"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.

bearly something

Today I saw a brown bear. My Alaskan experience may be complete. Mark and I went on a trip to the post office and to take a peek at the weir where salmon swim up the river to die. When we were headed home, looking both ways to cross an intersection, we spotted the bear crossing the road a few hundred feet from us. We raced to see him up close and discovered not only was he humungous but he only had 3 legs!! Mark immediately hollers “That’s the same bear that tried to maul my dad!” Apparently 5 years ago Mark was fly fishing up here with his dad and his buddy. They each were carrying a gun just incase but his dad’s gun was only a 22- a bee sting to a bear. After a few hours of fishing Mark looks up and sees this bear 50 feet across the river staring down his dad. He yells at his dad to watch out and just about that time the bear starts charging across the river. All three men have their guns up and ready to kill this thing… and he slows down and literally brushes past Mark’s dad. Five years later he’s running around Kasilof chasing butterflies. Or something. It was pretty cool to see- his head was bigger than half my body, and he got around pretty well for only having 3 legs. I wouldn’t get too close to him though- I’d be pretty grumpy if I only had 3 legs and humans were staring at me. I guess if I had 3 legs humans would be staring at me. Anyway… the moral of this story is I need to start carrying my camera with me everywhere I go.

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.

a pause for touristic activities

Wow, so I haven’t had much time at all to write on here, much less even respond to calls and emails (for which I apologize immensely, and responses are coming I promise J ) I went on a day cruise (Kenai Fjords Tour) a couple of days ago in Seward and saw sea otters, puffins, sea lions, orca whales, humpback whales, humungous mountains and glaciers. It was amazing, definitely a must-see if you come to Alaska. In 6 short hours I saw it all. I was also a bit distracted as I stole away from the Lodge for a good whole day- paranoid the whole time that something catastrophic was going to happen while I was gone. Now I know how parents feel- that sucks. It was definitely worth it though. After 8 long 14 hour days, I needed a break and some glacier-caving whale-jumping action seemed like just the thing. I also went fishing with Mark, the sports fisherman that lives in the Lodge, and I got a king salmon. It was only about 13-15 pounds but I thought I was going to fall out of the boat trying to reel it in. Mark kept yellin at me to get the rod tip up so he could get the fish in the net, just about then the sucker would dart underneath the boat and I’d trip a couple steps to keep up. Especially after hours and hours of manual labor moving dirt and boards (another job description I was not aware of when I got into this gig) my arms were killing me and this two foot fish was close to having ME for dinner. It all ended well… him on the grill. Seriously the best fish I’ve ever eaten in my life- which, to be honest, isn’t much to compete with, thanks mom J. Just kidding. It tasted like steak, so if Rachelle Shendow ever came to Alaska I think I could convert her to a fish lover. Or at least a non fish hater.

Overall most of the projects I’ve been managing are complete- besides Cabin 2 renovation- so things are calming down a bit. Although there are new things being added to “the list” everyday. Always something to fix/repair/change/improve. That’s life I suppose. Emily is visiting me right now so it's really nice to have people helping out and familiar faces hanging around. I’ll try not to wait so long for the next blog entry as I’m sure I left out some juiciness.

a mad flurry

Jeanne and Steve just left in a crazed flurry back to their home in St. Croix, and unloaded the dump truck on me. It’s all up to me now- everything from cleaning, cooking, managing the boat ramp and buying materials for it, heading up and supervising projects of construction and renovation around the lodge/cabins and boat pull-out, doing all the bookkeeping/finances, dealing with reservations and event planning for guests, and a ton of ‘smaller’ tasks such as hooking up the satellite/cable for all the TVs here… the list goes on. It’s sink or swim at this point. I’m fairly confident that I can not only hold this place together but improve some operations also- we’ll see. It’s definitely an adventure and I’m gaining skills left and right.

I went fishing for salmon finally, was freezing cold the entire time, thought hypothermia was a possibility, was for sure my right big toe was a goner, and didn’t catch a single thing. Hopefully I’ll get to go again when it’s peak salmon fishing time (mid june and end of july) and get myself a 30 pounder.

We had our big open season house party on Saturday night and all of Saturday was mayhem. We had to clean and move furniture into all the cabins (they were completely in disarray from renovation), prep and cook food, and run the boat pull-out (which was the craziest day of fishing so far this season). I haven’t really explained what a boat pull-out is and what exactly I’m doing up here with that; I’ll explain in the next paragraph. Anyway the party was fun and the food was delicious and it was all worth it in the end. I don’t know how Steve and Jeanne do so much in so little time- I’d be way stressed out- I WAS way stressed out. But yea, it was good.

So although I’m running a bed and breakfast, we don’t have a whole lot of reservations this year. The lodge is situated on the Kasilof River and we have a ramp that people use to pull their boats out of the river. We charge them everytime they use our ramp and it’s called a pull-out. There were 3 boat pull-outs on the Kasilof River until this year- one of the ramps shut down and thus we are getting all of their business. This sounds good and dandy, but we didn’t have the space to go from 10 trailers pulling boats out to 50 boats pulling out everyday. I will be calling excavators to clear land this week so we can accommodate 40 more trucks and trailers. The owner of the pull-out that shut down wanted the state to buy his property for a few million. The state owns the land where fishing guides put their boats into the river and this guy wanted the state to buy the pull-out also. Sarah Palin said no, Alaska is not going to spend its money on that. It’s nice for Jeanne and Steve because they’ll be making more money on this gig than just running the cabins alone. However it’s up to me to make sure the pull-out runs smoothly or else- if enough people complain about the river being backed up and not being able to pull their boats out within a reasonable amount of time etc. then the state may have to buy out the other guy and we’ll lose all the revenue from this in the future. It’s kind of a big deal.

Although there hasn’t been much fun and games lately with the timer ticking and so much to do but hopefully it’ll calm down a little bit after the next 2 weeks and I can get back into some Alaskan things

Clam diggers aren't just pants

I just wrote a whole post and then the internet quit on me. Type in word first, then copy/paste. lesson learned. Now I'm too lazy to recreate it with all the subtle humor so I'll just cut to the chase. Steve and I went clamming this morning and I only got 4 out of the 24 we needed. Needless to say some more practice is necessary. They were buried down to about 12 inches and I consistently dug to about 8- the mathematical reason why I couldn't get to them. Digging in sand is pretty hard - especially when it's a race between you and a clam in its natural environment. I'm sure those things spend all day practicing to outrace clam diggers, what else do they have to do. I cut my finger pretty good on one of the clams I actually did get to, and the common response I received "well they don't call 'em razor clams for nothing!" That’s a nugget of info I could have used before we started, but another lesson learned I suppose. We are going to cook the clams tomorrow as an appetizer. I don’t think I like clams- if I remember correctly it’s like eating boogers. But I’ll let you know how that goes.

Alice in Wonderland, in Alaska

I haven't been able to get online much since I got here on the 19th- so since I've missed days 1-5 I'm just going to do highlights. I mentioned all the wildlife that I've seen already in my email. Moose:Alaska=Deer:Virginia. But the moose always win here. I also talked about the daylight lasting about 22 hours and dark only gets to dusk before sunrise again. I acclimated to these conditions pretty fast; I think it'll be more of a shock going back to VA when it gets dark around 6. You can get so much more done in a day when the sun doesn't go down on you. So far most of what I've been doing is learning how the Lodge is run and getting the cabins ready for the season.

I went to Homer, a town at the end of the peninsula, with Jeanne (the owner) and Brian(a fisherman) two nights ago. We were in search of a band called "Three Legged Mule" to get them to play for our opening season party next Saturday (30th). We got to Homer around 9 p.m., checked into a hotel and took a little nap before heading over to the bar where they'd be playing. I forget the bar's name but it was perfectly set up and the band was an awesome bluegrass medley of a group. I tried to find their cd but have been unsuccessful so far. Two pretty interesting/peculiar things happened to me while sitting with Jeanne and Brian.
As a female in a mostly male populated region, I've been pretty on guard, paying attention to my surroundings and the people that approach me. I was not ready, however, for a girl to approach me and ask me for my name and number. She kept telling me how gorgeous I was and how badly they needed girls up in these parts. I was thinking to myself- well so do the rest of these guys at the bar and you're stealing all their potential picks. I don't think I've ever been hit on so hard by a female before, and definitely didn't expect it in a place like this, so I was kind of flattered, maybe. Anyway, within 5 minutes an older looking fellow comes up and starts a conversation with Brian and then turns to me and says "You look really familiar, I know I've seen you before". I told him I was from Virginia and had just gotten here a few days ago so that was pretty unlikely. Before too long I find out this guy is Dean Osmar- a famous dog sled champion around these parts. He won the Iditarod in '84 and has raced in the Yukon as well. He showed me pictures of his dogs (all gorgeous huskies) and signed one of them and gave it to me. He spent the next hour trying to convince me to mush his team of dogs with him this next year- it doesn't pay well but it'd be an adventure, so he claims. I doubt that I'll actually stick around for 24 hours of darkness and 40 degrees below freezing weather, however I may eventually take him up on his offer to take the dogs out training with a 4-wheeler this summer.

We were supposed to leave Homer at 11 a.m. the next day to make it back in time to get some work done. However Brian went to a bar around noon and started playing rippies. Never a good idea. He played until he was $700 in the hole and then won two $400 winners in a row. He was pretty psyched about being ahead after 4 hours in a dingy bar with pull tabs- I on the other hand was not so thrilled and slept in the car for 2 hours waiting for him to finish. Rippies are a culture in and of themselves up here- they have boxes of them in every bar and every convenience store. Not many people can sit at a bar and not throw their dollar bills into the toilet for a chance to pull back some tabs. I hope I don't come anywhere near conforming to the rippie gambling habit by the end of the summer.

Steve (Jeanne's husband and the other owner) came in last night and we did a lot of shopping and training today. This evening when we went down to check the pull-out (where all the fisherman pull their boats out on our property) a guy wasn't paying attention when his boat drifted away from the ramp and started heading down river. The guy jumped in and started wading/swimming towards it, but his waders, boots, and beer belly kept him from going very far or being efficient enough to grab the boat. He got right up next to it but then started bobbing from all the water trapped in his pants; we all thought for sure he was going to drown. Intelligently he gave up pursuit and started making his way back to shore. Meanwhile another fishing guide Justin rips off his shirt, runs and dives into the water, saves the boat, and rows his way back in. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but the water is about 35 degrees right now... I was freezing just standing on the bank, let alone watching them jump in ice. Luckily everyone was alright- and they all came back up to the lodge for some beer and steaks afterward. All the fishing guides were talking afterward and said that never happens - that I got "a dinner and a show" tonight. Somethin new everyday.

I also got to meet some local Alaskans (not quite eskimos, but close) the other night at the T, a bar and restaurant down the road from us. After talking to them for a few minutes they said I was just like "Alice and Wonderland, but fearless. Wholesome looking, but not intimidated". I wasn't lying when I said that's the first time anyone's ever told me that. I was really just surprised they knew who Alice in Wonderland was- sorry to offend all you native Alaskans out there reading this.

Overall things are going really well and I love it up here. The only difficult thing about it is that the work day seems like it's 18 hours long. I start when I wake up and there is no clock out time. I don't think I'll be sleeping as much as college Colleen did, but I don't mind being busy and I'm meeting new/interesting people all the time. It's definitely an experience.