Our landlord tells us that a bear was on the grounds last night from 11 p.m. until 2 am, and knocked over the trashcan right outside our cabin, scattering items around, and his dogs had been barking for hours. We heard nothing! The dogs did not react either, very strange! The landlord says that in September, there will be a parade of bears right by the cabins as they head to the Klawock River to take advantage of the huge fish migration. That will be something to see!
We go church at St. John’s. Afterwards they have virtual breakfast smorgashborg and mixer. We meet the physics/chem teacher from Craig High School. Her daughter graduated from Yale with a degree in Environmental Engineering, and is now working for a private contractor on a jet fuel pipeline project in Mesquite NV, interesting. Her husband is an ex-Alaska State Trooper. They have been here 15 years. She lives in Old Craig, a block or two from the duplex we are hoping for.
Kathy goes to do laundry, and I stay out of the rain which has moved in, reading my Grisham book. After a while it stops raining and looks okay, so I take the dogs for a walk. As we did back in San Diego, we try to take them for at least one long walk every day. I’ve seen a map that shows a trail into the forest and done to the Klawock River, and it begins right across from the grocery store. We find it, and the dogs have a great time exploring the forest, which is deserted. I see a wren, and bunchberries and wild blueberries and lots and lots of hanging moss. This moss is literally everywhere, one of the constant reminders we are in a temperate rain forest.
We get down to the river, and immediately hear and see fish jumping. There is nothing for them to jump over at this part of the river, but jump they do, sometimes clearing the water by more than a foot! They are good size fish, too, 10 to 18 inches or so. I hear them splash down more often than I actually see them. We walk along the shore, and see three small groups of Canada Geese at different parts along the way. Lakota manages to sneak into the water when I’m distracted, darn it. Oh well, we walked down here, so she can dry off on the walk back. We find what I suspect is a pile of bear poop. This has the dogs complete attention. Lakota makes a move as if she is going to roll in it, and I yell just in time! Why they like to roll in weird stuff is beyond me.
We take a short after-dinner walk up and down the streets around the cabins. The dogs behave so well I've stopped using the leash. Most dogs at their homes are leashed up; others come only to their property lines and then stop. We walk about ten blocks, and then a Klawock Policeman stops his truck and informs us we are in the city limits, so the dogs must be on leashes. Bummer. He's nice enough about it, but guess that ends that. We go by the house we like that is empty, in really good shape, and makes us wonder if it available. There's no for sale sign, no contact info at all. Guess I'll ask the neighbors if then know anything about it tomorrow.
When Kathy flew up here for her interview, she called me and said it was a much slower pace of life, and wondered if we could adjust. My immediate thought was sure, but the return to San Diego, if that comes, would be much tougher. In San Diego, we live about half a mile from the I-805/SR136 Interchange, and there was a habitual roar of traffic, sometimes very quiet, sometimes very loud, depending on the atmosphere and the time of day. We got used to it and it very rarely bothered us. I’m sure it had an effect on the air we were breathing, too. Between the pace of life, the speed of traffic, the noise, and the change from what has to be some of the purest air on earth, that transition back could be a real challenge. Besides having a very small population, no traffic congestion, very dense forests of trees, and the air getting ‘washed’ virtually every day, it has to be fresh air! Oh well, that’s two years away, not to worry.
We didn't get the duplex we really, really wanted, very disappointing.
Saturday, and it’s raining much of the day. We stay in and stay warm. We go out around 7pm our time, to Craig to Skype with Kelli and Jared. We get to the Wheelhouse Coffeeshop a little late, and start trying. Turns out our connection is fine, but Kelli has computer problems, so are attempt fails. Kathy calls Kelli to talk, and ends up talking while I drive home to Klawock. Now we know there is solid connection all the way down the highway. They have a good talk, with Henry interjecting his two cents too.
Late Friday night, both dogs abruptly jumped to their feet, ears up and Lakota doing a low growl. I don't remembe ever seeing them react like this, and we immediately suspectd a bear is near. We muted the TV, but didn’t hear anything. They definitely were uneasy about something odd. After several minutes, no sound from outside, and a look through the windows, we opened the front door and the dogs swept out, but froze on the deck, still on high alert. They would not venture off the deck at first. We looked around, listened, and heard and saw nothing. The moon was coming up through thin clouds, looked to be almost full. The dogs finally went down the three stairs to the ground, but stayed right close. Quinlan was breathing in deeply, then almost snorting to clear his nose, in a way I’ve never seen before. We called them in after a few minutes, and they were fine after that. it will be interesting to see how they react when we do see a bear, and if it's similar to this reaction. We figure it's only a matter of time before this happens.
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