Schoppe Lagoon to Cedar Lakes Cove
/Awoke to a beautiful sunny day. It was a good day for the “easy” hike to Mueller Cove that was written up in the guidebook. We waited for the right tides, and went back to the east side where we had seen the bear the night before. It was a great landing spot, but a very tough and steep climb to…nowhere. We couldn’t find the path over to Mueller Cove, and it was really buggy.
Nice anchorage at Schoppe Lagoon
OceanFlyer in Schoppe Lagoon
At low tide the entrance looks very narrow..it is
So, we changed plans and once again exited the lagoon, heading for North Anchorage. It was really nice and definitely a great place to kayak.
A word about the next photo. Dinghys range from utilitarian to luxurious. Ours is the fromer. It came with the boat and it does just fine. However, the seating is not very comfortable. I sit on a hard 4 inch bench and Karen has no dedicated seating. So we rigged one of folding "beach chairs" we have on board and secured it to the dinghy. Karen is in heaven. A bit cobbled together looking; but it works. For me, my eyes dry out and tear when we go fast. And our 20hp Honda can push the dinghy to over 16 knots. So I found a pair of sky diving goggles to wear. Very light and very effective. So their you have it, the Geeked out dingy ready for long and fast exploring.
Geeked out dinghy
Once back at the boat, we saw a black bear on the west shore of the lagoon. The sun was shining on him and Bob got some great pictures.
Bear in Schoppe Lagoon
We left in the early afternoon on a high tide, and headed for Cedar Bay. There were lots of porpoises today, and they made a beeline for us and then played in our bow wake for about 15 minutes.
Karen plays with the porpoise on our bow
These guys make fast look easy
As we headed towards Cedar Bay, we saw the Mother Goose AIS signals back in Granite Bay, so we motored up to a good line of sight with Deception and chatted for a while with Brian, and talked a bit about how to change the fuel filters on our Onan generators.
From afar, it's easy to understand why it is named Granite Bay
Karen planned to overnight just outside the head of Cedar Bay in Cedar Lakes Cove, where we could dinghy over to the tricky entrance to the head of Cedar Bay and reconnoiter. This anchorage felt quite exposed, but was actually peaceful. You anchor in the middle in 30 feet, about 500 feet in from the mouth. It feels close to the rocks and reefs, but it’s fine. We watched gulls chasing an eagle, and stayed inside avoiding the late afternoon bugs.
After dinner, on about a +4 tide (which is the minimum the guidebook suggests for entering the head of Cedar Bay), we took the dingy over to the head entrance to check it out. Confusing! The rock in the Lethcoe photo didn't show except for the very tip, and we hit an unexpected 4’ shallow spot near a rock with a market on it.
The entrance otherwise was deep, not in the teens that Lethcoe notes. Inside was lovely and we found a maroon hulled sailing vessel Trinket from Whittier at anchor in the best spot. We circled Trinket, but no one came out to say hello. It was about 9:30, so maybe they were asleep. We agreed – we are definitely coming back with OceanFlyer in the morning!