Leslie Saturday and Sunday, June 7-8, 2008
Long Posting
Saturday-
Water, water everywhere. Saturday’s major project was for Robert to install the new brass connection in our waterlines. Somehow a solid brass piece had broken. See the next three pictures of the broken fitting. I didn’t know that solid brass could break?
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Robert wanted to wait until the temperature reached 47 degrees before going outside to play in water. It took a few hours for him to get the connection installed so that it didn’t apparently leak. So far, fine.
Our water heater works on both electric and propane. We leave the electric water heater on whenever there is water in the tank. Usually I switch the propane water heater on 30 minutes before I plan to shower to ensure plenty of hot water. So, .... after the water connection was "fixed" I turned on the propane water heater. Half an hour later I walked through the kitchen on my way to the shower and commented to Robert that "I hear water running and it is not raining outside." (It had been raining throughout the day.) Just a half minute later I saw water running all over the floor. Oh no, a water leak? In less than 3 minutes we had water all over the kitchen floor and seeping under the carpets. Robert figured out the problem very quickly. The new water fitting worked somewhat differently than the broken one he was replacing. He had inadvertently left the value to "fill on board water tank" instead of "city water on demand". Our 100 gallon on-board water tank had filled and overflowed. Luckily once he figured out the problem, the solution was fairly simple – empty some water from the on-board water tank. We’ve been running fans to dry out the carpets. One effect of the fans is to "tell" the thermostat that it is warm inside so that the furnace fails to run. The carpets are drying, slowly.
Sunday —
We had signed up to take a trip on the Stikine River in a jet boat. Alaska Wildnerness Adventures, Inc. www.Alaskawaters.com It was the cleanest and most safety-conscious tour boat I have ever ridden. In addition to life jackets, we wore seatbelts to cross the mud flats. The boat draft is slightly over 1 foot but the captain said that he can run in as little as 10 inches of water at speed.
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The boat is run by the same person who owns our little campground. We’re a little early in the season so they had scheduled this river run as tentative until they got at least 6 people to sign up. Later in the season, when the salmon are running, he runs trips to the south to see the bears eating salmon at the Anan Wildlife Observatory. Right now, the trip is 45 miles up river (north east) to see nature. The trip ran from 1:30 - 7:00 pm and cost around $125. per person.
The Stikine is the longest free running river in North America. Because it is glacial fed, it has a lot of silt. Our captain took us up a number of side spurs, some of which had clear water. Again because it’s early in the season, we couldn’t go to certain places because they are still frozen. We were told to dress warmly. I had my down jacket and Gore-tex pants in my backpack but didn’t need either one.
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See the former homestead. This was a dairy farm where the owners kept cows on the grasses of the nearby island and ran a milk run into Wrangell by boat. They were completely cut off from November to March after the waters froze. The homestead is now owned by someone as a summer home.
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We came across a meadow with the beginning of wild flowers. (Katie, I’ve been looking for flowers but they haven’t bloomed yet.)
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Look at this tree that a beaver worked so hard to fell.
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But so sad, the beaver didn’t get to enjoy the fruits of his labor; the tree got caught in another tree on the way down.
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The areas on both sides of the Stikine River are National Forest protection zones. No private property is permitted. That’s why it is all wilderness. However, as the boat captain said,"they can’t keep you from floating something in Alaska state waters." Apparently people from Wrangell who want to get away from the congestion of 2000 people build a cabin on a floating raft. They haul the raft from Wrangell and anchor it in the river.
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They use these cabins as fishing and elk hunting cabins. I asked the captain how long such a cabin would last. He reported that they last 25 years before you have to replace the logs in the river.
The US Forest Service maintains a number of primitive cabins available for rent. The cost is only $35/ night. Each cabin has a table, stove, hard bunks, and an outhouse. Observe the pretty forest behind the US Forest Service cabin.
Front from the river:
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Inside:
Table and stove:
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Bunk:
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Rear:
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Forest behind:
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The cabins are accessible only by water so you would have to hire either a boat such as we were on or a float plane to take you to your cabin. We did see a group of rafters who our captain said would have taken a week to travel from Telegraph Creek several hundred miles down the river. The rafters were waiting for pick-up by another boat.
Here’s a pretty unusual waterfall.
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We traveled north east towards the LeConte Wilderness. We couldn’t see the glacier because the water was still frozen that far inland. We did creep slowly into a still frozen lake. See the ice blocks. Our boat was flat-bottomed and aluminum. We were breaking ice blocks as we went. Of course the ice closed back in on us. I was watching the GPS as we left the lake area. I asked if the pink line was showing the route we had taken in to the lake. "Yes", the captain replied, "wouldn’t you think it would be easier to get out?" That was, of course, as we chomped on more ice blocks. Observe the ice we were breaking. (Hear the theme song to Titantic?)
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The captain knew that Robert and I are very anxious to see a moose. He took us down a small tributary where he said he often sees big game. He cut the engine so we could climb off the boat and up to see this natural meadow. While the meadow was pretty, there were no moose and even worse, the mosquitoes were horrible!
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Although I was wearing a hat, gloves, long pants, and several jackets those mosquitoes attacked with a vengeance. The climb was quite difficult. The ground was very muddy. We all had a difficult time reaching the meadow (of course one arm is always swatting mosquitoes). After a few pictures I headed back to the boat. I very nearly ended up in the icy muddy water as my boots slipped in the mud. My gloved hand went down, my boots and jeans are covered in mud but I managed to stay out of the water. (I was carrying the good camera – there was no way I was going in that water.)
Back in the boat we all spent the next half hour swatting mosquitoes.
We then crossed into Canada. For all of you who detest suffering airport security, in the Stikine River the border is marked by a red water flag and a cut in the trees. There is no border guard or Customs Agent. The fishing rules do change however. The captain explained that American captains are not permitted to guide hunters or fishers into Canada, but he can transport tourists. We went upriver a bit and stopped to visit with a commercial fisherman who owns a lodge that the captain used for other trips. The next few pictures are of the fisherman pulling his nets and capturing some King Salmon. He will get $5/lb for each whole King Salmon went he takes them to the fish processing plant in Wrangell. These fish weigh between 25-30 lbs each.
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We started back toward Wrangell. The captain’s teenage son was acting as deck hand. Suddenly he yelled, "Bear, Dad, bear, Dad." The captain turned the boat around and we observed this black bear along the shore.
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Last, as we neared Wrangell we saw a flock of Bald Eagles on the beach. I think that someone had cleaned a King Salmon and left the carcase. The eagles were feasting on it.
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I cannot figure out how to take picture of an eagle in flight that is in focus. I'll keep working on this.
warmest wishes,
Leslie
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Up the River
Robert, Sunday, June 8
Today we took a trip up the Stikine River. (If you’re interested, it’s pronounced sta-keen with the accent on the second syllable.) We were on a jet boat that is designed for trips up rivers where the water might get very shallow. The boat drew about 2.5 feet when stopped and mere inches when moving. And moving it did. Most of the time when we were moving it was at 30 mph. The ride was actually very smooth (most of the time) and the boat was comfortable. The boat had enough seats for about 18 passengers and there were only 7 on this trip so we had lots of room. The captain knew a lot about the river and he pointed out many interesting things that we would have never noticed without him. We left the dock at 1:30 pm and proceeded to the mouth of the river where it empties into the saltwater bay. There is a huge delta there that is about 20 miles wide. Much of the river in a braided ribbon so the choice of routes is almost countless. He took us along some that were only about 30 feet wide and others that were almost a mile wide. When we crossed the bar (where the river meets the bay) there were gravel bars and a lot of very shallow water. To get through he had to go fast to reduce the boat’s draft. We wore seat belts as he explained that if we hit a gravel bar at the speeds he was going, we wanted to be restrained. Fortunately we didn’t hit any but the boat made several very sharp turns that could have thrown us out of our seats without the seatbelts. He stopped the boat multiple times so that we could get out and walk along the bank. Needless to say we got back to the trailer with very muddy shoes. We went as far up the river as several miles into Canada. As the distance from the mouth of the river to the border is 40 miles my guess is that we traveled a total of 100 miles. In Canada, we came across a commercial fisherman who was salmon fishing with a gill net. The net was about 100 feet long. The captain knew the fisherman and we stopped to talk in the middle of the river. He had placed his net over a gravel bar where the water was only about 10 feet deep. He said that the bar caused the fish to swim to the top of the water where he could catch them. Much of the river at that point was 30-40 feet deep and his net only extended about 6 feet deep. It had floats about every 6 feet. He said he left it set until he could see one or two floats being pulled under. That meant there was a fish there. When he reeled in the net he pulled the fish out and put them into a box. The captain said that he got $5 per pound and the fish he was catching were about 20 pounds each or $100 per fish. It looked like he had 30 or 40 fish. It’s no wonder he was out working on a Sunday. The season is short and so in a few months he has to earn most of what he earns for the year. The water in the river is very murky. As much of the water is from glaciers, it is filled with rock flour. That is finely ground rock that the glacier grinds from the underlying rock. Along the way there were streams that entered the river with water that was crystal clear. This was water from snow melt. We went up several of these streams. Many of them had Forest Service cabins that are available to rent. We stopped at one. It had wood beds and a fuel oil heating stove. They rent for $35 per day. You have to bring your own fuel oil, food, cooking stove, sleeping pads, and sleeping bags. To use them you make arrangements with one of the local captains such as the one driving our boat to bring you in and then come get you out. During the peak time when the salmon are running, they would be great for someone who liked to fish. On the way back down the river we saw a brown bear on one of the banks. Before we could get very close, it disappeared into the bush. We did get a few pictures however. We got back to the dock at 7:00 pm. Just as we were approaching the dock, one of the two engines quit. Turns out it ran out of fuel. Just as we reached to the dock, the second engine quit for the same reason. That was close. If we had been out on the water, it might have taken some time to raise someone to come out and tow us in. We ate dinner in the hotel right at the docks and came back to the trailer.
Today we took a trip up the Stikine River. (If you’re interested, it’s pronounced sta-keen with the accent on the second syllable.) We were on a jet boat that is designed for trips up rivers where the water might get very shallow. The boat drew about 2.5 feet when stopped and mere inches when moving. And moving it did. Most of the time when we were moving it was at 30 mph. The ride was actually very smooth (most of the time) and the boat was comfortable. The boat had enough seats for about 18 passengers and there were only 7 on this trip so we had lots of room. The captain knew a lot about the river and he pointed out many interesting things that we would have never noticed without him. We left the dock at 1:30 pm and proceeded to the mouth of the river where it empties into the saltwater bay. There is a huge delta there that is about 20 miles wide. Much of the river in a braided ribbon so the choice of routes is almost countless. He took us along some that were only about 30 feet wide and others that were almost a mile wide. When we crossed the bar (where the river meets the bay) there were gravel bars and a lot of very shallow water. To get through he had to go fast to reduce the boat’s draft. We wore seat belts as he explained that if we hit a gravel bar at the speeds he was going, we wanted to be restrained. Fortunately we didn’t hit any but the boat made several very sharp turns that could have thrown us out of our seats without the seatbelts. He stopped the boat multiple times so that we could get out and walk along the bank. Needless to say we got back to the trailer with very muddy shoes. We went as far up the river as several miles into Canada. As the distance from the mouth of the river to the border is 40 miles my guess is that we traveled a total of 100 miles. In Canada, we came across a commercial fisherman who was salmon fishing with a gill net. The net was about 100 feet long. The captain knew the fisherman and we stopped to talk in the middle of the river. He had placed his net over a gravel bar where the water was only about 10 feet deep. He said that the bar caused the fish to swim to the top of the water where he could catch them. Much of the river at that point was 30-40 feet deep and his net only extended about 6 feet deep. It had floats about every 6 feet. He said he left it set until he could see one or two floats being pulled under. That meant there was a fish there. When he reeled in the net he pulled the fish out and put them into a box. The captain said that he got $5 per pound and the fish he was catching were about 20 pounds each or $100 per fish. It looked like he had 30 or 40 fish. It’s no wonder he was out working on a Sunday. The season is short and so in a few months he has to earn most of what he earns for the year. The water in the river is very murky. As much of the water is from glaciers, it is filled with rock flour. That is finely ground rock that the glacier grinds from the underlying rock. Along the way there were streams that entered the river with water that was crystal clear. This was water from snow melt. We went up several of these streams. Many of them had Forest Service cabins that are available to rent. We stopped at one. It had wood beds and a fuel oil heating stove. They rent for $35 per day. You have to bring your own fuel oil, food, cooking stove, sleeping pads, and sleeping bags. To use them you make arrangements with one of the local captains such as the one driving our boat to bring you in and then come get you out. During the peak time when the salmon are running, they would be great for someone who liked to fish. On the way back down the river we saw a brown bear on one of the banks. Before we could get very close, it disappeared into the bush. We did get a few pictures however. We got back to the dock at 7:00 pm. Just as we were approaching the dock, one of the two engines quit. Turns out it ran out of fuel. Just as we reached to the dock, the second engine quit for the same reason. That was close. If we had been out on the water, it might have taken some time to raise someone to come out and tow us in. We ate dinner in the hotel right at the docks and came back to the trailer.
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