I get a number of questions each winter from people on this site asking for kayaking trip suggestions out of Juneau. We just finished our favorite short (from 7-10 days) trip which is a circumnavigation of the Glass Peninsula on Admiralty Island. Admiralty has the largest concentration of Brown Bears in Alaska.

Our route was from Juneau down Stephen's Passage around Point Hugh and north through Seymour Canal. A tram connects the Canal with Oliver's Inlet on the north side of the Island. Kayaks and gear are loaded on a rail cart(small)for the mile-long trip. From there we paddled west to Admiralty Cove and then around the north side of Douglas Island. The total trip is about 150 miles. We went with 6 other kayakers and a Cairn Terrier (bear dog?)

We travel as light as possible, but don't skimp on safety gear. Aside from that, our gear is about as light as it would be backpacking.


What we love most about this route is the lack of people, ships and aircraft. It really is remote.

Pictures are on our flickr account, which is here http://www.flickr.com/photos/umnak/



We've been back three days and have gone out again so the first four images are from a one night trip.

Wow! Thanks for sharing your beautiful "neck of the woods." I enjoyed many of your other trip pics as well :)

Joseph,

Thanks for sharing the details of your trip, and also for providing the link to the photos on your flickr account. Those are great, too. You had some incredible weather for that trip! It was fun to see the ones of the Seymour Canal Tram. I've read about it for years (and I've been wanting to do that trip, but I just haven't made the time to do it). Your photos clearly show the process of transporting the kayaks. I especially liked the flickr photos of Berner's Bay. That's a great short trip for anyone who's planning to visit Juneau and doesn't have a whole bunch of time.

Also, I noticed that in your flickr account you have some photos of Pelican. One of my all time favorite paddles was from Kahz Head to Pelican with a good, long stop over at White Sulphur Springs--my favorite hot springs so far of any I've visited anywhere.

Diana,

Pelican is an interesting place, and Lisianski Inlet and Straight are great places to kayak. We've taken the ocean route from Sitka to Juneau a couple of times, and always stop at the hot springs.

Wow does that photo bring back fond memories! What a special place.

There was a storm on the ocean when we were there (we had to make a big push to paddle there before the storm hit). So my kayak expedition partners and I had the place to ourselves for a few days. What an awesome experience! We had reserved the wilderness cabin, too, so we just walked out our front door and climbed into the hot pool. When it was really pouring, we went into the indoor part of the hot springs and watched the storm out on the ocean.