Latest Fun

I just developed some film and found a couple of photos that might be worth seeing. I forgot that we had a couple of sunny days way back in July of “ought six”.

Travis and I decided to do a quick hike after work and go up Mt. Juneau, which overlooks the city. It was quite pretty up there. Just like Switzerland without the immaculate trails and restaurants every couple kilometers.. oh well no schnitzel today.

We saw a good deal of wildlife up there, lots of ptarmigan, a grouse, and a mess of goats. I’ve got two or three other good pictures of the countryside. I’ll post them as soon as I get the files off of my work pc.

The following weekend Travis, Greg, and I went for a ride to Berners Bay to do some fishing and exploring.

We threw in our lines at about 180 feet deep for Halibut. Since non of us really have any idea about how to fish for halibut, we were really surprised when I got a really good hit on my rod. After a couple of minutes, I decided to reel in and see if the fish was still on. All of a sudden it was clear that I had a big one on. We all took our positions, someone grabbed a net while the other loaded the shotgun. I just kept reeling…it was a lot of work and my arms were getting worked from hoisting the huge halibut up to the surface.

After all that work it wasn’t a halibut afterall, instead a huge skate surfaced. I didn’t even know that there were skates in Alaska. The last time I was this surprised fishing was when Greg reeled in a duck on his salmon rod, one of many interesting creatures he pulled up this year. The net in the picture is about 30 inches across, so this was a big fish. It took Travis a little work to get him off, but it was a clean release.

We found a very nice secluded beach that we decided to check out. That’s Travis with the “bear medicine”.

Mountains, glaciers, beach, and sun…not bad, even if it takes a stroke of god to make the weather cooperate.

Eventhough he is a relatively new to the southeast, it took Greg a while to finally figure out what that glowing orb in the sky was. He was pretty suspicious until we filled him in. So that was summer in Juneau. Those were the last days that got above 70 degrees, though we had 2-3 more days of sun later in the month. It was nice while it lasted, maybe next year I will be lucky enough to see sunshine again.

Following the eviction of my roommate Russell and I, we each went our seperate (but not equal) ways. Russell moved into his posh duplex in the valley and I moved into the migrant work camp outside of town.

I’ve really spruced up the place since this photo. Last night I added a pillow and a camp chair. Day before yesterday I bought a coleman lamp with all the nice accesories like a friction lighter and carrying case. I had to look high and low for one that ran on whitegas instead of batteries or propane and I finally found one at Western Auto, the best store in town.

Although it’s hard to see here, there a number of people with really cool setups that have lived here for months. This one has a hammock, stick railings, and really nice tarps. Some of the camps are more like cabins made from tarps, they even have wooden doors and frames. Others have platforms that stick out from the hillside, I’ll try to get better pictures.

My only complaint has been the paranoia with bears. My first night I awoke gun fire and occasional yelling. I hoped that it was a bear in camp, but layed as flat as I could for the rest of the night just in case it was a real gun fight. The following morning I made the mistake of rustling my tarp. The neighbor (the one I thought was doing the shooting) started yelling at me thinking I was a bear, what a way to get shot. I later found out that it was the camp host that was doing the late night shooting, as a bear was looking into the window of his trailer.
Last night I hung out with my neighbor who has plans to build, in his words “a really, really nice shack”. He’s got a 12volt deep cycle battery and a solar cell….some how he gets broadband access on the laptop he keeps in his tent. He’s got me thinking. Maybe someday I can have a really sweet shack of my own, for now I’m sticking with the tent.