Outer South Baranof: July 13, Port Lucy to Patterson Peninsula

Slow morning with a late departure after the long prior day.  Even so, benefitted greatly from the tail end of the flood tide, which then turned against me and made my afternoon difficult.  I was surprised by how strong the currents were in Chatham Strait!  The Coast Pilot says 2 knots at some times and in some locations, but I experienced currents likely stronger than that and more or less continuously at the peak of the ebb.

Looking North at the Patterson Peninsula

Beautiful, clear, warm weather all day (until sunset), a nice change from the previous day.  I passed just feet from a snoozing seal with just its eyes and nose above the water near Point Walter.

Passed by good camping beaches in Toledo Harbor and Jerry Harbor, and stopped for dinner at Mist Cove, where I cooked dinner on a rock at the mouth of the cove.  Also paddled by a hatchery float house in the cove, and saw an open door but no one was visible, so I paddled on.  Hatchery structures are also visible at Port Walter, though I didn't stop.
Mist Cove itself is named after a striking waterfall, several hundred feet high, which runs from a lake several hundred feet up off a cliff, creating a mist plume visible from a good distance.  My pictures unfortunately didn't effectively capture the effect, which was quite beautiful.  

Waterfall at Mist Cove

The Mist Cove hatchery evidently raises salmon in the waterfall lake, then allows them to swim out through a pipe that channels water downhill from the lake to sea level without harming themselves (since they would be killed by the fall off the waterfall).  The pipe itself is visible near the float house.  

Many fish were jumping in the cove, and commercial fishermen were working nearby--seems like a productive fishing spot!  

After dinner, continued up the E side of the Patterson Peninsula.  The Southern end of the peninsula is quite sheer and rocky, straight down to the water.  After several miles, the coast is punctuated by a series of dramatic bowls with beautiful (though often steep) cobble beaches.  The first of these is accessed through a narrow channel, and marked "Lords Pocket" on the map.  I camped several miles further on in one of these bowls, which reminded me somewhat of Kingcome Inlet at the Northern End of Princess Royal Island in Central British Columbia--dramatic cliffs surrounding a beautiful round bight with cobble beaches.  

Grainy photo of the blacktail I scared into the water

After setting up camp in the evening, made myself some tea and sat on the beach watching the sky.  As I sat, a blacktail deer, apparently startled by my presence, bolted down the beach and charged into the water before swimming several hundred yards to a rocky spot which must have seemed safer.  I wasn't aware of the deer before it ran by, and I was afraid at first it was being chased by a bear, but none was visible.  If one was around, it must have been scared off by my scent, though more likely the deer was frightened by me, not a bear.