Sun! Fees! Where are the Salmon?

I'm writing this on Wednesday from the Craig Library.  They provide free wi-fi, and a quiet place to work, with big windows looking out to the water.  I've posted several new pictures on my Facebook page.  Kelli and Jared and Henry are on their way home now from Maine, three days late thanks to Irene.  Kathy has caught my cold and is at home nursing it. 

Kenny Quigley tells me there should be thousand and thousands of salmon in the inlet below us by now, but there are very few.  Commercial fisherman have gone down to Puget Sound looking for fish.  Bummer.  The local economy depends a great deal on salmon, not surprisingly.  Kenny has a fish packing plant, with Whole Foods as a prime customer.  Halibut is also a mainstay.  The Chinese want him to start processing Sea Cucumbers, but apparently that is labor-intensive, and Kenny has trouble getting enough labor as it is, partly because it's a hit and miss deal, hot for a day or two, little work the other three or four days.  It is really fascinating learning about life in a small town, life on an island, and life so dependent on very few industries. 

We found out that all ATM's are not alike:  turns out we cannot access our California Coast Credit Union account without getting charged an ATM fee, even at the Tongass Federal Credit Union!  Who'd a thunk it?!  We get with a fee by this credit union, and another from ours, each time we do a withdrawal!  This, obviously, isn't going to work, and we will be opening a local account.  We ARE still in the United States, so don't feel too foolish with having had the assumption otherwise. 

Tuesday, the 30^th of August 

I took Kathy to work today again, so I could have the car.  I can now do the 5.3 miles in 10 minutes, and the Craig Klawock Road in another 10.  Back to Craig, and the Wheelhouse Coffee Shop, and on the Internet for the next three hours, doing stuff:  updated my blog, adding recent pictures, very cool.  Looking up phone number for our next utilities.

Kathy calls me and asks me to pick her up for lunch.  I pick her up around 12:30, and we get chicken burgers at the store, and go to the ball field for lunch.   Quick food places are very, very limited hee, as in two choices.  We meet Jenny and her black and white toy poodles.  Kathy had a tough morning, and we talk about what's going on, and what's not going on!

Back to SEARHC, then Craig, and I take the dogs up the Sunnahae Mountain Trail for about ten minutes.  It’s pretty steep, and apparently not re-opened yet.  It is beautiful, and follows a fast-flowing creek.  I find out it will be official re-opened this weekened.  It's two miles up, with a 2,500 foot elevation gain, so much more of a workout than my favorite in-city hike, Cowles Mountain.  We'll be back another day to conquer it and enjoy the view.  Back down, and we follow the paved trail along the road, to the Peace Health Center, near Crab Creek, and back, a good long walk in the sunshine! 

I go to the US Forest Service office, and pick up some information on trails and roads on the Tongass National Forest, and talk with Katherine about trails.  She is very helpful.  To the store, and pick up some dinner.  Back home, a little rest, then get dinner cooking, and leave to pick up Kathy.  Her afternoon was much better, although the receptionist quit, declaring today was her last day!  This isn’t an altogether bad thing:  she wasn't happy, and so provides an opportunity to continue the rebuilding.   

On the way home, we decided to continue driving up Port St Nick Road to see more of it.  We go as far as the two one-lane bridges, both under repair, then turned around.  There isn't a single house on either side of the road between Quigley's where we are staying and the bridges where we turned around.  We know there are more homes along the road, because we can see them across the inlet from Quigleys.  On the way back, I spotted a young bear running across the road.

We have a nice dinner of baked chicken, baked potatoes, and green beans, yum, with a little help from Susan. 

There are no squirrels here, or at least I haven't seen any.  A flying squirrel lives on the island, but that's it, and there is another of my assumptions shot to hell:  when I think of forests, I think of squirrels.  Nope, not a one.  I thought I heard one once, but it must have been a bird.  No chipmunks either, or snakes.  Lots of mushrooms though!  Geez, this is mushroom, moss, fungus land, not suprisingly. 

Have I mentioned that gas sells for $4.51/gallon?  Yep, it's true, and hasn't varied since we've been here.