Enjoy the View

Jan and I are going to be going south for a few weeks, so I doubt that I will be posting anything on the blog until I get back- I don't know. I don't have a laptop computer, and I don't know what kind of hassle I would run into or if I will even have the time to work on it while we're gone. We have to go see the Moms. Mine is in Ohio and Jan's is in Wisconsin. I'm not looking forward to the plane ride down. It's quite the ordeal to leave here. We are taking a catamaran to Juneau tonight and spending a couple days there. I'd rather just fly over and be done with it, but the weather is unpredictable this time of year and we can't afford to miss our flight south. We leave Juneau and fly to Seattle, then to Minneapolis and finally to Columbus. It's an all night affair. Hopefully the plane won't be crowded and I'll be able to stretch out a little. Last time I flew, we were packed in like sardines and the rather plump fellow beside me was oozing out under the armrest and squeezing me over into the isle, where I could be bumped by every one who walked up and down. To make matters worse, he had a newspaper he was trying to read and instead of folding it, he had it stretched out in front of my face. Ah the joys of travel. As you can see, we're used to a little more space here in Alaska. This first picture was taken a few weeks ago when I was trolling up in the bay. That's Neka Mountain, or at least I think it is. Anyway, it used to be totally wooded all the way to the beach when I first arrived up here. There used to be some tremendous deer hunting there. Before the logging started up too seriously, when they were just putting in roads, we used to send over a group of hunters from the farm. Even a novice like me was successful. I shot three deer in one day- one at Game Point and two on Neka.

On a drive out to Long Island where the log dump is, we always have to cross this slough. I've never seen a deer here, but I've always thought that I should have. I know that some duck hunters have had pretty good luck in the area, down closer to the bay. I used to think I might take my canoe up here some day, but the chances of that happening are becoming increasingly slim. I'm afraid I'd have a hard time staying dry if I tried a canoe trip anymore.

This last shot I took up at the town dump. Not many places in the world have a view like this. This site is different than the dump I wrote about in the book. As the town started to expand, they moved the dump further from the population. Now it's up the mountain aways and they have a permit to burn all the trash that can burn. It helps keep the bears away. In years past, before they had it all fenced in, it wasn't uncommon to spot three or four bears at a time feeding right in amongst the flames. One big guy had a good bit of his hair singed off when he got too close to some burning plastic sheeting.

This is looking out over Spasski Valley. Most of the local flights go right over the valley on the way to and from Juneau. There used to be a trail maintained by the Forest Service that went from the airport to Spasski Bay. I had to travel it once when my boat broke down during bad weather and it was the only way back home. It was during June and I had no gun, so I scrounged up a pop can off the beach and filled it with some pebbles and shouted and sang and prayed my whole way over that trail. Guess that's it for now. I'm looking forward to a little vacation, but I'm already looking forward to returning too.