what a day. Temperatures are down in the 30’s during the day now, but still – it’s sunny and dry. I’ve decided 10 or 20 degrees colder and dry is better than wet.

We left to do training at Ooguruk Island, the Pioneer oil rig, in the afternoon. Saw a big polar bear in the distance on a barrier island. They are big creatures, even at a distance.

We arrived at the rig, and within a few minutes of getting the boat moved ashore, we sucked up a “super sack” sand bag. That ended festivities for the day running the boat. We went ashore, instead, to help with shore training activities. A call came in that a bear was swimming our way, and not long later, the security person on the island showed up toting a shot gun. We never did see that bear.

After we were done with training, we went up for a quick dinner before heading home. It was going to be a long run on only one engine. And what a dinner it was. Huge shrimp, prime rib cut to order, and king crab. Dessert was homemade banana bread and some pastries. It was a sad day that I did not have any room left for a Dreyer’s ice creme cone from the soft-serve machine.

The way home took more than twice as long as normal. We shared captain duties on the way home, and it was a bit hairy boating through a pass with a snow squall at night on only one engine. We touched bottom a few times,
but made it through.

Sunsets now are just incredible. Almost a harbinger of the closing of the short summer and the start of the long winter.
–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

We went to a barrier island near Prudhoe Bay today to anchor down a connex so it could not be floated by storm or ice flow. We went in a hover craft – my first such trip in this craft. It was kind of like the sensation of flying in a heliocopter, without the noise. The craft lifts slightly off the ground with a big propeller in the back – like an airboat has – and then moves along on a cushion of air. You can go from the sea over a sand bar and back in the sea with no problem.

We saw a group of cow and calf musk ox on the way to the trailer site. At the trailer, we saw hoof prints of recent musk ox presence. They looked like a cross between a moose and a caribou. There was some very fresh scat there, too. It looked very much like deer scat, only larger, of course.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

We left on Friday Aug 29 to moose hunt up in Fairbanks. My former deckhand, Tom, got a cow permit, so I went up with his dad and uncle to hunt north of Fairbanks, the first place I knew in Alaska when I came up to college in 1983.

Tom helped build a summer camp in his hunting area for a local church, so we were able to stay there while hunting. Myself, his dad and uncle drove up from Haines with his uncle’s jet boat so we could run the Chatanika river.

We drove the 700 miles to Fairbanks from Haines, traveling to Haines Junction in the Yukon, then on to Beaver Creek in British Columbia, then on to Fairbanks. Just north of Haines we saw a lynx, and shortly thereafter a coyote. We saw numerous moose along the road on the way to Fairbanks, as well.

We left Haines about 8 am and arrived in Fairbanks at Tom’s cabin about 9 pm or so, and stayed there. We talked his roommate Travis, another Juneauite, into joining us.

The next day we headed out to the Chatanika, and launched the boat for a reconnasance run. We saw a bull moose on the bank on the return to the boat launch, and cows and calfs along the roadside, so it looked promising.

The next morning, we headed back for the Chatanika before first light. On the way there, we saw a cow moose just off the road, and without a calf. Thus ended the easiest hunt I’ve ever had. Tom made a good shot, 5 of us butchered the moose, and it was a short distance packing the meat to the truck.

We hunted the next 2 days, but no one ever saw a bull. We returned to town, dropped off the boys at their college pad, and headed home. We made it to customs, just as a rerun of Rudi Guliani and then Governor Palin was showing on the TV at the border station. We continued to Snag Creek, pitched the tent, and had a good dinner and sleep. The next day we left for Haines and arrived about 2 pm.

Roy called a few of his buds over, and 5 of us processed the meat. In a few short hours, we had it all packaged and in the freezer. I left for Juneau this morning on the 930 am ferry, and arrived at 2 pm or so.

Of course, there were emails with my take on Governor Palin as the VP on the Republican ticket.

We talked often of her husband Todd on the moose hunting trip. How he must be missing it, and if she wins the presidency someday, he’ll never let them have a Republican Convention the first of Sept ! (opening day of moose season!). He works up on the slope where I do now, too, in the oil patch.

So, we’ll see how it all goes. I just got done watching the Friday Night political shows on PBS. Seems it’s way more talk about Palin than McCain. I also had an extensive interview with an Alaska Fishermans Journal reporter about our issues with our state DEC and Palin’s appointee. That and my letter to the editor of National Fishermen are my last throes after this issues, I fear. At some point you have to let the bastards win or turn into one yourself.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

Our governor – who I predicted would be John McCain’s VP running mate – was officially named his running mate today. She’s literally the girl next door to many of us here. She looked a bit uncomfortable today speaking to a national audience as just a local, small town mother who happens to be the governor of our state. Our book keeper and long time fish customer lives right next to the governors house here in Juneau, so Gov. Palin and her family are literally our neighbors.

She’s as real a person as I’ll likely ever know in national politics. As the indictments reach double digits here for Alaskan Republicans, she ran essentially as an independent on a “Republican” platform, and won resoundingly. Her popularity is unmatched here – I don’t think Governor Hammond had her popularity while in office – but acquired it as hindsight showed his independent leadership and his popularity grew over time after he left office.

Palin is the next Harry Truman, I think, not necessarily in her values but her origins. She’s going to be a handful for Washington insiders and lobbyists to deal with, since she’s everything they are not- a rural person with rural traditions and values. How many who live in DC go hunting because that’s what they eat, and not for the trophy? I’m off hunting tomorrow for moose, and like our governor, it’s not for the trophy, but for the meat and the tradition, regardless of whether or not I could buy beef at a lower cost at the store. When I eat a steak, I have no connection to the land that the cow came from – although certainly a rancher might.

Some will think she’s bitten off more than she can chew, but I think people thinking she’s “inexperienced” or “not ready to be president” means she hasn’t played the DC game long enough to know “the system”.

Her husband, Todd, also works on the slope – boy howdy, is his alternate making a fortune if he’s subbing for Todd while he’s called to his duties! NPR reporters are already saying she’s “inexperienced” because like all Washington insiders, they themselves are only used to Washington politics and what it takes to be a leader. Why can’t she do it – because she wasn’t born and raised in Washington instead of Wasilla? With much of Alaska’s politicians the children of former Alaskan politician, it’s nice to see a person who has made things happen totally on her own and not through the good old boy network that many second and third generation legislators gain their seats and power.

Sara and I both had goosebumps, I think, watching someone who was here yesterday and now is in Ohio running for national office and a heartbeat from the presidency if McCain wins. It’s like a dream right now, and will take some time to digest. Sara Palin could be from Allegany County, NY, where I’m from, and now potentially the next VP of the most powerful country in the world.

The sad part for us here is it will really leave the state in disarray if she wins. I think people will mostly wish her well – how many times do you get to run for VP? – but filling the leadership void she and potentially her Lt. Gov, Sean Parnell, is scary. Parnell is in a virtual tie with Don Young for our lone US Congress seat. About 150 votes separate the two, and there are a thousand or two absentee votes to count. If Parnell wins, then we’re not even sure who ascends the governor ship. If it’s the speaker of the house, it would be Lyda Green, and anti-Palinite who already has said she won’t run again, supposedly because polls show she couldn’t win her seat again. She’s from the same town as Palin, and lost favor as Palin has gained favor.

So, life here will be interesting. Her accepting the VP nomination comes at a time when the gas line in production but still uncertain. I’m sure the oil companies will be investing heavily in lobbying to try to regain any wrongs they’ve seen in the current Trans Canada deal to build the gas line. We Alaskans have been living large with free money every year for 2 decades, but oil production is about half of what it was at the peak. Everyone is looking for a new cash cow in the gasline, and so it’s the next great hope for Alaskans to continue paying no state taxes, and getting our free money every year.

–

We ran to Pt. Thompson today with some workers who were unloading barges there. On our way home, we saw a group of 19 herkin’ polar bears – many of them sows with twin cubs – on an island. Some were eating something, but we couldn’t tell what it was from the boat. That was a sighting of a lifetime.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com

My boss took me with him today to do oil spill response training at North Star Island. I thought I was going as crew, but as we untied, he said you take her. We were practicing decanting an oil spill barge – the barge where you put oil you would be skimming. So, we had to tie alongside a barge first, then head to N. Star. N. Star does not have a dock. You have to pull up to a bulkhead, almost always with a sea swell, and pin the square front of the boat against teh bulkhead so people can load onto the boat. Difficult enough the first time you try it, but with a barge in tow – twice as nutty.

As we came in, and I was being swelled towards the bulkhead, my boss said “Put her in reverse”… then louder “Put her in reverse…”. Just as we were about to hit the bulkhead, I eased it into reverse, and we just nudged it perfectly. Like hitting your first jumper when the coach finally puts you in. My boss was clearly worried, then clearly impressed as we held against the bulkhead. I knew it might be beginners luck, but I stuck the return trip when we offloaded the crew after training.

It was a nice day to be on the Arctic Ocean. It is getting colder, though, particularly in the morning and evenings, and I can see some snow if it gets a tad colder and we get some precip. But for now, it’s dry and mild here and a great place to be.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com