Half way there, oooooooo living on a prayer

Emily just left me a few days ago and I’ve been pretty lonely. She was so helpful and it was nice to have someone to talk to while you work, now I’m back to talking to myself I guess. We went hiking on Skyline which is 2200 feet straight up in ¾ of a mile. It’s pretty tough but the views are totally worth it. Before we got on the trail and were still in the parking lot a lady walking swiftly back from the trail entrance warned us she had just seen a bear. We talked to each other the whole way up (which is way #1 to avoid bear encounters) and had no run-ins with the grizzlies or dangerous momma moose protecting babies. I need to find out how to put pictures up because the pictures are worth more than any words I could use to describe the scenery. Unfortunately I don’t think that will happen until I’m back in Virginia.

We ate at Jersey Subs a lot this past week and a half. It’s a little shack on the corner, the only food in Kasilof besides the T (which has a menu of 6 items- basically 6 different plates of big pieces of meat). For a shack however, Jersey Subs is really good. The guys that work there are pretty funny. Emily and I called in to pick up some sandwiches on the way to the airport to drop her off and this is how the conversation went:

Me: Hi, until what time are you all open?

Chris: Til 6:30. Unless you wanna place an order and I can hide it somewhere for ya

Me: umm… that’s ok we’ll just come by now.

Only in Alaska can you order a sandwich and have them hide it in the bushes for you so you don’t have to be there by the time they close.

Emily and I also went out to the beach to check out the subsistence fishing. All of the Alaskan residents can fish from the beach here in Kasilof using nets- limit of 70 fish per family or something crazy like that. We hung out with the Maltby’s friends, Kelly and Jennifer and their kids, while they were subsistence fishing. It was my first time peeing under a tarp on a bluff. Jenn and Kelly’s kids are crazy backwoods country children and as soon as I said I had to go to the bathroom they were like, “oh yea just climb up this vertical bluff 50 feet and we’ll hold a tarp over you so nobody can see.” So that’s what I did. Although no one could see me, I’m sure the voices of 4 little kids holding down 4 tarp corners saying “ EWWW I CAN HEAR HER PEE!” “WHOA, THAT’S A LOT OF PEE!” “ARE YOU GOING TO POOP TOO?!?!” weren’t pulling the wool over anyone’s eyes. Thanks kids for keeping it on the down low. But hey, if you’re gonna live in Alaska you have to acclimate to all their ways.

This morning I went Halibut fishing with a fishing guide I met at the pullout. It was me, 2 fishing guides, and 5 old men. Talk about a recipe for fun. You can only keep 2 fish per person- I reeled in 3 and kept the biggest two. The second one I caught (about 35 pounds and at least half my body in length… no fish story I promise) was the biggest one caught on the boat today. I can’t imagine trying to reel up a 70 pound fish, which isn’t too big for a halibut- because my arms were spent just on the 3 that I pulled up. When they get to be really big they have to shoot it in the head once they get it up to the boat. Anyway, I was dragging a little from the solstice party on the river last night so that didn’t help my seasickness any, but it was still fun. And halibut are delicious, so I’ll have good fish meat for the rest of the summer. Hopefully Emily will write a blog about her time here and you all can get perspective #2 on Alaskan life.