, less than 10 miles away. The reason is simple: access is limited to boat or plane. Most who do cross over to the park stay within a narrow, 10-mile-long strip of coastline that boasts good fishing, excellent kayaking opportunities, and (in summer), daily water-taxi service. It's also where the park's visitor facilities are concentrated: ranger station, trails, campgrounds, and public-use cabins. Beyond this thin slice of coast, the park remains primitive and largely unpeopled.
Three of Kachemak Bay's public-use cabins are clustered in coastal forest at the southern end of Halibut Cove Lagoon, a north-south embayment due east of Homer. Built in 1992, the Lagoon Overlook Cabin is a three-room shelter that sleeps eight people and is heated by propane. The others, finished in 1997, are single-room cabins that sleep six each and are heated by wood stoves. All three are 16-by-20-foot shelters with table, benches, shelves, and counters for food preparation. Besides giving access to prime paddling, the cabins are near 40 miles of forest trail.
Weather permitting, kayakers may paddle six miles across often-turbulent Kachemak Bay, into Halibut Cove Lagoon. Another option is to catch one of Homer's water taxis. Because of water depths and tidal currents, boaters are advised to enter and exit the lagoon only at high tide; this may restrict cabin-based paddlers who wish to explore wilderness coastline beyond the lagoon. Kayakers desiring an even more remote setting might prefer the Sea Star Cove cabin, located on a wooded knoll above Tutka Bay, about 13 nautical miles from the Homer Spit. Also served by water taxi, this 16-by-16 cabin sleeps six on foam-padded bunks, is wood heated, and it too has table, benches and counter.
Whatever cabin site they choose, visitors are likely to encounter lots of coastal wildlife. Puffins, kittiwakes, cormorants, bald eagles, sea otters, seals, porpoises and whales are among the animals that make Kachemak Bay State Park their seasonal home.
Cabin Beta: Kachemak Bay State Park
Cost: $50 per night.
Reservations: Up to 6 months in advance.
Maximum stay: 7 nights.
For more information: Alaska State Parks, Kenai Area Office, P.O. Box 1247, Soldotna, AK 99669, (907) 262-5581; or DNR Public Information Center, 3601 C St., Suite 200, Anchorage, AK 99503, (907) 269-8400.
Among Alaska's most popular wildlands, 580,000-acre Kenai Fjords National Park is known for its abundant marine wildlife, tidewater glaciers and, of course, coastal fjords: long and steep-sided glacially carved valleys now filled with seawater. Those attractions, combined with a bounty of remote and seldom-visited wilderness coastline, have made Kenai Fjords one of the state's premier sea kayaking destinations. In all but the most accessible fjords, ocean paddlers can go days or perhaps even weeks without meeting another person.
Kenai Fjords' most heavily used coastal area, by far, is Aialik Bay. Mostly this is because of access: Aialik is the nearest fjord to Seward, a coastal town 120 highway miles south of Anchorage and the park's primary gateway. Only 20 air miles from Seward, Aialik Bay is 50 miles distant by water, across often rough seas; thus many kayakers travel here on charters or tour boats that visit regularly in summer. Besides easy access, the bay's chief attraction is Aialik Glacier, whose tidewater face calves immense blocks of pale blue ice into the ocean, accompanied by thundering booms. There's also the ruggedly beautiful landscape and plentiful wildlife: bald eagles, ravens, several species of shorebirds and seabirds, sea otters, seals, porpoises, and occasionally whales, black bears, or mountain goats. One final appeal: for those who want dependable shelter from the often wet, cool and windy weather, Aialik has one of the park's three coastal cabins (available only from late May through late September). Like the others, Aialik's is a spacious 16-by-24-foot cedar-sided cabin with front porch, dining table and chairs, work counter, oil-fueled stove, and bunkbeds. This one, however, also has a couch and sleeps only four. It can be reserved for three nights only, making your stay a brief one if stormy weather delays your arrival.
Eight paddling miles from the Aialik cabin is another cabin at Holgate Arm, a fjord frequently visited by tour boats and coastal kayakers. Holgate too has a tidewater glacier, and it's close enough to Seward that coastal tours come daily. The cabin, with bunks for six, presents a spectacular front-porch view of Holgate Glacier's calving snout; visitors also are likely to see humpback whales. This cabin, like Aialik Bay's, has a three-day limit.
The most remote of Kenai Fjords' coastal cabins is the one at North Arm, in the park's southwest corner. This cabin sleeps six and is most easily reached by plane from Homer, 35 miles away by air (and much farther by water). Unlike the other two, North Arm is immersed in wilderness solitude: no tour boats and few other visitors come here. And because demand isn't as high, this cabin can be reserved for up to nine days. Another alternative, for those exploring the lower Kenai Peninsula, are three state park cabins located along the shores of Resurrection Bay within seven miles of Seward. Named the Caines Head and Thumb Cove cabins, they each sleep eight people. Though not nearly as remote as Kenai Fjords, Resurrection Bay presents excellent opportunities for coastal exploring and marine wildlife viewing.
Cabin Beta: Kenai Fjords National Park/Resurrection Bay
Cost: $35
Reservations: Can be made the first working day of January.
Maximum stay: 3 to 9 nights.
For more information: Kenai Fjords National Park, P.O. Box 1727, Seward, AK 99664; (907) 224-3175.
Cost: $50
Reservations: Up to 6 months in advance.
Maximum stay: 7 nights.
For more information: Alaska DNR Public Information Center, 3601 C St., Suite 200, Anchorage, AK 99503; (907) 269-8400.
Though perhaps best known outside Alaska as the site of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, Prince William Sound is locally revered as one of the state's premier backcountry paddling playgrounds. (Not all of the Sound was harmed by the spill a decade ago; of the parts that were, some have recovered while other portions are in various stages of recuperation.)
Tucked into a corner of Alaska's Gulf Coast and ringed by a curving wall of mountains and icefields, the Sound is a 15,000-square-mile wilderness area that's a special favorite of Anchorage-area kayakers. And for good reason: with 3,500 miles of shoreline, a multitude of protected bays, passages, and inlets, plus relatively easy access from Anchorage via the town of Whittier, Prince William Sound offers a full spectrum of sea kayaking experiences, from low-budget weekend affairs to month-long expeditions. Besides limitless opportunities to explore a largely wilderness coastline, kayakers are likely to share the land- and seascape with an abundance of wildlife, from seals to sea otters, sea lions, bald eagles, seabirds and shorebirds, brown bears, and whales.
For all its great appeal, Prince William Sound—like much of coastal Alaska—is notorious for its wet and often stormy weather. Come here expecting to get soaked. Fortunately, more than 20 public-use cabins are scattered throughout the region, including the Cordova area at the Sound's eastern edge; nearly all are along the coast or a short hike away. Several of the cabins are most easily reached from Whittier; others are closer to the communities of Cordova, Valdez, or Seward. A few cabins are within a day's kayaking journey of towns, but many, like those on Montague and Hinchinbrook islands, are 50 miles or more from any port. Charter boats or air taxis can be arranged for transportation to and from cabin sites.
Managed by the Forest Service, these cabins come in several styles: natural log, A-frame with loft, and pan-abode frame. All are furnished with table and benches, oil or wood stoves, and wooden bunks for four to eight people. None have cooking utensils or bedding. In most cases, visitors are expected to provide their own heating fuel, whether wood or stove oil. Here, as in other areas, drinking water is normally available from creeks or lakes; to ensure protection from giardia, be sure to boil or treat your water.
A couple of cautionary notes: the solitude to be found in much of the region may gradually disappear; a new road linking Whittier to the state's highway system is expected to greatly increase boating traffic within the Sound. And some areas within the sound have been logged by Native corporations that own land inside Chugach National Forest. When making cabin reservations, be sure to ask if timber harvesting has occurred nearby.
Cabin Beta: Prince William Sound
Cost: $25 to $35 per night.
Reservations: Up to 180 days in advance.
Maximum stay: 7 nights.
For more information: Chugach National Forest, 3301 C St., Suite 300, Anchorage, AK 99503; (907) 271-2500; call (877) 444-6777 toll-free for reservations.
With more than 90 percent of its area protected as national monument wilderness, 100-mile-long Admiralty Island has Southeast Alaska's largest intact expanse of old-growth rain forest. That forest is home to some 1,200 brown bears or about one bear for every square mile. No wonder, then, that Tlingit Indians named the island Kootznoowoo, or "Fortress of the Bears." Those bears are most easily seen at Pack Creek, a viewing area co-managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Alaska Department of Fish and Game; but visitors may encounter bears anywhere on the island.
The forest is also home to Sitka black-tailed deer, beavers, squirrels, river otters, mink, and the nation's densest population of nesting bald eagles. Researchers have located nearly 1,000 eagle nests along the island's wooded perimeter. Both eagles and bears feed heavily on the five species of Pacific salmon that return to spawn in hundreds of Admiralty's streams.
Along the coast, Admiralty's waters are inhabited by sea otters, sea lions, seals, porpoises, killer and humpback whales, and diverse populations of shorebirds and seabirds. Kayakers who come here can therefore combine wilderness paddling with some of Alaska's finest wildlife-viewing opportunities.
Fifteen public-use cabins managed by the Forest Service are scattered around Admiralty, but only a few of them are along the coast. The majority are on inland lakes, including several on the east-west Cross Admiralty Canoe Route. Two public cabins (Church Bight and Pybus Bay) are located near Admiralty's southern end, while a third is at the northern tip. The latter, at Admiralty Cove, is only 10 air miles from Juneau, Alaska's capitol, and is easily reached by either plane or boat. Located in the forest about a half-mile from the beach, this 14-by-16-foot cabin sleeps six and is heated by a wood stove. Some 60 air miles south of Juneau, the Church Bight and Pybus Bay shelters are A-frame cabins with bunks for five and eight people, respectively, plus loft space; they too are heated by wood stove. All three have tables, chairs or benches, and counter space.
There's also an Alaska State Parks cabin, within Oliver Inlet State Marine Park on Admiralty's northwest corner. Located on tidal flats near a popular portage that connects Seymour Canal with Stephens Passage, this cabin is 15 miles from Juneau and can be easily reached only by boat. It sleeps six people and has both an oil and wood stove.
Cabin Beta: Admiralty Island National Monument
Cost: $35
Reservations: Up to 180 days in advance.
Maximum stay: 7 days in summer, 10 in winter.
For more information: U.S. Forest Service Visitor Center, Tongass National Forest, 101 Egan Drive, Juneau, AK 99801; (907) 586-8751; call (877) 444-6777 for reservations.
Cabin Beta: Oliver Inlet State Marine Park
Cost: $25
Reservations: Up to 6 months in advance.
Maximum stay: 4 days.
For more information: Alaska State Parks, Southeast Regional Office, 400 Willoughby Ave., Third Floor, Juneau, AK 99801; (907) 465-4563.
At the southernmost tip of Alaska's Panhandle, Misty Fjords National Monument remains one of the state's little known jewels, whose 2.3 million acres—all but 152,000 of them designated wilderness—encompass old growth rain forest, granite peaks, active glaciers, rugged sea cliffs, waterfalls, mineral springs and hanging valleys. Brown bears share forest and alpine valleys with Sitka black-tailed deer, wolves, and mountain goats, while sea lions, sea otters, seals, porpoises and whales inhabit coastal waters. All five types of Pacific salmon return to the monument's rivers and creeks, and resident avian species range from bald eagles to trumpeter swans, hummingbirds, and numerous seabirds and songbirds.
One of Alaska's wettest areas, Misty Fjords is annually drenched by more than 14 feet of rain. Still, it's an ideal escape for kayakers seeking solitude, adventure and ruggedly beautiful terrain. Glaciers have carved numerous steep-walled fjords, up to 25 miles long, into the landscape. And 110-mile-long Behm Canal provides access to the heart of the monument and its many dramatic arms, coves and bays.
Finding good shoreline campsites can be a challenge because of extreme tidal fluctuations of up to 25 feet per day. Sea kayakers are therefore advised to camp in the forest, well above the high-tide line—or they can reserve space in two public-use cabins along Behm Canal (a dozen other recreational cabins are located on inland lakes). Both the Alva Bay and Winstanley Island cabins can be reached by boat or floatplane from the town of Ketchikan, 22 miles west of the monument's borders. Paddling distance from Ketchikan to Alva Bay and Winstanley is about 25 and 45 miles, respectively.
Built right along the beach, both buildings are 12-by-14-foot cedar log cabins that sleep up to six people. They're heated by wood-burning stoves and have the usual complement of table, cooking counter, shelves or cupboard space, and outhouse. Each cabin is within a day's kayaking journey of the narrow, steep-sided fjords that project, finger-like, from Behm Canal and cut, in spectacular fashion, into the rugged mountain landscape. Good coastal hiking and beach combing are also possible at the sites.
—Bill Sherwonit is a nature writer and author of Alaska's Accessible Wilderness: A Traveler's Guide to Alaska's State Parks. He lives in Anchorage.
Cabin Beta:
Cost: $35
Reservations: Up to 180 days in advance.
Maximum stay: 7 days.
For more information: Misty Fjords National Monument, 3031 N. Tongass Ave., Ketchikan, AK 99801; (907) 225-0414; for reservations call (877) 444-6777.
