Kadake Bay Cabin

I have been fortunate enough to have booked and stayed at the cabin at Kadake Bay several times. Generally, it has been an excellent experience. That changed somewhat last year as that was the first time we used it after the woodstove was removed and replaced with a Kerosene stove. Both the experience of using the woodstove and the comfort it provided were much better than with the Kerosene stove. Bringing in sufficient fuel is costly and difficult due to weight limits of the plane service, not to mention the difficulty of getting the fuel to the cabin from the drop-off point on the bay. Last year, we noted some damage (a broken window, etc) to the cabin, which has been repaired. However, the latch to the side door is broken making that door inoperable, which is inconvenient and somewhat unsafe. Unfortunately, previous occupants did not clean the cabin very well and left junk and debris. We carried extra trash out and hopefully left the cabin cleaner and in better shape than we found it. The other disturbing issue was the amount of jet boat traffic on Kadake Creek. On 5 of the 6 days we fished and waded in the creek, jet boats came by and went upstream, at times as far as they could - only stopping due to a log jam. On the last day two jet boats with a total of eight people came up the river. The noise is unsettling in an otherwise peaceful setting. The people in the jet boats were generally friendly and mostly followed river etiquette, but even so disrupted our experience. The jet boats create wakes disturbing our activities, damaging the banks and creek bottom (which is very unfortunate during the time steelhead are spawning). It is also evident that chain saws have been used to remove tree limbs and trunks which would otherwise limit access for the jet boats and are important for the habitat. Notwithstanding these comments, we appreciate the opportunity to enjoy the cabin and Kadake Bay environment. We hope future occupants/users will help maintain the experience

This was the fourth time I've been to Kadake Bay Cabin, with mostly the same group of people. All of our other trips were excellent. While this trip was very good, it was quite a different experience as the wood stove had been replaced by a kerosene burning heater. I had asked about the fuel consumption and the estimate was quite far off - we would have needed to bring much more fuel. As a consequence, we were uncomfortably wet and cold most of the time, whereas in the past we have been very comfortable and able to dry our gear each day. Additionally, the stove did not put out enough heat to do any cooking, so we had to be extremely careful with fuel for our small cook stoves. It would be great if the wood stove was put back in the cabin.

Difficult place to access since there is a 2 mile wide Tidal bay that must be crossed to get access to the cabin. The timing and extent of the tides are a constant issue. The Bears seem to be a bit too “friendly” And the silver salmon run was very bad. Even so, it is a beautiful area and we still enjoyed our trip. We were disappointed that the forest service had removed the nice wood-burning stove and placed an oil burning heater instead. There’s nothing like the crackling of a nice wood fire.

It was a long 2-mile slog through the mud of the tidal flat. We found the cabin full of trash and somebody’s leftover food. Glad the mice didn’t find this first. We cleaned this up and left the space better than we found it. Plastic garbage and spam cans half burned in the outdoor fire pit. We took this out with us too. The diesel fireplace worked ez enough but it was really heavy transporting in 10gallons of diesel. We missed having a wood fired stove. We had a nice northern lights display. My daddy taught me to pack out what we pack in. Generational wisdom I guess.

Extremely nice cabin but lots of food, cheap folding chairs, other stuff, left behind by prior users. Bagged it up. New oil stove performs flawlessly. Lots of rain, fishing slow. Be careful when leaving to make sure both doors are completely shut. cell phone coverage sometimes; don't count on it.

This is a great destination. It is a lot of work to access, but worth it for the beauty and solitude.