Medvejie Lake is a long, narrow, snow-fed lake on Baranof Island

Baranof Island

Baranof Island, also sometimes called Baranov Island, Shee or Sitka Island, is an island in the northern Alexander Archipelago in the Alaska Panhandle, in Alaska. The name Baranof was given in 1805 by Imperial Russian Navy captain U. F. Lisianski to honor Alexander Andreyevich Baranov...

 just south of Sitka, Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 in the Alaskan Panhandle, which drains into Silver Bay

Silver Bay (Alaska)

Silver Bay, or Gaǥeit, in the Tlingit language, is a deep water fjord located southeast of Sitka, Alaska, USA, that indents Baranof Island...

, 8 miles (12.9 km) southeast of Sitka, on west coast of Baranof Island

Baranof Island

Baranof Island, also sometimes called Baranov Island, Shee or Sitka Island, is an island in the northern Alexander Archipelago in the Alaska Panhandle, in Alaska. The name Baranof was given in 1805 by Imperial Russian Navy captain U. F. Lisianski to honor Alexander Andreyevich Baranov...

, Alexander Archipelago

Alexander Archipelago

The Alexander Archipelago is a long archipelago, or group of islands, of North America off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, which are the tops of the submerged coastal mountains that rise steeply from the Pacific Ocean. Deep channels and fjords separate the...

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Etymology

Medvejie is derived from the Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n word meaning "bear." Most likely the lake's name comes as a holdover from Russian colonization of Alaska and the Sitka area.

Also known as:

• Bear Lake
• Medvejia Lake

Geography

Medvejie Lake and the Medvejie Lake valley is nestled between the hulks of Bear Mountain

Bear Mountain (Alaska)

According to the , the state of Alaska in the United States has 10 peaks named Bear Mountain:...

 and Cupola Peak  at 243 feet (73 meters) of elevation. Little forested land exists between the mountains and shores of the lake owing to the precipitous rise of surrounding topography. As such, the geography of the area creates a narrow natural wind tunnel making blowdowns very common inside the valley. In the winter, with little or no water flowing into the lake due to all precipitation in the lake's watershed falling as snow, the lake usually freezes over and slowly shrinks into itself abandoning shards of ice that are strewn on the exposed former lakebottom. Medvejie Lake's outlet stream empties into Bear Cove, Silver Bay

Silver Bay (Alaska)

Silver Bay, or Gaǥeit, in the Tlingit language, is a deep water fjord located southeast of Sitka, Alaska, USA, that indents Baranof Island...

, and the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

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Temperature

The temperature in the Medvejie Lake valley, partly due to sunlight blocked by surrounding peaks (but also because of air cooled by snow from surrounding mountains and icefields that flows into the valley basin), is roughly five degrees colder than Sitka or the Medvejie Fish Hatchery's temperature. A salmon hatchery sits at the mouth of Medvejie Lake's roughly mile-long outlet stream.

Outdoor opportunities

Medvejie Lake serves as a recreational gateway to inland destinations such as Peak 5390

Peak 5390

Peak 5390 is the highest peak on Baranof Island and the Alexander Archipelago which are located in southeast Alaska. Peak 5390 is an informal name, named after the peak's height in feet, but is unnamed by USGS maps. Peak 5390 ranks as the highest island-based peak in the U.S...

 and Indigo Lake

Indigo Lake

Indigo Lake or simply Indigo is a lake lying ten miles southeast of central Sitka, on the western coast of Baranof Island in the Alexander Archipelago of Alaska at ....

. Medvejie Lake is also the beginning (or ending) segment of the Baranof Cross-Island Trail

Baranof Cross-Island Trail

The Baranof Cross-Island Trail is an informal trail located across Baranof Island, Alaska from the community of Sitka to Baranof Warm Springs. The trail is popular among resident Sitkans, but also attracts out-of-town backpackers. From start to finish, the trail spans approximately long, but owing...

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Two modes exist to travel past the lake and up the valley: An untidy and bouldery hunter's trail along the north shore of the lake, and an assortment of communal canoes and paddles are located at the outlet of the lake.

Hatchery staff and the City of Sitka also collaborate to maintain a well-kept trail from Bear Cove to the outlet of Medvejie Lake.