Double Bay Cabin

Double Bay Cabin offers a remote lodging experience in the Chugach National Forest, situated on the east side of Double Bay on Hinchinbrook Island. It is open year-round, with fishing, hunting, kayaking and wildlife viewing available in the area. Access is by float plane (20 minutes from Cordova) or boat (35 miles from Cordova) at high tide. Anglers will find several creeks flowing into the bay. In mid-July, pink and chum salmon enter the bay to spawn in the creeks, with coho salmon arriving in mid-August. Halibut can be found in the saltwater near the mouth of the bay and in the Sound. Although the creeks can be reached from shore, the hike can be difficult at high tide when they are flooded and deep, or at low tide when the mud flats are exposed; it is best to bring a small inflatable boat and motor to get around the bay to the creeks, and to fish the bay at low tide. Hunters can take advantage of a long hunting season on the island and in the surrounding national forest: bear season occurs during spring and fall, while deer season begins in late summer and lasts through late fall. The cabin is a 12-by-14 rustic, pre-cut cedar log cabin equipped with wooden bunks that sleep up to six guests. Other amenities include a table, benches, wood and oil stoves for heat, a rainwater catchment barrel, an axe, a splitting maul, a saw and an outdoor pit toilet. The cabin does not have running water, electricity, heating oil or cut firewood. Visitors must bring their own water for drinking, cooking and washing, as well as No. 1 heating oil for the oil stove, plus sleeping bags and pads, cook stoves, matches, cookware and utensils, food, flashlights or lanterns, firewood, toilet paper, a first aid kit and garbage bags. All trash and food must be packed out, and visitors are expected to clean the cabin before leaving. Hinchinbrook Island lies in the Gulf of Alaska at the entrance to Prince William Sound, and the cabin is on a narrow peninsula with Double Bay on one side and the Sound on the other. It sits near a tidal lagoon that transitions to low, rolling hillsides defined by muskeg and a patchy forest of mature spruce and hemlock. Wildlife abounds, including migratory waterfowl, Sitka black-tailed deer and brown bear. The beaches on the Prince William Sound shoreline offer views of the Sound and the surrounding mountains, and occasionally humpback and killer whales can be seen spouting offshore. On the southwest end of Hinchinbrook Island, Cape Hinchinbrook Lighthouse is a historical site that proved invaluable at directing vessels to and from Prince William Sound. Though no longer used as a primary navigational aid, the beacon still serves as a reassuring presence along the rugged Alaskan coast.