The adventure is winding down

This past work stint was a short one, only lasting seven days.  The majority of our work included sprucing up trail registers and outhouses with a fresh coat of paint.  We also have the privilege of moving a couple of outhouse, that was a crappy job.  Our work has been recently dying down as the park's tourist season is just about coming to a close.  Recently in the park we saw two bears. One was eating the newly ripe berries within our living area at the ranger station.  I saw it pop its head up just 15 yards from the cook shack, then once everyone went outside to check it out, it retreated away from our camp.  I expect we'll be seeing more around camp next week for sure.  We also had to rescue a coworker, Morgan, while he was fishing.  The bear some what snuck up close to him without him knowing.  Upon hearing his shouts of "hey bear" we grabbed some bear spray and went to find him.  The bear turned back around leaving everyone safely. 
We also found the salmon! The King salmon run within the lagoon was very weak and I had lost all hope of catching a salmon in Alaska.  While on a trip to do some painting at Humpy Creek, we found plenty of Humpy Salmon.  The creek was full of thousands of salmon, it was the type of Alaska salmon scene that I have always pictured in my head.  The catching was easy with a snagging hook, we often were catching them on the first pull.  That night we cooked up 3 salmon over the fire.  Delicious.  Although it was difficult to do. Some of the salmon was left raw, however raw salmon can also be eaten, and it tastes good too.  A couple of days later we went fishing for Red Salmon in China Poot Bay.  The catching here was also decent, locals were at the mouth of the creek dip netting, and we were left in the bay to snag em.  Between the six of us on the boat we got eleven fish. A couple of which we cooked up that night, and enjoy every bit of it.
This past weekend we volunteered and attended the local music festival, it was all good music and we all enjoyed a good time. 
We are in Homer hanging out for a couple more days before heading back out for our last work period. The packing has began to some degree, and I am not looking forward to leaving, but I am looking forward to getting back home.

NC

More stories

    Last week our work included things such as, brushcutting, visitor counts, campsite work, splitting firewood and other maintance jobs around our cabins.  Brushcutting is terrible, it takes atleast 2 hours to clear a mile of trail, slow moving isn't my favorite.  I also spent a day on the beach doing a visitor count, that made for a relaxing day. The rest of the work kept us pretty busy for the remainder of our working days.
    Some highlights of our days off including a short backpacking trip and a half day halibut charter. Me and Morgan set off on tuesday for just a one night trip. We went up and over Grace Ridge, the peak was at about 3800 ft. It was a hard climb and was made even harder because we started at sea level. The forest in the southern part of the park hadn't been effected by the spruce bark beetle so the area looked healthy and beautiful. We made it up in about 3 hours doing about 4.5 miles. We made it to the top around noon, so lunch was had then was followed by a solid nap. We also sat and enjoyed the clear views of the park for a while. We could see from Homer on one side and the icefields on the other side. Our original plan was to camp at the top but with all the daylight left we had left we started the descent. Our trip down was made easier with some boot skiing in the snow. After climbing down back into the forest we eventually made it to the beach. Adjacent to the beach we found an empty yurt. That is where we took shelter for the night after an awesome dinner with some local alaskan wine that I hauled around all day. The next morning we were picked up and eventually made it back to Homer.
   We also went on a half day halibut charter this week. That was a great success. The 1.5 hour ride out to the fishing spot was rough and fun. Spray splashed up and over the boat as we all ended up taking shelter inside the cain. A couple people were victims to sea sickness, I wasn't one. Then the fishing began, and the halibut were being reeled in almost immediately.  Trying to reel up a 25 pound fish and a 2 pound lead weight 150 feet up from the ocean floor is not an easy job. Also being in a boat filled with 20 anxious anglers lines were tangled all over many times making it even more difficult. I caught 3 and kept the maximum of 2, both were in the 15 to 20 pound range. I was left to hang out for another 30 minutes till everyone caught their limit and we headed back to Homer. It was an awesome time, fishing for halibut in the halibut capital of the world. We all left with good memories and a great amount of meat, I got around 10 to 15 pounds of it. About half I sent south for my parents to enjoy.
We head back into the park tomorrow for a short work period, we'll be back Friday!

-nc

More Adventures

We just finished up a twelve day stint across the bay working in the park. Needing some time off in Homer I decided not to do any hiking around the park and instead enjoy and explore the town a bit more. All of us went on a little backpacking trip before the twelve days of work. We had a three night trip planned out, and work hike into the lagoon to start work the next day. One of my coworkers ended up twisting and messing up her knee during our first day out from there it turned into quite the adventure. She was completely unable to walk the next day. So another guy threw together a sketchy stretcher and we were planning to hike her out to the nearest beach where she could be easily picked up. That was a struggle, we ended up running into the paid trail crew, who were out cleaning trails. From there after calling and talking to one of our bosses it was decided that a different mode of transportation was needed. One of the flying type, a helicopter was called in. Then after bushwacking for a couple hours we made it out to a river flat where the heli picked her up, our mission complete.  From there we were able to continue our adventure. We headed towards the glacier to camp out there that night. The glacier was amazing, we were able to walk out onto and explore the lay of the glacier. It was also the night of the summer solistice which was weird to witness up here. During sunset the sun dipped below the horizon and came back up with a 30 minute period.  Since we were behind schedule we were picked up later the next day by our crew leader, but only after a chilly and refreshing dip in the bay. The next morning it was time to start work. We were busy working during the entire twelve days. During the first couple of days we replaced three bridges in a swampy muskag area near the ranger station. Next we took the boat out to a campsite along the bay where we fixed up some tenting areas that day, tented there for the night and then logged out another trail. From there we headed back to the lagoon ranger station.  The next days we worked were spent logging out trails and a couple more night camping out on the trail. Chainsawing has been fun, but we are slowly getting into some brushcutting.  Brushcutting is a slow and tedious job that I'm not looking forward to getting into. 
  The salmon have came into the lagoon which has been exciting to see.  However the numers this year are minimal.  In total less than 10 fish have been caught in the lagoon.  I've been told that there used to be schools of a hundred salmon swimming around the lagoon. The biggest school I've seen so far was like than 15 big. I haven't caught any so far. My boss has snagged a couple. Let me tell you that you haven't eaten slamon till you've eaten some that's been caught the same day. Outstanding.
  Now we are hanging out and relaxing in Homer, we are off till Friday I believe. Two days ago we did a tasting at the local meadery. Mead, if you don't know is a honey wine, but they also include local fruits and berries. The mead was something that I enjoyed. Yesterday we checked out the local winery that's a couple miles down the road. That was also delicious, they also included many local fruits and berries into their flavors, something new for me. Today is July 4th, we have plans to cook out and we might make it to the parade. Hopefully I'll be able to upload some pictures onto here soon.

nc

More pictures

Some more pictures

Working and enjoying the land

Just got back to Homer for a couple of days off, been working since the 25th I believe. Its very difficult to keep track of the days while your in the park.  It was awesome to finally put some work in on the trails.  We logged out the most popular trails near the ranger station area and rebuilt some washed out parts. Last week we also attended a first aid and cpr course in Homer so we didn't get any trail work done during those couple of days. We eventually made it back to the park to do some more trail work. Then this past weekend the fish and game people came and built fish pins off our dock for the salmon fry, fry being little baby salmon. I think about 100,000 were pumped into the pins. Those were eventually released a couple of days later. Then apparently the first full sized salmon came into the lagoon, none of which I saw or caught.  Though there should be plently to catch once we go back in a couple of days. When the work ended me and two other coworkers stayed at the park to do some exploring around the moutains while the others went back to Homer. Me and Tim decided to go backpacking for three days and two nights. The first day we hiked out to an old trappers cabin built apparently in the 1950s. This thing was a perfect little log cabin, it had one door, one tiny window, a stove and some bunkbeds. It was an awesome experience. Light was able to peak through the log structure very easily, though we still had to wear our headlamps to be able to see during the day and the night. The next day we attempted to climb poots peak at 2880, but we ended up turning around at about .5 miles from the top. There was probably about 3 to 4 feet of snow pack still on the mountain, most of it I could easily walk on top but made it hard to follow the actual trail. My hiking buddy from Kansas was out of his norm for sure. I could have made it to the top but instead I'll summit at a later date. We were even able to slide/skate down on our boots. We quickly descended and then eventually set up a tent on china poot lake.  But once we discovered that the public use lake cabin was empty we packed up camp and decided to stay in that cabin. This cabin was a bit more modern and we cooked our dinners on/in the wood stove.  We decided the next morning to head towards china poot bay and then to the ranger station, about an 8 mile haul. Come to find out the trail has not been cleared and was completely overgrown.  It took us a awhile but we eventually made it made it back to the ranger station. Our trip was complete. Later that day we tried to catch some salmon, but were unsuccessful. The boat ride back was rainy and cold, as is the norm in this area. One of the boats from deadliest catch was docked in the harbor, it was the ramblin rose, cool to see the actual boat. Now we have ended up in Homer for the rest of our days off. Our next work adventure will begin Friday I think, nothing is ever clear, we are just going with the flow. That's the way it is up here.

Pictures!

looking towards the park from the end of the homer spit

view from the the crew leader's property

clams we dug up

from chainsaw training

just south of Anchorage, snow

looking towards the park from a beach near anchor point

on a hike, still plenty of snow

moose in homer

Life in Homer

My first week in Alaska has passed, it does feel like its been longer though. Homer is a great town, I suggest you visit it if you find yourself in the great northwest. Its a tight knit community, everyone knows everybody. Lately chainsaw training had taken over our schedule, its not boring to say the least.  This past weekend we trained with the local forest service guys, pretty cool.  The housemates are all good people, we are living in a three bedroom bunkhouse. Five guys and two girls are living in the house, we are pretty tight and do a lot of things together. Yesterday on our first day off we spent the day with our crew supervisor. We woke up early to go clamming, then went to his place to hang out and see his house.  He produces all of his own power, completely off the grid, and in the middle of nowhere.  There isn't another house is sight.  We drove the four wheelers around a bit, shot guns that aren't legel in the lower 48 and grilled out. Our first trip across the bay as a group will come Friday.  I'm looking forward to living over there for ten days at a time, should be a great experience. I did just check the weather and its supposed to rain for the next week, no suprises there. I will post some pictures and descriptions with my next entry.

-nc