Sitka Totem Park

We took advantage of the sunny weather when we first arrived in Sitka and hiked the totem trail.  The locals actually hike and bike everywhere.  This must be a healthy city.  They all have dogs too and were walking them the day we were there.

We have seen a lot of totem carving by now but these were special.  Part of it was the setting.  They are arranged along a shore trail in the woods.
The park is the site of the historic battle for Sitka between the Russians and the Tlingit.  It has a great educational center which covers native life and totem carving.
Looking at the top figure here, I think a Norwegian may have visited too! 

We have a friend who is a carver so we are learning to appreciate the forms, figures, and color arrangements.  Poles tell a story actually from bottom to top.  Low man or creature on the totem pole is really the most important.

This modern pole has a woman on the bottom!!  Woman are rarely carved so this one is special.

 This is a more traditional animal carving in traditional colors.

As an art form, I think they are an acquired taste!

Sitka's Fortress of the Bear

On our island, Prince of Wales, we see bear most days.  Our bear are the cute, cuddly Black Bear that weigh out around 300 lb.  They have claws, teeth, and have been known to eat meat but generally they are exciting to see.   On Baranof Island however they have the largest of all bear species, the Brown bear.

Browns have been recorded at 1500 lbs and standing 10 foot tall and they eat a lot of meat!

Two brothers near Sitka became fascinated by the bear and horrified that the DNR were shooting nuisance bear so they remodeled an old pulp mill water tanks and opened the Fortress to save orphaned cubs.

The bears have 3/4 of an acre while the viewers are crowded on a small platform.  The bear go about their typical days.

Looking mean when they scent people.

Fishing for lunch.

Hiking the trail.

Playing at the pool.

Having a siesta.

Brown Bear are a more aggressive species.  These two brothers are part of a set of triplets however and were just rough housing.

The Fortress was established to save bear not to train them.  This guy did have a trick...

for a treat.

They left us with these few words of wisdom:

Sitka's..... Alaska Raptor Center

As promised, more from the fascinating island/city of Sitka.  We visited the:

The center rescues, repairs, rehabilitates, and hopefully releases over 200 birds a year.  They have treated everything from a hummingbird on up.  Other states send birds here for help.  It was amazing.

We met one of the permanent resident eagles (and handlers) close up.   This female has a deformed beak and can't feed herself in the wild so no release.

 The oldest eagle, Volta, a male has been here since tangling with a power line back in 1982.

Peregrine Falcon

Red Tailed Hawk

A Golden Eagle with a broken wing. He has created more new residents than any other raptors here. He gets wild eagles or  ravens trying to steal his food.   Reportedly Goldens have 2000 lb/sq. in. pressure in their talons, enough to crush bones.

There were several resident owls as well.   Seems owls continue to take on autos even though they typically lose.

Sitka

Only in Alaska. 

Sitka is the oldest settled city in the state.  It was Tlingit, Haida, Russian, British, Russian, and then the site of the purchase agreement to the USA from Russia but you still can't get there directly from anywhere and it is the size of a medium high school in the lower 48.  I think 17 miles of road and then you get the sign, end of the road and forest.  

Sitka Spruce in this case, tall, stately trees and the big, Brown Bears.  Bears that grow 1500 lbs. and 12 feet at the shoulder.  Bears that take the dumpsters up in the woods not just your trash cans.

Bear playing with a stump 

Larry and I just passed our 36 year anniversary and he promised me an adventure trip on the Alaska Marine Highway (ferry system)   It has been an adventure.  So far we ferried to Ketchikan, ferried to Wrangell, and ferried to Sitka.  

We were here for Memorial Weekend and it was lovely.  Everyone thanked us for bringing the sunshine.  Sitka is our on the open Pacific and takes all the rainstorms first.  Their longest stretch of no rain in recorded history was 9 days.  But we had a cookout and got a little sunburn.

Sitka has its own volcano, Mt, Edgecombe.  It is a fine looking cauldron luming over the harbor.  If it ever blows again, good by Sitka.  Their harbor is too small for cruise ships but they anchor off shore and the passengers are water taxied in to spend their $$.

The cauldron of Mt. Edgecombe

Russia left it's mark on the city.  There is a Russian Orthodox church built of wood.  It is filled with silver and gold icons, just amazing.

 

The Russian cemetery too was fascinating.  Headstones were carved from ship ballast stones and the Russians were here in the 1700s.

There was a need for a cemetery because some one was always fighting over this island.  There is even a modern National Cemetery here.  This structure is called the Blockhouse.  It seems to have been a guard house from the days of the Russian/Tlingit conflict days.

Yes, we are loving the city so much and our friends, Joe and Debbie are making us so comfortable (They have grass and running hot water!) that we decided to stay here another round on the ferry schedule.  Not only is it tricky to get here, you can only leave when a ship comes to port.

We will post more from some of the other attractions of Sitka.  Here is one last picture of Mt. Edgecombe and the harbor.

Our Latest Hostage/ Guest Worker, Guest Worker!

I gotta practice that term.  Guest Worker!

It happened.  We burned through all the eligible family members that we could con, er, persuade to visit Alaska for a work-cation.  The last guy, Zach, Beret's wife's brother was a stretch to even be called a relative but we got two good years out of him.  He actually moved on here in Alaska to a paying job but we won't hold that against him!

So we had started pulling nets with this year's products ourselves and were writing to Char send back ache liniment.  She sent instead the web address of a great site, ********.  It actually charges people to be matched up with us, the host.  

It is such a great site that Larry and JR want to keep it a secret so that all of the other farmers and locals don't get to the best workers before we do. 

People write a profile touting their skills and we can select from those that want to travel to Alaska.  We wrote up a listing for the location, the housing conditions, and the work involved with pictures and interested parties can contact us as well.

I don't want to brag about our writing skills or maybe it was the photography but we woke up the next  morning to the ping ping ping of incoming mail.  We were stacking them up! 

 It seems everyone between the ages of 20 and 40 dreams of taking a gap year and working on an oyster farm in remote Alaska.  They want to live off the grid, work from 3 a.m.  until 11 p.m. in the cold rain with wet, heavy nets, and stay on a cot behind the cabin with no running water.

And I told 'em like it is.  You will be chopping wood, carrying water, eating whatever you catch, and playing second fiddle to Brick, our dog.  He sits on the boat seat!

They pay their own way here.  They agree to work around 25 hours a week on the farm plus help with the living chores and we provide the room and board.

We heard from a couple from Australia, Poland, a girl from Malaysia, a Frenchman, a Scotts, several Brits, a Hoosier, and one guy from New York City.

We wrote back and forth with several people.  We ruled out the New Yorker right away.  Too citified.  After all these exotic applicants who do you think we actually invited?  A good ol' southern Indiana farm boy!  

Yep!  Lee showed up one week ago.  Jerry spent the weekend boating him around and taking him fishing and out to pull in the shrimp pots.  On Monday we put him in rain gear and he was soon elbow deep in oyster poo.  He is catching on quick, is polite, likes my cooking, and is willing to do whatever.

This weekend we are having a three day rainy, windy gale.  He still seems to want to stay.  We are all ready talking about  promoting him to management and pulling in more workers.  Jerry can take a different one out fishing and adventuring each day.

********, what a deal.

STINK

I didn't think he could ever top it but JR never lets you down.

The bear brain paste, as all our teenaged readers remember fondly, was a very popular story.  From a distance.

This time I am chased off the back and the front and the sides of the float by a tote.

When I screw up my fortitude and peek in the said odoriferic tote what do I spy but putrefying octopus skin.  

Why would JR save octopus skin in a tote to rot and smell you ask when the great natural waste basket, the Pacific Ocean is a mere short toss overboard?  I DON"T KNOW why he or anyone would keep such a container around civilized people.

Ask him, he just might be looking for a new place to store his stuff.

A One Bear Day or Musings From the Front of the Skiff

You saw the new front door.  It has been four days of high winds, hail, rain, sleet, the whole gamut of nasty weather that keeps us pinned down in the cabin so we were ready to go out even though it was still a heavy mist.

We were boating around the outer islands looking for treasures which is what we often do after high winds.  Not everybody ties things down and not everything that is tied down stays.  Heck, we often find things that we lost after a blow.

So, there I am standing in the front of our skiff  perusing the shore lines and I am thinking of Dad Ryggs.  A long time ago I bought him a mug that he loved.  Printed on it was, " You can always tell a Norwegian, but you can't tell him much"! 

Ryggses are Norwegian.  But, I am thinking, you can always tell an Alaskan too, by the way they stand up in their boats.  Now granted, I haven't been around a lot of boaters before here except lake ski boats and you DON"T stand up in those.

Now local Alaskans ( I would say native but around here natives are Native) always stand up in their boats be it large fishing boats down to 12 footer skiffs with hand tillers.  I have seen them put extensions on the tillers so that they can steer while standing.

So, when we got our own boat I started practicing standing.  It is a little tricky what with the wind, waves, and a husband that isn't above jerking the steering wheel.

I learned that it is all in your stance.  You gotta stand wide with slightly bent knees, loose hips, and sway with the movement, kinda like riding a horse without the smell.

By now I am pretty good at standing and ready to move on to phase II.  It is about then that I realize that I don't know what phase II is.  Why am I standing here???  Am I looking for whale? rocks? rogue logs? the next island?  Am I to be ready to bale out at any second? 

 Why do Local Alaskans stand up in their boats?

Oh, and while we were out there on the water we saw our first bear of the year.  It was a really pretty, velvety black one, seemed rather big.