Alaska Blog 2: The deep, dark forest.

Hey, remember when I said that I'd write the next blog the next day and I totally didn't? Man, I love that story.

I'm writing it now, though! 25 days later! So all's right, right?

If I remember correctly, I left off the last blog with me settling in at Whaler's Cove. My room was named after a bird of some kind, I don't remember which. I think it was something boring. There wasn't a bathroom so I had to walk outside onto the cool wooden deck to a public one. This was fine except for some reason, with the difference in time and the amount of water I must have been absorbing through my pores, I had to go to the bathroom over and over, all freaking night long. Which is something you wanted to hear about.

Luckily it was Alaska, so it was never dark. And it was always just this cool, beautiful evening out, and I enjoyed the little walk.

This is the best I've got of me on a boat. And I'm not in it.

So here was the work routine. We'd walk out to the boat dock and wait for a little boat to take us across to Admiralty Island. Once there, we'd drive to the float plane dock and get on another little boat. This one would take us across Favorite Bay to one of the three project areas. We'd unload into the soggy beach and head to the edge of the forest.

Floatplane in the foreground, the wall of forest behind

Now I'm not used to forests like these. In Utah you can see a ways in, and you can see a ways in every direction. These temperate rain forests were like a wall. As soon as you were in, you were in. If someone turned me around 10 times blindfolded and let me go, even if I were just 30 feet into the forest, I would be completely lost. This forest, too, had a lot of verticality to it. As in, there were trees, and when a tree would fall down, new trees would grow directly from the old tree. The ground was never solid, because it wasn't really ground. It was feet of dead matter, live matter, and roots. I've never been somewhere so alive. And I was at a Paula Abdul concert once. So that's saying something.

A rare sunny day. Still dark when you get further in, though.

The work itself consisted of walking along the proposed airport and roads and identifying the plants we saw. We would take points when we came across a wetland (when it was all really a wetland), and we'd take pictures. It was very scientific.

Well, actually it was. I worked with some just primo people, who knew a buttload about plants and wetlands and everything else in there. We worked with this great naturalist from the area. And when I say great naturalist I mean everything you'd expect. By which I mean a lot of knowledge about everything and crazy hair. And an antenna for his GPS sewn in his hat.

If I'm simplifying it's because you can get a good idea of what I did by looking at the pictures, imagining me tromping through those woods, sometimes so dense that you literally couldn't see 3 feet ahead of you, and asking, over and over again, what the plants are. Sometimes one of us would yell out, "Hey bear!," or "Whoa bear!" or "I poop bigger than you, bear!"

This was to let them know we were there. Did I mention the bears?

This is a very bad mommy. Teaching her cubs to eat at the dump.

Apparently, Admiralty Island has more bears than the entire lower 48 combined. That's one bear per square mile. I say apparently, because the only bears we saw were at the dump. Speaking of dumps, though, we saw a lot that the bears left behind. And I'll be honest. I don't crap bigger than they do. Not by a long shot.

Sorry, but it was awesome. Alaska Part 1.

Yes. This is ridiculous.

I know everyone got sick of my Alaska updates. I was supposed to be, you know, working, but I was acting like I was having the time of my life. The thing is, though, that I really was having the time of my life.

I know it's a tough time out there, and I should be glad just to have a job and some work, and I shouldn't rub in people's faces that not only do I have a job and some work but that for at least two weeks it was awesome, but there it is. I'm back home now, and all of the stresses about trying to stay busy in a time when nobody is busy are back, but I figured I'd better put down some thoughts on the trip while it was still fresh and before I'm consumed again with worry. Bear with me.

Anyway, here's a quick breakdown with pictures.I started out in Juneau, which is where my flights ended up. I should, though, point out that there was a layover in Seattle, and that layover included the best strawberry shortcake I've ever eaten. I should also point out that the strawberries were picked that morning and that I ate said shortcake on a plane. I've always wanted to bring something actually, you know, good on a plane to eat while everyone else ate pretzels and a tiny glass of coke. I did and it was great.

Anyway, Juneau's kind of dumb in a cruise town kind of way. We did manage to find some spots out of the way where they served pizza that was so good that it was stupid. From a restaurant I saw a rainbow and some float planes.

I humbly submit that this was neat. And a little taste of what was to come.

Anyway, just an afternoon in Juneau with an early morning on the Alaska Marine Highway system. Back when I worked for Scenic Byways Online I wrote a lot about the Alaska Marine Highway and hoped someday to be able to ride on it. This proves to me that if you have a dream, you don't really have to chase it. Just kind of hang around and it will happen to you.


Feel free to put that on a sampler and frame it. Jazz it up a little, though.

While on the ferry, I saw a little thing we wildlife biologists like to call humpback whales.

Yeah, no pictures, though. Here's one and you can imagine a massive head popping out of the water and then retreating and me saying softly to myself as I look through the binoculars, "oh snap."

Look at me I'm on a boat.

The boat ride took 5 hours and included a charming thing that happened to all of us who ordered the fish and chips. We got chicken and chips. Good thing it was pretty good and cost 13 dollars. I had a slice of cake with pudding in it.

Yes. Food is going to be a theme of these blogs.

We arrived at a village that has existed for at least 3,000 years continuously though it was probably more like 5,000. It's tiny, and economically depressed, and really charming in a tiny economically depressed methy kind of way. There were bears at the dump.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog, or the one where I actually start to do work.