When I was living in Sitka I always loved visiting Salmon Lake. It has been one of my favorite places for a long time, but until this trip I had never stayed the night in the Salmon Lake cabin.
It was my go to Steelhead river while living in Sitka. Being a short boat ride from town (and even shorter from where I used to work) it strikes a great balance between feeling remote and easy accessibility.
I’ve had some amazing times there, and it was a no brainer to book the cabin for two nights over my birthday weekend. I made the reservation several months in advance, and couldn’t wait to spend some more time on the river.
To read about some of the other cabins we’ve visited, and the experiences check out the Cabins page.
Location
The Salmon Lake Cabin is 11 miles Southeast of Sitka. This means a quick 10 minute float plane ride to the lake, or about 30 minutes by boat.
If arriving by boat you will also have a 2 mile hike into the cabin. The hike isn’t too strenuous and the trail is easy to follow.
Price
As of 2022, the Salmon Lake cabin costs $50 a night. Some cabins have different prices for different seasons, but this one is the same year round. There is also a $9 reservation fee. You can reserve the cabin here.
The Salmon lake Cabin
The Salmon Lake Cabin is a 15’x17′ single room cabin that can sleep 6 people in bunk beds. The cabin has a large table, along with good counter space.
There is a wood burning stove inside the cabin, and a wood shed outside. When we were there the shed was fully stocked with wood, and there was an axe available for splitting.
There is a front deck area with benches, and a fire ring out front. The cabin also has a 14′ whaler and small dock. The boat will probably need to be bailed and luckily during our trip there was a bail bucket and the oars and oarlocks were all in place and in good shape.
Our Trip to Salmon Lake
We left Sitka after work on Friday afternoon. The weather wasn’t great, and although the days were getting longer, our late start meant we didn’t have much light.
We arrived at the mooring buoy and there was another boat already tied up. Because it was getting late I had a bad feeling they were planning to stay at the cabin. We brushed it off, hoped for the best, and started our hike in.
The hike isn’t too bad, maybe 2 miles without a much elevation gain. Even though it was late April, there was still a lot of snow around – especially up towards the lake. I was getting tired and ready for a beer.
Every bend we went around without seeing people increased the odds that the boat owners were at the cabin. We weren’t too thrilled when through the trees we saw smoke coming out of the chimney.
I would strongly recommend printing your reservations, or at least taking a screenshot of them on your phone because there isn’t service in a lot of these areas. Luckily, we had done this so there was no doubt we were supposed to be there.
Without getting into too much detail, the other party left and although it wasn’t an ideal start we could now relax and enjoy ourselves. We had walked through quite a bit of snow, but we were even more surprised that the lake was still mostly frozen.
The light was incredible as it faded to black. I tried really hard to even kind of capture how unique it was…but all the photos were terrible.
We were able to get up early the next morning, have some coffee, and get ready to go look for some Steelhead. The plan was to hike back down towards saltwater, and work our way up.
It was a gorgeous day, and at first we all were confident we would see some fish. As the day went on, and we hopped from hole to hole, spot to spot, the confidence quickly faded.
We didn’t see a single fish, and eventually told ourselves they just weren’t in, or they all shot to the lake already. I’m sure we missed some, but at least it made us feel better.
Skunked and getting tired from staying up too late the night before, back to the cabin we went. Instead of going back to look for fish in the river, we made the decision to take the Forest Service provided boat out on the lake.
Paddling along the ice line with 3 grown men and 2 dogs in the 14 foot whaler, we looked for signs of fish. There are cutthroat in the lake, and we figured maybe we could land one of those. Snow was lightly falling on and off, and bugs were coming off the water with birds feasting as they did.
Watching the birds swooping all around us was a cool sight, and it helped distract from the fact that we couldn’t catch a fish. Just to make sure we couldn’t claim there were no fish in the lake we had two hits and saw a Steelhead swim under us….but nothing came to the boat.
Another friend was meeting us at the cabin that afternoon so we paddled back, the whole time coming up with excuses as to why we didn’t have any luck. I can tell you for a fact it wasn’t our fault…it never is.
It was too rainy and wet to sit out and have a fire, so we built one inside. The Salmon Lake cabin is fairly big so it was great to sit around, have some drinks, and share some stories. As much as I love being out doing things, sometimes those moments are even better.
The next morning we took our time to pack and clean everything up. Once the wood was replenished, trash packed, and floors swept we started our hike back.
Rods were still rigged up, just in case, but I think after looking in a couple holes we made a quick trip back to the boat. It was time to get back to town.
No fish were caught, but it’s still a great memory. It’s always special to spend time with close friends away from the world in a beautiful place.
