Endicott Arm and Ford's Terror
The next day we went down Endicott Arm to Ford's Terror.
Endicott arm had a lot of beautiful scenery.
Ford's Terror requires a little explanation. The channels that we have been traveling in are very deep; at least 60 fathoms for the most part. A fathom is six feet. I don't know why charts use such an arcane measurement these days, but they do. To get into Fords Terror, we had to cross a very shallow section; about 6-10 feet or so. All of these depth measurements are for the depths at high tide. The difference between high tide and low tide is about 20 feet.
Because of this, you can only enter or leave Ford's Terror at high tide. And even at that you only have approximately a thirty minute window to cross the shallow area, or the current is too strong. At least it is for a large sailboat. It would be fun to go back and see the entrance from the Endicott Arm side during low tide. I suspect there is some form of waterfall there, but we never saw it. We always needed to be leaving to get to where we wanted to go next.
Anyway, once inside, Ford's Terror is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen. It has very high and steep walls and a number of streams and waterfalls coming off of the tops of the cliffs. At the end there is a very pretty waterfall with a place to anchor.
While we were there, John and I took the skiff in (along with the shotgun to scare away bears) to a stream to get some more water for the boat. We also took our trash in to burn at the shoreline below the high tide mark. The next morning before we left we saw a black bear wandering around the shoreline, along with some river otters playing by a stream.
As we were leaving the entrance, a flotilla of boats (15 I think!) came in to spend the night there. I don't know where they were going to anchor, because there wasn't that much room in the cove. At least they weren't there when we were.
Right outside the entrance of Ford's Terror there was a large stable bergie. Sharon and I took the skiff over to it, and climbed onto it to look around.
As we worked our way back to Holkum Bay to spend the night, we say several otters laying around on the bergies, eagles, and different types of birds.