Thursday, August 25, and yet another move, and another new place. At least with this move we will stay put for six weeks, a real and overdue‘luxury.’ We are at 5.3 miles out on a gravel road (our address and the distance), on Port Saint Nicholas Road. It follows the shoreline, so all homes on the right are on the water. We have an apartment, overlooking the bay, a beautiful view. There are six bedrooms/apartments in what was once a bed and breakfast. We are across the road from the Craig Water Treatment Plant and Fish Hatchery. The owner, Kenny, tells us there are bears around every night, and to be careful when walking late. He doesn’t have to tell us twice!
After packing the car, handing in the key, and taking Kathy to work, I drove to Craig and our new place, and moved us in. I was anxious to get to the Harris River Restoration Celebration and Tour, so got to the Craig High School early, gave the dogs plenty of time outside the car, and talked with the bus driver. He has lived here for decades, is a retired Special Education teacher. His daughter is on summer staff with the Forest Service as an archaeologist, for the sixth year. I had just read a paper online written by the local FS geologist, who it turns out is the daughter's boss. We get to talk some island archaeology. There are several caves on the island, and nationally-important finds have been made in them. It's fun to learn more about the island from a local, and be able to talk archaeology, thanks to all I learned during my four years at the San Diego Archaeological Center.
I went to the Harris River Recovery Project dedication today. The first of three stops was down the road to Hollis, where a new Nature Interpretive trail has been completed. It's through a demonstration forest, where different methods of increasing timber production are being tried. It's all about increasing production on the forest and Native lands, whether it's trees or salmon. They do incorporate richer habitat for all species in their projects now, which is excellent progress over decades past, but the focus remains on increasing production. There are good nterpretive panels, along the trail, explaining the different methods being explored.
I met a lot of new people on this tour, and saw some great restoration work. The sun was actually out much of the morning, and the rain stayed away the entire day. The Under Secretary of Agriculture traveled here for this event. There was about 20 people from the Forest Service, from district supervisor to stream engineers, etc.. The director of The Nature Conservancy for the Pacific Northwest was there, and representatives from the National Forests Foundation, Hyda Native Corporation, and others. Nils Warnock, director of Audubon Alaska, was there, and ate lunch at my table, along with FS Stream Engineer Brian Barr and David and Cindy. Nils lives in Anchorage, and attended San Diego State at one time! David and Cindy have just moved to Thorne Bay. David is the retired director of the DEC for New York State. They had looked at the McCormick house, too! They had a fascinating story to tell about the cougar killed this year in Connecticut. More on this later.
The tour went to three different places along the Harris River watershed. The last stop was at a tributary creek now known as Fubar Creek. The highway department is tired of replacing the Fubar Creek sign, so there is a concerted effort to change the name to a Native one. See the sign in the picture. 
With the tour completed, it was time to take the dogs for a nice long walk. Next, I picked up Kathy, went to Event Dinner at the Craig High School, and had an delicious salmon. Here we got to see the Klawock Native Dancers for the first time, very cool. There were literally people of all ages, down to three years old. It was a very tribal experience. We also met the Craig City Manager. He's had the job for nine years, and was a Craig City Planner for 11 years before that, a good guy to know as we learn more about our new home.
Back to our new home, and we meet Kenny, Susan's husband, and talk with him a little. He tells us of the 80 to 130 mph winds that whipped through here last year, and tore the entire roof off this place!
What?! Geez, talk about an insurance/weather/family nightmare!Friday, Kathy takes the car to work, first time we’ve tried this way. It may not be the right place, since we are so far out, and I’m basically stranded in the forest. It’s a beautiful day, the sun peeking out from the clouds off and on.
I take the dogs for a couple of walks in the morning. At around 4:00, they get antsy, and we go out again. We’ve already explored the small accessible shoreline, and up the road. This time we walk down the road, where I know there are other dogs, and so far I have avoided because I’m not comfortable walking our dogs off leash when there are other dogs off leash nearby. Just two houses down, I hear kids playing. A blond dog comes into view, looking friendly, a Labrador maybe. Then a black dog, same size, and a ‘dust mop.’ They all eventually spot us coming up on the opposite side of the road, and come over, one by one, to see check out the new dogs in the neighborhood. The blond dog is very friendly, never makes a sound, just wants to say hello. The dust mop is yappy, but calms down quickly, and they all make friends as we continue walking. There are two men talking at the house, The Castles, and I wave and say hi, deciding to introduce myself on our way back, when we are on their side of the road. The black dog eventually comes over, also nice and quiet and just wanting to check us out. Suddenly Lakota yelps like she has been stepped on, and Quinlan immediately comes back to rescue his sister. The black dog gets the message and backs off, good doggy, bad Lakota. All is good, and we keep walking.
It’s a nice day, me in only a tee shirt and only a little cool. We get to the nice new concrete bridge, and look down to the creek and see salmon in it! Wow, this is so cool! They are almost all 20 to 24 inches long! Many of them have cream-colored patches like the ones I saw on the field trip yesterday, so must be spent dog (“Chum”) salmon, and some humpies. You can see maybe 15 in several groups, heads pointed upstream, working easily to stay put against the current. We circle down to the edge. They are harder to see, with the reflection and lack of heighth hurting our view. We walk downstream. A salmon occasionally gets frisky and splashes about, breaking the surface of the shallow creek, which scares Quinlan, pretty funny. We keep going downstream, and the creek pinches down. The dogs find a spent salmon on the shore, broken in half. I watch to see what their reaction is, but they just sniff it some and back off.
We climb back up the embankment and return to the road, and head home. The Castles is now deserted, too bad, a missed opportunity to meet neighbors.
I can look outside across the bay right from where I sit writing this, on my bed. It's about half a mile to the opposite shore, and the hill, solid green mostly evergreen trees. The tide has been out and in and out, no news here, but it goes in and out about 40 feet. The owners have salmon pens, a square of four squares, each one about 45 feet on a side.
I’m reading a really good book, an article in the Nature Conservancy Magazine I picked up at dinner last night, and listening to the CNN coverage of Hurricane Irene. It looks like Kelli and Jared will not be boarding their plane at 6:30 am Sunday as planned. I guess this proves I won’t die without Internet access for hours and hours, but I have been feeling faint and nauseous……..
No comments:
Post a Comment