Yesterday I had the opportunity to fly up to check out a trail and cabin project that is nearing contracting. Barth, Lucas and I flew up with Gino and Dan from the Hoonah District. From Green Top Cabin we shouldered packs, rifles, and lunch (NEVER get separated from your lunch -Don Brown Work Rule #1) and worked to brush (cut branches), re-flag and re-measure sections of trail to prepare it for a construction contract. This trail will incorporate 'corderoy' (unlike the disco pants many of you may still have in the closet) trail - a historically used technique used primarily in [View Full Entry]

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Onboard, the journey continues… Bellingham is a charming coastal town - realized best from the ocean looking back at town set against a scenic mountain backdrop, not when you’re competing for a lane on I-5 or in the Ferry terminal security cue. Life onboard a ship is quite an experience, time seems to slow just as you knew it did as a kid the month before Christmas. I enjoyed the trip immensely - in fact I’d recommend it as therapy for those who seems to need a project and normally has perennial task lists, as I do. The toughest choices in [View Full Entry]

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and the journey begins… 2 long days of driving, half a day of waiting, and a few hours of pre-ferry-boarding anxiety. I’ve just finished my first meal in the dining room, grabbed my laptop, and I’m back deck side (new lingo) for an evening of late day sun, islands passing beyond the deck rails, and the start of the next chapter of the travel blog. Given the stress of the day, I am extremely relaxed and at peace as we motor towards Alaska, and a new home. Let me back up to paint the picture of preparation and departure for Alaska. [View Full Entry]

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My last days in Sitka were almost a blur...long work days to get projects to a logical stopping point, packing and paperwork. Your reading this is evidence that I've stayed a step ahead of Himshoot. I wasn't able to snap a picture, but I may be able to draw a 'police sketch' version of the potential Stink-Eye-Himshoot later. Before I close out this trip I'm finally posting the Trista Wrap...provocative? Your call. The other photos here are a couple of sketches from my projects. I think I've shown plenty of photos on Sitka. I hopped a plane last Tuesday for Seattle, [View Full Entry]

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Spring in Sitka! The Crocus are blooming, shrubs are breaking bud, and the seemingly terminal winter has given way to spring. The herring must be spawned out as the clamor surrounding the herring fishery has quieted. The snow has melted leaving carpets of green mosses in the forest and revealing ferns that seem to have popped-up overnight. Yesterday morning I was out looking at new trail alignments with Barth and was continually distracted and visually awed by this forest landscape that I had not yet seen without a blanket of snow. In the theme of spring, the grand finale Naturalis [View Full Entry]

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Greetings! Is it spring ANYWHERE yet? Sitkans are getting a bit impatient with the now long overdue spring. We are getting green leaves as I witnessed on today's fieldtrip but the plant life is a bit reluctant to acknowledge spring as well. Genny and I were in the Westmark Hotel in downtown Sitka for a few days and we’ve now moved over to Hannah’s B&B near downtown for a nice and spacious change of pace. Jon, the USFS manager that arranged the detail on the Tongass wasn’t about to let Genny stay in the bunkhouse - he’s leveraging our visit to [View Full Entry]

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Sitka Historic Walking Tour & learnin's... Sorry for the blog downtime… I’m going to have to quit work just to keep up with the blog and the social calendar! Last Saturday (March 28th) the University Naturalist class had a historic walking tour scheduled with Peter, a history buff who works at the Sheldon Jackson State Museum here (I have yet to tour this Museum, but it’s on the list). His enthusiasm for history of place was infectious and not to be dampened by the rapidly changing weather we would experience over the 2 hour tour. (lighting photo) Of particular [View Full Entry]

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Why I love Alaska - Last night I had a craving for cereal - call it a guy thing. Problem was I had no milk. A convenience store is just down the block (how convenient!)! I had been doing laundry so my “outfit” was quite random: black baggy martial arts pants, a green fleece top, ball cap and XtraTuf boots. Walking over to the store I realized how ridiculous I must look- like a Russian Circus runaway maybe? Oh well. The guys at the convenience story (80% beer/liquor by the way, how convenient!) didn’t bat an eye. They were out of [View Full Entry]

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Good morning Americans, it's Saturday Where did the week go?!? I don't even remember what I've done this week. I went to my Naturalist class on Tuesday night and heard lectures from Matt Goff on birds and Kitty LaBounty on plant habitat in SE Alaska. Very interesting to me, but then again, Genny accuses me of reading text books for fun so "fun lectures" shouldn't come as a surprise. Thursday night The Alaska Institute for the Enviroment had an Ocean film festival. There were films of various lengths, from 1 minute to to hour long. I enjo [View Full Entry]

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What a great Sitka weekend it was, and I'll tell you about it in a minute... I'm sorry to keep you waiting on this entry - I've had laptop 'issues'. The battery wasn't accepting a charge for a few days then I couldn't keep connected to the web once I did get powered up. Gramps said that the chickens will always come home to roost. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm thinking it has something to do with Himshoot. For that reason I'm in the coffee shop right now - 5 pm drinking a latte so I can have [View Full Entry]

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