Grovetta's Blog

M/V Kennicott from Bellingham, WA to Juneau … “roomette”

grovetta — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 03:08:20 +0000

Instead of flying to Juneau from the Midwest this year, we decided to drive our old van up so that we could have a vehicle to leave and use on some of the remote islands around Juneau. Nearly three weeks and 4,000 miles later we made it to the port of Bellingham, arriving at the dock many hours before departure, nearly first in line with our vehicle. In all of our years in Alaska, this was the first time we brought a vehicle back on the ferry – and the first time with a pet, our cat Dexter. Both facts made the trip a lot more “interesting.” Although it was early April, we had nice weather and we enjoyed walking around town and stocking up on what we thought we would need on the ferry, mainly food items. Once the van was in the correct line for the ferry, we had several hours to blow. Most of that time was spent watching all of the people jockey their vehicles into position … and it was quite an assortment of vehicles, each one loaded to the absolute maximum with purchases from down south. I don’t recall seeing any but Alaskan license plates, all locals going back home after being outside for the winter, our younger people coming north for the summer to work. Definitely no tourists like in the summer months who are driving to Alaska for the trill of it …. these vehicles were all utilitarian and some looked like they should be movie props they were so unique. Each vehicle was checked and re-checked for drugs by two teams of dogs. Only after we boarded and were talking to other passengers did we find out that TSA was training one of the dogs and intentionally planting drugs to see if the dogs could find it. Nobody seemed to mind the multiple rounds that were made – actually interesting to watch. After a few hours, I decided to walk back into town and along the way saw a sign pointing down into the industrial area of the docks that said “outlet store.” It ended up being the only outlet store in the US for “Yak Magik” clothing that is hand crafted in Nepal. I had seen the brand at Nordstrom’s and the jackets were always several hundred dollars, but at the outlet, more like $30. So glad I had an entire van rather than just a suitcase that I could fill. The Alaska Marine Highway system is just that, a system … and they have it down fairly well on how to efficiently load hundreds of passengers and vehicles. Employees are government employees, work for the State of Alaska – everyone, from the captain to the cook or the cashier. Ferry jobs are generally coveted jobs – not enough of them for the number of people that want to work on the ferry. The fact that ferry employees are government employees means that tips are not expected and if given, the money is turned over to charity. To the person, every employee on the Kennicott was excellent – polite and efficient. No complaints. It probably helped that the ferry was not full, perhaps 60% of capacity. I don’t like being on the ferry for many days when it is packed, like in the summer …. the lines, the smells. Taking it in the spring was perfect and even the weather could not have been better. We only had a roomette, which is just a place to sleep and leave your things … no sink, no toilet, no shower. We only slept there & once we pulled the sleeping racks down from the wall, they stayed there for the entire trip. With the beds in place (the table converts to one of the bed racks), there was little room but for two small carry-on bags. It did have a porthole so we could see daylight.
When we were younger, we would sleep out on deck in “pool” chairs under heat lamps. The roomette was definitely a step up. We spent our time either out on deck or in the dining room reading, visiting or doing computer work. Unfortunately, the ferry system does not provide wireless Internet access on their ships, so unless you have your own access point, you are out of luck until you are in one of the ports. I used tethering on my Blackberry as well as an ATT wireless card – and both worked, but not reliably. Also, a good part of the trip is within Canadian waters so long distance or roaming charges could apply. Cell phone coverage existed only when in a town. There is no TV and every now and then they will show a kid type movie in the “theater.” Never did get bored, though. Plenty to read and lots of people to visit with and scenery to watch go by. One thing that I noticed was much improved since the last time I took the Seattle/Juneau ferry trip was the food that was served on board. It is actually good and not as institutional as in the past. There is not a dining room on the Kennicott, but there is a cafeteria and grill. Lunch and dinner had two entree choices and there was always soups and sandwiches. Since I am a big coffee drinker, it was great that they had a self-service espresso machine that made a decent Americano … and it was available 24/7. Pets are not allowed off of the car deck, so we had to leave our cat in the van for 4 days.

The ferry has “car deck” calls every four hours on the long haul through Canadian waters when pet owners can go to their vehicles and walk their dogs and take care of their needs. Dexter did much better than we thought he would, but we did do the ritual visits. The noise and the dogs walking by did subdue him, but he would still purr when we would stop by to visit. We arrived in Juneau on time and the off load was painless. Our house is only 5 minutes from the ferry terminal in Auke Bay and arriving there was actually the best part of the whole trip.

Cube Cove Runway

grovetta — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 15:18:50 +0000

There use to be a logging camp at this location on Admiralty Island and the only one that we are aware of that had a landing strip. They are not exactly easy to build on a mountainous island. When they closed the camp, they removed all structures. Over the years, you can hardly see any traces of the community that once was there – except for the runway.

Friend taking picture of us taking picture of him

They “ditched” most of the roads to make them unusable, but for some reason they did not choose – or have to – destroy the runway. That is good news for the flying community in the area. It provides an emergency landing space if you are on wheels and the weather comes down, but it also provides a great place for private pilots to recreate and have access to the ocean, just a few miles away, or hunting on the abandoned roads.

"over the hill" runway

It is not the perfect landing strip and the great majority of private pilots in the area have never even attempted to land there. It has an uphill slope and if the winds are not from the right direction, you wouldn’t even want to try to land. We understand that a superintendent at the logging camp died while attempting to land at the strip.

Little Shaheen Cabin – little is better

grovetta — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 15:20:57 +0000

There is the Big and the Little Shaheen Cabin on Lake Hasselborg on Admiralty Lake, just a few hundred yards apart. The big cabin is old log and has two “private” bunk rooms. It is dark and dingy and earlier in the summer, the roof was in bad need of repair. Although it looks nice on the forest service Website, I would never rent it. The Little Shaheen is a pan abode style cabin and is on the point with a nice beach. It has been recently renovated. The Forrest Service completely gutted the interior and put in a new cabinet, benchs, table, and bunk beds. There are also new windows that work and actually have screens – as well as a new door. They also did a few touches that were very nice – like copper tubing above the oil stove to use as a drying rack for wet clothes, a fact of life in SE Alaska. They replaced the wood stove with oil – the first time we used one. It is nice to be able to have consistent heat throughout the night without having to get up to put more logs on the fire. The downside is that you smell fuel oil rather than wood burning – and you can run out of oil on an October/November hunting trip that was planned for just 3 days but turns into 5 or more due to bad weather and the inability to fly out. Since it is not a wood stove cabin any longer, the Forrest Service does not keep the wood shed full. That is OK for the cabin, but one of the things we like about camping out is the ability to build an outdoor fire in the pit and sit around it as night falls. Since we are “local,” it was easy for us to bring a chainsaw and fuel. One of the first things we did was cut up the scrap lumber from the remodel into pieces that would fit into the fire pit. We also found a standing dead 12″ diameter tree near the cabin that Bill cut and I hauled the rounds back to the woodshed – where Bill then split the wood. Many years ago we stopped at a remote lake in the Yukon Territory to grayling fish. There was a log cabin on it, a newer one. On the unlocked door was a sign that read something like “you are welcome to use my place, just leave it as good as you found it – or better.” We didn’t use it, but I did walk in and it surely would have been a comfortable place to stay, especially in an emergency situation. I liked the owner’s attitude and we have adopted it as ours. There is a LOT more wood now at the Little Shaheen cabin than there was when we arrived. We also trimmed back some of the alders and brush that was blocking the views around the cabin and the trail. I don’t know why the Forrest Service doesn’t equip the cabins with a pair of pruning snips – like they do with a dustpan and a mop. I think that many people that are staying a few days would have no problem with helping to keep up the cabins by snipping the brush. We cooked 2″ New York Steaks outdoors, but honestly the spinach/raisin/cashew salad & homemade dressing I brought was the best part of the meal. Bill is not into fishing that much any more, but he did try for maybe 10/minutes just off the point of the cabin. Someone had said that they had caught a big cutthroat trout there in the past.

Seal Bombs … when there are no seals

grovetta — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:16:09 +0000

A commercial fisherman friend of ours retired and left the state. He had a stash of seal bombs that he couldn’t easily transport so he gave them away. He had been using them to scare away seals from his nets. I am not going to go into the morality of using seal bombs for their intended purpose, but rather how Bill is using them – a senior citizen reverting back to one of the joys of his childhood. I never was into firecrackers – maybe because girls generally just didn’t do them on the the 4th of July back in the 1950′s. We were limited to sparklers and those burning snakes or glow worms. But Bill, that is another story. He and his brother liked to blow things up with fireworks, the bigger the better. He remembers very well the fun of using cherry bombs back when they were legal, and what are today’s seal bombs. We were over on a lake on Admiralty Island with the newest person maybe being 40 miles away. We had just finished an uphill hike and as I was resting when Bill pulls out of his pocket two seal bombs. They were old and he wanted to see if they still worked – at least that was his excuse. I don’t like loud noises, translate that I like classical and he likes rock. So as I held my ears, the first one he threw was over to a marshy bog. It didn’t go off. He planned the second one better – wanted to see if it would blow up cracked rocks. It did, a little – and made a huge noise that vibrated throughout the valley. Probably scarred a lot of animals too. I was amazed at how fast Bill ran away from the blast area. Note the ever present rifle..

Sportsman Cabin… not to be confused with Distin Cabin

grovetta — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 22:30:56 +0000

Sportsman Cabin is on Distin Lake in the interior of Admiralty Island, about 50 miles south of where we live. Today it is a hunter style cabin with lots of window light and a covered porch – but when we first started going to it in the 1980′s, it was a dark A-Frame set back from the lake. It was in this cabin in the mid 80′s that Bill came down with a bad case of the flu while deer hunting. The weather was horrible, we couldn’t fly, and he was really sick – so sick, that even a cigarette didn’t sound good to him. Even with the wood stove going full blast, he was still cold. We had one aspirin on us and saved that for when we could fly back to Juneau. We were scraping ice off the windshield with credit cards. The good news that came out of that miserable trip was that Bill quit smoking for good as a result. Sorry for the diversion. Anyway, we decided to rent the cabin last Sunday because the lake has a lot of good trails, mainly the one from the Distin Shelter cabin over to Thayer lake, a 3-miler we have hiked many times while deer hunting in the fall. The Distin Shelter still appears on the Tongass National Forrest reservation system, but thank goodness reservations are no longer being taken for it. It is uninhabitable at this point in time. The door does not open fully and it appears that part of the roof has caved in. Even 20 years ago, it was primitive - had a dirt floor – but it always had a good stove and was dry… enough to get by with. The most vivid memory I have of the Distin shelter was setting out three mouse traps before going to sleep, only to be awaken by each one of them going off and then realizing that there were still more mice and one was crawling into my sleeping bag. Never stayed there again. What is nice about Distin Lake is that there are lots of opportunities for walking, in addition to the normal camp activities. We had brought a 4/horse kicker and went around the entire lake, even though it was raining. Serene. It has a nice fire-pit outside the cabin and plenty of wood. We had brought a chainsaw with us and cut up a lot of the scrap wood from the new construction for use in the campfire. There was even cedar scrap which is wonderful in a wood stove – though it doesn’t burn very hot. Our plan was to get up at day break and head back to Juneau, but the weather turned foggy and we had to delay until about noon. The thing about this kind of flying is that you are in the blind about weather conditions until you get up in the air and have radio or phone contact. But who wants to get up if you can’t see well? What Bill ended up doing was leaving me and all of our gear behind (so as to be lighter), and to take off and see what he could see from near the lake – hoping to see light toward Chatham Straights. When he came back, we were loaded and back out in 10/minutes. Chatham was actually very windy, unlike the interior of Admiralty Island. As always, the first thing I do when we landed at the float pond was to check for voice mail. This time, my in-basket was full with concerned family and friends because they had received a spoofed email from “me” saying I was robbed in Spain and needed money to get back home. If I had been in town and could have responded immediately that it was just a scam, a lot of nerves would have been spared. The fact that I wasn’t responding to email or phonemail (and that I do travel international), made for some tense moments for those I care about while we were enjoying Sportsman Cabin.

Blueberry Picking … the rest of the story

grovetta — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 20:00:48 +0000

Picking blueberries is just the beginning of the process. We fly out to a remote location, gear up with bear spray and bug spray, wear dark and already stained clothing and walk into dense thickets or bogs with a ground so covered with debris that you are never sure what you are stepping on. We do that just to get the berries.

Picker Loaded with Berries

When full, our gallon yellow paint bucket is enough for 3 large pies (5-6 cups per pie). We use berry pickers, a pronged metal catcher that strips the berries from the branches. It is an efficient way to pick – lot more volume in less time. The downside is that you also pick off a lot of small twigs, leave, and seed or dried blueberries in the process. After the major pick, you have to sort through the bucket for the debris – at least the big stuff. When I get back to the house, I put the gallon of berries in a large stainless steel bowl with some salt- a step necessary to nudge out the worms – if there are any. I make sure there is a lot of water in the bowl and I swirl it with a completely submerged hand. Leaves and small matter tend to stick to the hands – which I then run under running water to remove. Step is repeated. Maybe other people don’t do it this way, but I then take a handful of berries at a time, and sort through them – tossing from one hand to the other, again under running water. I pick out the “raisin” ones, the white ones, any that are mashed or have holes in them … and any of the remaining debris. What is left is a bowl of berries that are firm and ready for eating. All of this takes a lot of time and the ability to live with purple fingers for several days. I think about that fact when I am at Costco or Walmart and see the large containers of blueberries for just a few dollars that are ready to be put in the recipe. Another one of those “why do I do it” moments? Simple answer is “habit.” The more complex answer has something to do with being able to make something from the ultimate definition of “scratch” and knowing that fresh has to be best, especially when provided in the wild.

Flying High Near Glaciers

grovetta — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:54:09 +0000

Usually we fly low, less than a 1,000 foot and frequently just at 200/ft above sea level. However, this day the weather was excellent and we decided to go up to Haines. We have made the trip up & down Lynn Canal hundreds of times since we once had a cabin on Chilkat Lake that we went to nearly every weekend during the flying season for 25 years.We have seen it in every one of its moods, sometimes scary and sometimes spectacular. It really isn’t a canal, but a fjord, one of the deepest and longest in the world. One of my favorite glaciers is the Davidson – as it was for John Muir in the last century. Like most glaciers around here, it is receding… at one time it went all the way to the canal. I never get tired of looking at this glacier and others along the canal.

A River of Ice

Pack Creek Bears Aren’t Always There

grovetta — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:52:43 +0000

Pack Creek is a sanctuary for free living brown bear -which really means that it is a protected area where bears can’t be hunted and they aren’t caged or fenced into a specific area. It is just their natural habitat where they can do their thing like they have for thousands of years. The first time we visited Pack Creek was maybe 30 years ago before the government had anything to do with it and it and Stan Price was still there with “his” bears on his homestead. Their place was on a creek full of salmon in July and August and the bears simply came to eat. Stan never threatened them and they became accustomed to his family and people in general. When Stan died, the Forrest Service and AK Fish & Game came in and turned it into Stan Price State Wildlife Sanctuary. After that, we only visited twice, because with government came control and permits and the permits were hard to get for locals like us. Originally they were all reserved by the outfitters for tourists, but eventually a quota system was started and a few of the permits were reserved for day use on a first come first serve basis. For many years you had to gamble and apply for a rare reservation months ahead of time – with no idea of the density of bears at that time – or especially the weather. We have our own plane and we don’t have to be dependent on a charter company, but we are dependent on the weather, especially when you have to tether your seaplane to a pulley system and leave it for many hours. We had a sunny week with mild winds and we knew it was peak salmon run time. We easily got a permit, $25/per person for seniors. Upon landing a Forrest Service employee met our airplane and helped us tie it up to the buoy and rope system. We then got the standard lecture on bear safety in the wilderness and where you can and cannot walk in the sanctuary. It is very controlled – but they have to do it for the safety of the inexperienced – and to keep the bears not annoyed. They provide a bear proof lock box to put your anything edible – down to chewing gum or flavored water, or anything else you don’t want to pack around. Instead of the short hike over to the open bear viewing area, we chose to walk the approximately 1-mile trail up to the observation tower and stay there for several hours. We saw no bears on the hilly trail.

Upon arriving at the tower, there was a woman from Juneau who had been there for a few hours. She had seen no bears from the tower, but did run across an injured sow along the trail … one that the Forrest Service was well aware of. The other visitor left shortly after our arrival. Bill and I took turns napping and standing watch for bears. We saw none – just birds. That’s OK.

It was a beautiful day and extremely relaxing to be in a safe place surrounded by natural sounds and beauty. Of course, we didn’t pay $600 or more each to get there and neither was this going to be a once in a life time experience. We were just happy to be able to be outdoors. In the open viewing area, you are more likely to see bears, but they won’t be nearly as close to you as they are at the tower … if they are there.

http://www.wc.adfg.state.ak.us/index.cfm?adfg=refuge.pack_ck

http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/districts/admiralty/packcreek/index.shtml

Puley

Lake Alexander Forest Service Cabin

grovetta — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:24:43 +0000

It had been a sunny and record hot August week (in the low 80′s) in SE Alaska and we felt like renting a forest service cabin for a night. Our first choice was the new Eight Fathom cabin near Hoonah, but it was reserved within hours of when we previously went online. Our second choice was Lake Alexander on the east side of Admiralty Island, about a 45/minute flight from Juneau in a designated Tongass Wilderness area. Access is by float plane or a gruesome canoe portage meant for the young or demented. We had dropped in a few weeks earlier and were quite impressed by the interior remodel that the Forest Service had completed the previous year. Within just hours of paying the $35 fee for one night, we were headed out to the lake. To our surprise, the cabin skiff was in the middle of the lake with 3 men in it. According to the FS website, the cabin had not been rented the day before – when we checked early that day. We landed and taxied up to the skiff to find out when they were planning on vacating the cabin. Ended up that they were from Dallas, and like us, had made a spur of the moment decison to spend the previous night at the lake. We felt kind of bad interrupting their wilderness experience, and just step-taxied to the opposite end of the lake and took a hike up the trail to Mole Harbor while they packed up and got ready for their 2pm pickup by Alaska Seaplane Service. When we arrived at the cabin, they had left it in perfect shape – better actually. Steve, Scott, or Alexander (I couldn’t read their last names in the logbook), had even taken the time to set-up a fire in the outdoor pit, artistically placing flowers on the kindling (see picture). Nice! I was impressed and appreciative that the only thing they left in the cabin was a packet of instant Starbucks coffee. The Forrest Service policy is pack it in and pack it out – but I was grateful that they ignored it with this one tiny exception. Boil water and make good coffee – not bad. The cabin location has always been one of our favorites because it is perched up on a cliff overlooking the lake and has a great fire-pit to sit around at night. It also still has a wood stove – hasn’t been converted to oil yet – and is pan-abode style, not an A-frame – which means more windows and light. Another improvement they made was the installation of metal food boxes that are absolutely bear proof, rather than the wood cabinets attached to an exterior wall that were easily accessible by bears as well as squirrels. This may be the only time I am able to say it was uncomfortably hot in SE Alaska. We had brought a 4-horse motor with us and about 10AM we decided to motor around the shore of the entire lake. We ended up actually looking for shade (instead of the usual sunny spot) and cooled down by dipping our feet in the always icy water. There are a lot of beaver on the lake and their work ethic is shown everywhere – amazed at some of the tree “carvings” they are able to do. There are also loons on the lake and the whole place felt very alive. The early evening before we slowly motored through a shallow entry over to Beaver Lake to the trail that connects over to Hasselborg Lake. It was really short and uneventful, meaning no bears. One of the things that I like to do when I hike is take pictures of plants and flowers. For the first time, I ran into a massive patch of wild mint – near the shore of Hasselborg. We halfheartedly trolled for for “Dollies” (Dolly Varden Trout or sometimes called Arctic Char) on our way back, but didn’t catch any.

Fishing from Seaplane Floats … two styles

grovetta — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 03:39:58 +0000

The tides and winds were right on Saturday to go halibut fishing, from the floats of our Cessna 180. About an hour before low tide, a friend of Bill’s from Juneau joined us in Freshwater Bay in his Cessna 185. That was a first. Two planes fishing for halibut. There was a Lund skiff that was also in the area that arrived after we did. At first, they came speeding directly toward us, but when they saw our fishing poles – diverted to behind our plane. What we suspect is that they originally thought we were in distress and had come over to help us out of what they thought was a problem situation. It was a perfect day for fishing, but no halibut – just rockfish. Whereas Bill and I either stand on the floats or sit on the steps, Kurt stands in one of his float compartments – says it is more comfortable. Guess it is harder to fall in the cold water that way, but it surely looks strange.