Call me crazy

I really shouldn’t wait so long to update this thing, I just make it harder on myself because there’s too much to catch up on now! I’ve gone on a few more fishing trips, caught a couple more King Salmon (pictures to come) and some sockeye. August is silver salmon season, which I hear is a blast, so I’m excited for that. And this brings me to the biggest update that some of you already know about- I’ve decided to move to Anchorage for the winter. I’ve met a lot of pretty rad (for radical) people up here, and I suppose enough cool people to stick around for frigid weather and many consecutive days of darkness. I’m a liar I know. I remember saying there’s no way I’d brave the winter in AK, but hey, us women are allowed to change our minds. Many times. The Peace Corps didn’t work out unfortunately so I’ll be trying to find a job up here when I get back in mid-September. The back up plan to the back up plan (you always need a plan D… or G or H or Z) is substitute teaching and taking the rest of my pre-med requirements at University of Alaska Anchorage. I hope the level of Colleen’s randomness/spontaneity isn’t disappointing too many folks- I think it’s to be expected at this point.

Steve, my cousin and the owner of the Lodge, came in about a week ago and has been partying hard since the plane wheels hit the pavement. My dad Tom came up to visit as well and has been extending his stay perpetually, much to the dismay and frustration of his wife. Alaska just draws you in and keeps you here like a moth to one of those bug light things. Therefore if you ever consider a trip up here and find yourself staying or returning every year for the remainder of your days, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This coming week is my last week of work, although since I pushed back my flight home I may be helping out every now and then with the boat pull-out until I leave. It’s hard to believe how fast the summer is going by- and I’m sure all you school kids, parents and teachers know what I’m talking about.

My biggest task this summer was to keep Jeanne’s plants alive. I know with everything I’ve written about that doesn’t sound like the least of anyone’s worries, but I seem to kill every flora and fauna that comes into my possession. So I am happy to say that the annuals in the hanging baskets are alive and almost well. They’re a little droopy and some of the leaves are definitely dead, but I’m going to blame that on the lack of sunlight and too much rain recently. I’d say judging by the plants, I’ve had a pretty successful summer.

The last thing on my list of things to do before I leave is to learn how to smoke some of the salmon I’ve caught. If I cooked everything I have right now, I could feed every resident in Alaska and still have leftovers. Just buy me a few loaves of bread and I’d be like Jesus feeding the 5,000. I am exaggerating a bit- but it’s no wonder people eat so much fish up here. If I am successful, and if you are lucky, you might just get to try some smoked salmon in a can when I return. Don’t quote me on that though- because that means I have to learn how to can as well.

Alright, time to turn over some more cabins and clean up after nasty dip-netters. Shout out to everyone at home- I love you all! If I don’t add any more updates soon then I will be seeing you in VA muy pronto :)

"If you don't like Lee Greenwood, you don't like freedom!"

Once again, slacking on the blog. Besides work work and more work here at the Lodge, I have gotten away a day or two to do some more fishing and some camping. I went down to Homer again (one of the most beautiful places in Alaska I’ve seen so far) for my third trip with some people and drove out East End road. It’s about a two hour drive out and back and winds through a forest right on the edge of the inlet. There had just been a wild fire so for a couple mile stretch all the trees were brown from being burned- it was actually really pretty. In general the drive is gorgeous- with Kachemak bay in front of snow peaked mountains and green trees to frame the view. There are Russian villages all down the road which are pretty interesting and mostly self-sufficient. We also went to a delicious bakery for breakfast and stopped at the Pratt Museum on the way out of town. In the museum they had a TV screen with a live feed of bears from Mcneil River. There is a park ranger controlling the camera to catch shots of the bears fishing in the river. And as boring as that sounds, it hypnotizes me. I stood in the museum staring at the screen for 10 minutes just watching a bear standing in rushing water. He never caught anything, but the possibility that he might kept me glued there. Apparently the same feed used to run on channel 3 cable in Alaska. You’d turn on channel 3, pop open a beer, and space out- only with an occasional “YEAH HE GOT A SALMON!! YOU GO BEAR!” outburst. It’s a good thing they don’t run that channel anymore. I’d never get any work done.

I also went on a fly fishing excursion up to the Russian River with the same peeps. The Russian River is pretty close to being bear country but we didn’t see a single one the entire time we were there. We didn’t catch a fish either. Well actually someone did, but it wasn’t me- one of the guys caught a fish while I caught a rock. When he traded me rods to get my line unstuck and replace my hook, the fish on his rod that I was holding decided to swim downstream and escape… Not only did I snag an inanimate object and make him stop to fix my situation, I cost us what would have been our only lonely fish of the day. Oops. He said it’s a good thing I’m so cute I can get away with things like that. I had a ton of fun though haha There actually weren’t that many fish in the river anyway so we kind of gave up and took a hike up to the falls. There were hundreds of red salmon sitting in pools taking a rest before their charge up the gigantic rocks and rapids. There is a manmade tunnel that runs up the side of the river to make it easy for the fish to swim to the top. Not all were so bright as to actually use it. We saw a few trying to jump up over the rocks through the falls and it was really neat and pretty impressive how much power and how little brains they have.

The 4^th of July wasn’t quite the same here in Alaska. There are no fireworks as it never gets dark, and the 4^th doesn’t feel like the 4^th without some explosives. But we made up for it on a camping trip in Granite Creek listening to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” on repeat while linking arms and swaying. Cheesy- but it worked.

We’ve been having awesome weather here lately- high 70’s, never any humidity. I actually broke out the shorts yesterday, and felt a little naked but it almost felt like a real summer which was pretty cool. Last summer in Alaska was apparently cold and rainy 98% of the time so I guess I brought the sunshine with me this season. It’s hard to believe I have less than a month left up here. Still so much to do! Although you could probably spend a lifetime in Alaska and never do everything there is to do, I can still try.