It's been a while

Greetings!

I realize that I haven't posted anything new for a very long time...I have a few minutes to spare, so I thought I'd catch you all up on life up here.

I've been on two 8-day hitches to Kake so far, and I am learning a lot.  In college, I was really sharp when it came to understanding the science and reasoning behind forest practices, but being in the field and actually practicing what I studied is awesome.  I'm really enjoying my job, and definitely glad that I decided to work up here for the season.

Two weekends ago, a couple of my crewmates and I took the ferry down to Wrangell, rented kayaks, and kayaked across in the ocean to the mainland.  We thought we had planned it well enough where we were going with the tide, but, as we came to find out the hard way, we were going against the tide.  The 4 1/2 mile journey turned to 6, and we made it to the mainland around 8pm.  Our final destination was the cabin at Virginia Lake, which required us portaging two kayaks a mile up a trail to the lake, then kayaking across the lake (in the semi-dark and rain) to find the cabin.   We ended up reaching the cabin around 1 in the morning, and spent the entire next day relaxing by the fire and reading.  It was raining all day, and we all wanted to fish, but after our tiring afternoon the day before we gave ourselves a break.  On our way back to the trail to portage back to the ocean, we ran into a fisherman and his family.  When we told him our plans, he called us crazy and offered a ride in his fishing boat to Wrangell.  Of course we accepted, and got back to Wrangell in time to enjoy the nightlife until our ferry left the next morning at 330am.  Looking back, it's definitely one of those trips that I'll never forget.

I celebrated the 4th of July here in Petersburg by participating in the log rolling contest, held in the bay.  Which is in the ocean.  Which is extremely COLD.  Awesome experience though! Even though I lost (birling never was my strong point).

Tomorrow I am (hopefully) going halibut fishing in Portage Bay with some of the timber crew.  I was supposed to go to Juneau with some others from my crew, but I chose to stay behind so I can work on my grad school application for Humboldt this spring.  Cross my fingers it gets accepted!


I am loving Alaska, missing some people and things about California, and taking lots and lots of pictures to show you all when I get back.

xoxo

Alicia