The regular session was done, and Sara let me leave for Craig while she returned to work to work on the gasline. Everything in Craig was as I left it. Seemed like I’d only been gone a weekend. I plugged in the refrigerator and freezer. The boat was in good shape. My clothes were moldy, though, so need to better control for humidity next winter. I used those bags you put in your car for humidity, but they had used all their crystals so two bags was not enough.

The first few days back in town were spent doing errands and getting things lined up for Eric to build the house. I filled out the paper work at the utility company for bringing the Nissan Leaf to Craig. I’m already loving having a car here. Most of my driving is around town or to Klawock to the store or Hollis to the ferry, so great for an electric car. The electric cost per mile for charging the car here pencils out to an equivalent gasoline cost of about $2.75 a gallon.

Next, I had to complete paperwork for transferring my hand troll permit. I printed out the form at the library, then walked next door to city hall to get the form notorized, then back to the library to get the completed form scanned and emailed to the buyer. The librarian grew up with my nieces, went to Spain and lived and worked there for 10? years,  coming home summers to deckhand with her dad on his troller. She came home for good a few years ago to run the library. It was good to catch up with her.

After that, I needed to move the boat to another slip in the harbor. I’m hot berthing right now until I’m up on the waitlist for a permanent stall. The owner of the slip I was in was returning, so the harbor master had me move the boat to the other side of the finger. By luck, the owner of the boat next to me is a good friend, and that’s always nice to keep an eye out on each other’s boat.

I’d sent down the car full of stores – nuts, raisins, mayo, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, etc., and I brought down my favorite Costco cheese, butter, and some venison sausasge with me on the jet. I also picked up some avocados in Ketchikan before getting on the ferry with the car to Hollis. Ripe avocados are my secret to making a creamy concoction smoothie with protein ice cream mix, ice cubes, coconut milk and water.  I stopped at the store after moving the boat to pick up the remainder of my now simple diet- salad greens, onion, peppers and eggs at the store here. I’ve got canned venison, halibut, smoked salmon, kelp pickles and kelp relish in stock from last summer and fall, and fresh fish for the summer starts now to round out my diet.

I offloaded the groceries and jumped in the truck. I needed to get my boat at Lew’s lot in Hollis, where I left it last winter for the welder there to put on a new rear wall on the wheelhouse to replace the wrecked canvas that had been there. I dropped off a few things Lew asked me to look for in Juneau – a free new vice that Jeff gave me, and a pair of sneakers I got at the thrift store to wear with his waders. Then I hooked up the boat and returned to Craig. The welder mentioned there was an issue with gas fumes in the wheelhouse, and now that the wheelhouse was airtight, it was overwhelming. When I got back to Craig, I pumped out the fuel tank with a cool cordless Milwaukee fuel transfer pump Brian loaned me into two of his fuel barrels, and got the tank out. Could be the tank has some kind of leaks, but the tank was full and I don’t see any place it’s weeping nor fuel in the bilge. I did see the vent hose was bent over and the outside of the hose was degraded, so maybe it’s just bad hoses. The University of You Tube says it could be either causing the fumes. I’ll deal with that later.

Next I got the builder here one day and we measured and painted the corners of the house on the lot, and talked about what needed to be done with water and sewer and electric pipes dug in under the foundation. The next day I had Chuck, the dirt guy, come over and talk about it. It was all a little confusing for me, so I got them both here the next morning. Turns out the two of them came to the island at the same time, started working for the same contractor, then made their own company and built houses for years together till Chuck spun off and started a fishing lodge. It was great to hear old friends telling stories about their fishing and hunting trips together. Turns out the initial dirt work is simple. Chuck just got a new (to him) cruiser boat and wanted to take his wife out on a trip, so we’d get to the dirt work when he got back. That was my cue for a shakedown trip on the tug.

After the cursory look at the tug, I got down to business getting ready for the season. I wiped down the surfaces, some of which had a moldy film. The only winter casualty was an add-on sprayer I put on the galley sink. The plastic gasket on the sprayer broke and was not replaceable. I the hose to the store and luckily matched the fittings to a stainless steel replacement hose. Turns out my spayer hose is the same size as that for a shower head hose. I replaced the hose on the sink, and we’re back in business. I checked the fuel and water levels. I noted I needed to change the fuel filter and do the annual spring maintenance lubing of the seals on the head. Luckily, an oil change was still 50 hours away. I checked the drip on the shaft packing. I mounted a downrigger and checked that it worked. Outside the boat I thought: I gotta get some crap off this boat. I’ll get the shrimp pots off to start, and one of the 2 coolers. And get the pile of crew boots off the boat so there’s room to sit down around the galley table. As Kurt says, you should always have something in your hand on the walk back to your car from the boat that you’re taking off the boat.  I’ll get the stuff off after this trip.

I headed out early the next day. I headed for my familiar king and coho drag to start. My neighbor caught a couple kings there a few days ago, and my Brian said he’d seen whales there, which meant there was feed. Everything ran fine on the boat as I headed out. I looked with satisfaction on the upgrades I’d made since buying the boat. Moving the autopilot from below decks to the helm above deck, with a beautiful wood cover that Bob custom made for it. The DC powered 4 USB port. The camera and monitor to see the fishing rods and crew on the back deck. Replacing the incandescent light bulbs with flourescent bulbs. Moving the stereo from the galley steps to overhead in the helm so it is in easy reach. Adding the Starlink, so we’re never out of cell coverage. Adding the switch to isolate the cabin batteries from the starting battery, so, as long as I remember to switch it at night or when I leave the boat, the boat should always start and not have the batteries go dead if something is left turned on. Adding the circuit to feed the small freezer on the back. Adding the electric downriggers last year. Adding the new crank up and down pedestal for the galley table, that also serves as my bed when I have crew on board (that still needs some work)  And, when I went to cook dinner later, seeing the long handled pan my cousin gave me that was hand made by her cousin but never used where it lived then, but is now used regularly as it’s perfect for a boat galley. Crap, I sure like our boat.

I got the fishing gear down well ahead of the drag, out in the deep, in case anything went wrong. I started out fishing a flasher and a spoon, using the combination that was money last year. I fished down the drag and caught nothing, so changed to a cop car king kandy plug on the tack back. Then I changed out the flasher. And so it went for the day. Back and forth. Feed showed here and there, but not alot of it. There were a few whales I seemed to recognize from last year by their dorsal fins. But no kings. Just one rockfish I planned to have for dinner. I anchored in a new spot at the other end of the drag, just to check it out, as the winds were favorable for trying it. The bottom seemed to hold well after I dropped the anchor, so I launched the punt, put on the electric outboard, and motored to shore to beach comb. The EP Carry electric outboard was another upgrade I made to the boat. The outboard weighs under 20 lbs, and so easy to put and off the punt. It has a little separate lightweight lithium rechargeable battery for power. Mount the outboard, plug in the battery, turn the throttle at the end of the tiller, and away you go. I especially like it for non-boaters who use the punt. Little gas outboards can be finnicky to start, even for an expert. But for a novice, it’s daunting. I didn’t want someone to go to the beach without me and not be able to start a gas outboard – not that they couldn’t just row back, of course. This electric outboard will supposedly run an hour or more on the battery, but I’ve yet to find out the exact range as I’ve never run it that long. I recharge the battery from the tug inverter when we’re running the tug engine. The other cool thing about the outboard is that it’s made by a one man (I think) business in Washington state.

I explore the little island. I’m surprised to see game trails, as it’s so small I doubt a deer would live there fulltime. So what made the trails, I think, as I see no deer scat. I get a decent little hike in in the woods of the interior of the island, but the coastline is too steep and rocky to walk. As I come round back to the boat, I finally do see some old deer scat, so that explains what made the trails. When I spill back down to the beach, I spot a nice bleached otter skull to add to my collection. It’s my only beach find.

Back on the tug, I settle in for the night. I take out the book Hand Troller, by Mike McConnell. Like Francis Caldwell’s Pacific Troller, and Mike’s other book, Bear Tales and Deer Trails, and all the books by Wayne Short, it’s a book I’ve read over and over. It’s mostly about hand trolling in lower Chatham Strait, mainly. It’s not a how-to book. It’s a book about life as a hand troller, in the 1970’s to 1980’s, I’d guess. It was everything I’d ever wanted to do. And still want to. I just don’t have to do it for a living anymore. But the addiction remains, and always will. The flourescent lights sure are nice to ready by.

I get up the next morning and my lower back is killing me. Now what?  I think. Crap, I’m getting older by the day. These bunks have always been comfortable for me and everyone else that’s slept here. I slowly get moving, take some ibuprofen, and eventually it goes away, mostly. Maybe I need a better pillow, especially when I’m reading. I also have been feeling my sciatica coming back. That I can surely point back to not swimming as of late. And that’s not going to change for awhile, as the pool is broken here in Craig. So, more to deal with as my body ages. The new hip and newer shoulder, however, are both good.

I head to check the 2 hook skate I set the evening before. I pull it and have caught a nice chicken halibut, but it was eaten up by the sand fleas, so I shake it off. Dang, it’s nasty what these tiny critters can do to a fish on a groundline. I thought for sure I’d set in a rocky area like Brian taught me, but I obviously did not. Dang it.

I reported to Brian I’d caught no kings the day before where I was, and he said to try out towards the outside coast a little further. So, I made a pass up and down where I was first. I caught nothing and did not see the whales or feed. So I pulled the gear up for the relatively short run to the new spot. This area was a favorite of our late friend George who lived right down the road. There’s an inside, mostly protected part of this area I can fish most days, but I’d only ever caught one king there – with Kurt on our trip here from Juneau a few years ago. On the rare days there’s not a big ocean swell, I can go around the corner to a drag that’s around a subsurface reef where I have caught a few fish, but I’m only willing to fish there if I’m not going to get thrown around all day in the swell.

I put the gear down in a bay on the inside of the area, and fish my way towards the outer coastline. There are a couple charter boats fishing there, but they soon leave. I continue out of the bay and work my way to the distant point that is a border between the inner protected waters and unprotected big ocean. Anytime I get the lure near a rockpile down 50 to 70 feet, I get a ling cod. I love ling cod, but can only keep one a day, so the rest of the time they’re kind of a pain because they will get on the lure and just ride behind the boat without pulling the line out of the release on the downrigger wire. So, you can have one on there for a long while without knowing it. You learn to check your when you troll by a shallow rockpile. Not long after I leave the bay, I get a fish on. The first king of the year.  Until you catch one, you wonder if you’ve got the wrong lure on, or the wrong color flasher, or you’re at the wrong depth, or your boat is making a noise, or your fishing the wrong spot. All that angst disappears when you see your rod tip bouncing with a fish on, then land that first fish. Then, everything is blue sky with a light breeze and 60 degrees. No one else was fishing near me. The charter boats seem like they are under so much pressure to catch fish that they rarely spend time somewhere if they don’t catch a fish within 30 minutes. They may have 4 clients they are trying to get a king for. Me, I’m here for several days, so not in a hurry. In addition, I can’t run to some distant hot bite I hear about with twin 300 outboards cruising at 25 knots. I cruise at 6 kts. And like it.  So I’m much more patient.

I work my way down to the point and whamo. King number 2 on the line. I land the beautiful king. That’s it for the day, so I head to a nearby anchorage to test it for wind and bottom. While it’s a protected anchorage, it’s still exposed somewhat to the northeast, and since it’s so close to the open ocean, there may be a swell in there. As I idle into the little cove and I’m looking for bottom, I see hordes or juvenile fish – either salmon or herring, I guess – right up to the surface. I get into the little cove and tuck myself up behind a kelp bed and idle there for a few minutes to test for the swell. This will work. I drop the hook. As I’m taking care of my catch, a full size humpback whale comes into the cove. I’m in about 27 feet of water, with 100 to 200 yards of water between me and the beach. The whale comes in behind me, feeding on the small fish I saw coming in. Boy, I realized this is one of the things I missed over the winter. It never gets old. Then, the whale surfaces and cruises right behind the boat, casually just under the surface. I think I see it turn a tad to the side and look up at me. I say hello there to the whale. It’s the first time I’ve been able to see a humpback whale just under the surface from the boat like this. The closeness of the whale to me, the lighting, and water color were all just right. Wowser.

I was intending on going to the beach again to explore, but not with a 40 foot, 80 thousand pound mammal that’s alot bigger than my 12 foot punt between me and the beach. I start on boat chores until the whale leaves the cove, then head to the beach. I see some canine tracks in the sand and wonder if a wolf has been to the beach, but then see Xtratuff tracks a short distance later and realize someone had been here with their dog. I do see some mink tracks later, and tracks made by a blacktail deer doe and her fawn. I find a beautiful shot of 1 inch blue steel line, complete with spliced eyes in the end. Looks like it fell off a commercial boat. It looked like it was wrapped around some beach wood and maybe buried in the sand, so I left it for the walk back. I walk up into the tree line, looking for any treasures that might have blown up in there. I work my way around the woods til I get above the end of the sand in the beach, where the rocky shoreline starts, and drop back down to the beach. I find a cool little snail shell that I put in my pocket. When I get to the shot of line, I lift on it to see how bad it’s buried, and find it lifts right out!  What a find. This will make a great tow line if I ever need one. I put the coil over my shoulder and hike back to the punt. Luckily, the whale has not returned to the cove yet, and I motor back to the boat, put the found line on the bow of the tug, then offload myself on the swim step, take off the outboard and mount it back on the stern rail of the tug, then rig the lines that I use from the back deck of the boat to fold the tug up and on its side on the swimstep.  The whale returns to the cove to look for more baitfish a short time later. I get on the group call that I have with my siblings every two weeks, and marvel at 2026 communications between any two people anywhere on earth now with the Starlink.

My back was a little better when I got up on Day 3, but not great. The sunrise is spectacular. I put the gear out at the point, and fish back to the bay and back to the point and even around the corner to the reef drag, as the swell wasn’t too bad, and caught a big black rockfish. Only one charter boat was fishing near the point. Not much feed around. I catch a a couple ling cod after the rockpiles.

I went back to my inside drag and fished my way towards town. Not much going on there either as I didn’t get a strike. The weather was so nice. The temperature was in the 80s!  And fair winds.  I decided to run the two hours to another favorite king salmon drag. The trip includes going to the outer coast before getting to the bay I will fish, so the seas need to be decent for the last 30 minutes or so of the run, where you run into the big ocean swell or waves, if they’re there. I hoped to fish the bay that evening and the next morning at first light. I’ve been there before when charter boats show up that mooch, and it’s not a place where boats can troll if the moochers come in and sit on the drag you’re trying to troll. I don’t often go there during lodge season because it’s a long run for me, and if I get run out of there by charter boats, it’s a long run back.

I arrive a couple hours later at about 530 pm. Steve, the Librarian’s father, is anchored in the back of bay in his troller. He’s likely out dinglebaring for ling cod, something he does in the spring when trolling for salmon opportunities are limited. He is about my age and a highliner in the fleet. He and Brian grew up together in Wrangell. He was one of the first boats I went out on commercial trolling when I worked for ADFG, and Steve showed me what it’s like to do something you are born to do, even though he could use his degree to be a teacher or his experience as an apprentice to be an electrician. My trips with him also taught me the respect full time commercial fishermen and women deserve. No paid days off. Nobody paying for your health insurance if your spouse isn’t in a job that provides that. Just hard work feeding your fishing addiction and feeding the world and yourself. It’s a commonality among fishermen of all types all around the world, I’ve found. Whether they fish in million dollar seiners or in a sailed canoe in Madagascar. It’s who they are, and what they do. They’ll work a second or third job if they have to to keep keep fishing. And always hoping their kids will do something more secure. With a better income. But understanding if they follow in their footsteps. Much like a farmer, I suspect.

Nobody is fishing in the bay. I put the gear out in the swell and soon get behind the point into protected waters. I see feed on the sounder. That’s encouraging. And a few murrelletes and rhinocerous aukelets. I catch a king in about 30 minutes. Then lost what felt like a nice one.  Then got a second king to the net that was nicer than the first one. Well, that was worth the trip!  Hope they’re still here in the morning. I motor around behind the island where I like to anchor. There’s a swell coming in from two directions on either side of the island. I cautiously tuck myself right up next to the island, inside the kelp patch there, and the swell seems doable, so I drop anchor in about 20 feet of water after checking the tide book to know I’ll have enough water under the boat overnight.

I’m up early the next morning. A spectacular sunrise as I drop the gear in at 345 am, hoping to catch some fish before a charter fleet might show up. I catch a nice king near the tide change around 8 am, and luckily, only a few charter guys came in, tried their luck, and moved on. I fish til noon and catch a few shakers, but no keepers. I was surprised I couldn’t catch a second keeper with good signs of feed, but that’s fishing. Chuck said he’d be back today from his boat trip, so I headed to town a little after noon for the 3 hour run to town. A great 4 day shakedown trip for me getting to know the boat again, getting all the systems tuned how I want them, and a good start on this year’s fish supply.

I’ve always cut down my old Xtratuffs to make slip-on (sort of) ankle boots when the time came for a new pair of Xtratuffs. But I found myself without an old pair worth cutting down, so started looking for a set of ready made rubber ankle boots. Xtratuff makes their regular boots in size 15, but not their ankle boots (that I could find). I found a pair of another brand on Amazon in size 15, so decided to give them a try.

The internet has been a godsend for people like me. Once your feet get past size 14 (and really, past size 12 in many instances), you’re not gonna find your size in local store (even if the shoe company makes them in that size). Western Auto in Juneau and Log Cabin in Craig, though, are always worth a look for Xtrafuffs, since they do stock large sizes for fishermen.

The pair I ordered on Amazon did not show up on time. Then, the shipping information went incognito when I tried to track them enroute. I waited long past the time Amazon said I could get a refund. Finally, I gave up, and asked for a refund.  And of course, then the boots showed up.

I tried them on and was happy enough with the fit. I told Amazon I’d got the boots and wanted to pay. Amazon replied that I could not now pay since I got a full refund already. They did not, however, say I had to return the boots, but said keep them!  I took a screenshot of that for future reference, and started wearing them as my go-to shoe because spring time was here and the snow was gone.

The boots had some nice straps on the heel to pull them on. I’ve added these to my cut off Xtratuffs in the past, using parachute cord for the strap, but those straps always eventually tore through the hole I burned through to tie on the cord. These web straps were dandy for the first few times I used them. Then one side pulled out. Then the other.

With years of failed pull-on strap attempts under my belt, I thought I’d try a rivet repair this time. I held the free end of a rivet mandrel in some locking pliers, heated up the end of the mandrel with the torch, then used it to burn holes through the boot rubber and through the web strap.  I pushed a rivet from the inside of the boot to the outside so the flat part of the rivet would be against my ankle, then threaded the boot strap on the outside of the boot, over the mandrel head.

After trial and error, I learned I needed a washer on the inside of the boot, so the rivet wouldn’t pull through, and on the outside, so the strap wouldn’t pull off.

I worked the rivet gun to crank the rivet on. There was a a piece of mandrel poking out the inside of the rivet, and I used the bench grinder to remove it.

Done.

Trick.

Went to move the tractor and the battery didn’t have enough juice to charge it. Of course, I left the bucket down at just the right spot where I couldn’t open the hood far enough to get to the battery and swap it out. It was about half the size of a car battery, so I assumed it was a 6 Volt battery like I have on the boat for house batteries.

I got an extension cord and wheeled the battery charger over. The charger was 12 volt only, but I figured if I put it on the low amerage setting it would be fine.  I hooked the clips to the battery, but just to make sure, I looked up on my phone if it was okay to charge a 6 V battery with a 12 V charger. It is not. I saw the various ways of stepping down the 12 V charger to 6 volts, including powering a 6 V light in line before hooking up to the battery to be charged. Or charging two 6 volt batteries at the same time hooked up in series. I had neither items to do this.

So, I asked as many friends as I could think of if they had one. The older model chargers, like the garage-saled one I had at our cabin once upon a time, had a switch for 6 or 12 volt charging, but most modern chargers do not. Most everyone said the same thing – I used to have one, but it died, and the new one is only 12 V.

So, this morning, I thought I’d cruise the free piles that are out with the sunny weather to see if any were being given away, along with a set of 13 sneakers for a friend in Craig to use for his wading boots, and a bench vise he also needs. Yesterday, I went to the kelp beach  out North Douglas to get some kelp for the rhubarb patch. I normally go in the fall, but wasn’t here last fall, and with the weather so nice, I hoped the trail would be snow-free and I could get down there with minimal risk of falling on my new shoulder.

I saw some old friends on the way, and talked to them a good while. I find myself enjoying this more and more as I get older. Probably because I spend so much time alone not going to a job. And I sometimes feel like I linger too long talking. Like the listeners want to move on. Oh well. Old age here we come.

When I got to the kelp, it was dry. Really dry. The fall kelp is usually wet, and a pack-full is heavy. Really heavy. I anticipated taking partial pack loads up with the new shoulder. But, the kelp was so light I was able to fill the pack, put one shoulder strap of the pack over my good shoulder, with the pack strap at an 45 degree angle across my back so that the pack dangled off my opposite butt cheek below the good shoulder for support, and up the 1/2 mile hill to the car I trudged.

On the way home, there was a free pile along the road. Something caught my eye. Some small windows. I must have seen the aluminum frame or something. I figured it was probably a trailer window or similar, but thought I better turn around and look on the outside chance they were boat windows, as I need one for the skiff in Craig. I turned around 50 yards past the pile and back tracked  As soon as I saw the manual windshield wiper on the window, I knew it was for a boat!  I stopped at Bob’s house on the way home, and we discussed how I could install it when I got down to Craig. NICE!

So that’s what had me out looking for other treasures today. During COVID, people all over town put out free piles when they couldn’t have garage sales. They must have seen some value in this, as this practice has continued. Way more free piles than garage sales, it seems.

I cruised Douglas and downtown, and no luck, so I headed for the Valley. I stopped in at Western Auto to see what they had for new chargers. My friend Rich was on his way in. He asked me what I was there for. A 6 Volt charger I said. He had one!  I’d be out in an hour, when he’d be done with his chores and back home and I finished cruising free piles in the Valley.

After no luck with the Valley free piles, I picked up the charger, and headed home. When I hooked up the charger, nothing was working. (Turns out, I later discovererd, the reason it wasn’t working was because it wasn’t plugged in to the outlet in the garage at the opposite end of the extension cord.)  I thought maybe it was a positive ground system or something for this old tractor. So I looked it up online. It said my tractor was “powered by a 12 volt battery”. What?  I looked all over the battery in there as best I could. And there was printed, along with the other markings. In plain sight. Clear as day. 12 V. I put my own charger back on the battery. You can’t fix stupid.

I also learned another lesson yesterday. How to split wood when you’re down to one good shoulder. I can’t remember if it was my Dad, or the Ingalls boys and their Dad, but I learned to split the hardwoods of the Allegany Mountains of northern Appalachia with a “sledge and a wedge”. That’s how we split wood then. Long before power splitters were common.  Or maybe long before we could afford them.

Later, when my brother and I left the nest. my Dad got a used wood splitter when he started selling wood to pay for the expense of getting the wood for the house, or to trade to Dave Sisson for a new sale.  But, I still split by hand when I’d return home. The constant bending over to muscle the rounds up on the splitter just seemed annoying. There was no rhythum in it for me. When you split by hand, you analyze each piece to see where to strike it so as to perhaps split around a knot, or take all the sides off the round before splitting it down the middle. There’s also the satisfaction of the thwack on the wood, and the sounds of the wood splitting apart.

As I got older, I learned how to split wood with a splitting maul and have used one of those ever since.  But a guy needs to keeps some wedges around when felling trees and splitting wood. Sometimes, a wedge will split a round when a maul will not. Or if you manage to stick the maul in the wood and need a split from the sledge and wedge to get it out.

I found my wedge in my chain saw tools bucket. For a hammer, I thought I’d try a drill hammer, which is basically a miniature sledge hammer with a short handle, made to swing with one arm. It was not taxing to hold the wedge with my new shoulder.  I held the wedge with my new shoulder hand, and lightly tapped it into the wood with the drill hammer held in the good hand.  A few whacks and the wood split.  This was gonna work. I soon learned to choke up on the handle to swing when you are setting the wedge in the round, and then move the grip further down the handle as the wedge moves into the wood.

I could initially split about 4 rounds a session before my good arm got tired. I was soon up to double that after a few days.  Just like I’ve always done, I’ll do a few sessions a day to drag the chore out to maximize my outside time, get some strength back in the rest of my body, and maybe get my weight loss moving again. I’ve plateued here with my weight for several months at about 50 to 60 lbs lost, after I stopped getting good workouts with the bum shoulder.  Plus, my good shoulder is not going to ruin itself.

It sure feels good to be back in business and spending more time outside.  It’s an instant positive mood improver.

<

I found a Nissan Leaf in Haines that looked good for us to take down to our cabin for a car to drive around town. I took the ferry on a glorious day up Lynn Canal, and there were orcas right in Auke Bay on our way north. The seller met me at the ferry terminal in Haines to test drive the car. I’m very familiar with these cars now – there’s about nothing that goes wrong. I asked, of course, what the battery capacity was before I went up, and it was 12 bars strong out of a possible 12 bars – as good as it gets for driving range.  I knew if the steering was tight, and the wheels didn’t wobble, and the brakes didn’t screech, that there wasn’t not much more that could be wrong with it, and that I’d buy it. So, I got in, and said we’d drive the few miles to town, and if it all looked good before we got there,  I’d take it, and we’d go to the bank to deposit my check and sign over the title. And that’s what happened.

On our conversation on the way in, it turns out the seller used to work at the troll salmon buying scow in Lisanski, but after my time fishing out there. She did know my boat, Dutch Master, as I sold it to a local fisherman in Pelican. The owner of the scow she worked for was a story in and of itself. When I came home from the Peace Corps in 1989, the first job I had lined up was a 2 week position at Hidden Falls Hatchery feeding chum salmon fry. I remembered the RA at UAF, Bob something, who I would check my hunting guns in and out of the dorm safe as required by UAF rules at the time, owned a bed and breakfast in Haines. So, I contacted Bob to ask if I could park my car there while I went over to Sitka for this short term job.  Bob said I could!

When I got to the B and B, I met the woman running the place for Bob, and parked the car. I told the woman my story and she said she had recently met a missionary through her church in Michigan who worked in Sierra Leone…..I’d literally had lunch with the guy a few months earlier!

Fast forward 10? years. I’m living in Kodiak, and have a job interview with ADFG in Juneau. I have one friend from UAF here – Val – and she says I can stay at her place. When I arrive, there’s a woman there, also staying with Val, that is a teacher friend from Pelican in town for a meeting. I immediately recognize her from somewhere, but can’t place her. About 2 hours later, it hits me: : she’s the woman from the B and B in Haines!  She then remembered, too.

Fast forward another 5 years or more. I’m now married, and got Sara to let me buy a boat and permit and go commercial salmon trolling. I fish my first summer opening out of Cross Sound, and head to the fish buying station in Lisianski – called Shoreline. I pull alongside to tie up. Who do I throw my tie-up line to but the same woman from Haines and Val’s!  She and her husband had bought the scow and now ran it in the summer!!  Such is this place.

So, back to the Haines adventure this week. After boring the young seller to death with all my stories, I buy the car, drop her off at work, and go drink coffee with Roy til it’s time to leave for the ferry. I can’t get the car on the ferry that day because the 2 EV vehicle quota for the trip is already met. Luckily, there’s a spot open on the next sailing on Friday, and the seller said she would put it on the ferry for me then.

The agent helping me to get the reservation found out I bought the car from the ADFG employee, and she said she used to work for ADFG for 20 years before the ferry job. Then I remembered her – Ron and I would call in to her with our Chilkat River subsistence salmon catches for our permits. Such is this place.

When I got home later, I texted my friend who retired from ADFG in Haines and moved home to Hawaii. I told him I met his former coworker at the ferry. Then he said my late buddy’s widow from Juneau had just left there after a stay with him and his wife. Such is this place.

I parkd the car at the ferry so the seller could put it on the ferry on Friday, and think – I’ll take the binder from the glove box with the owner’s manual and papers to read on the ferry ride home. As we head back down Lynn Canal, I settle in with a fresh thermos of coffee and open up the binder. There’s a letter from Nissan to the original owner…. and who might that have been?  Our former next door neighbor in Juneau!  We still remember when he and his wife got the car new!   He’d sold the car to his son, who moved to Haines, and the son sold it to the person I bought it from!  Wow. Such is this place.

The seller in Haines bought a new EV with a longer range so she could get to Whitehorse – or Haines Junction at least, where there’s a charging station. This was precisely the same reason for the seller of the Leaf we bought in Skagway a few years ago  – he’d bought a newer car with longer range to get to Whitehorse.

This Leaf will have plenty of range to get us around Craig and Klawock, and should have range enough to get to the ferry and back in Hollis. It won’t have enough range to get to Thorne Bay or Coffman Cove and back, and there are no public chargers on Prince of Wales Island yet. I only go to these towns a few times a year, and can use the truck for that. For deer hunting, I’ll be using the truck wherever I go on the POW road system, as this car is not for driving on logging roads.

We bought the car for $5000 and it will cost another $700? to ferry it down to Ketchikan and over to Hollis. With fuel prices at about $5.40 there, it will be cheaper to run than a gas vehicle, even with the higher electric rates in Craig versus Juneau, so we can stick it to the man. Our electric company there even pays us a $500 incentive rebate once I get the car there.

I also bought a never-used, brand new Excalibur 9 dehydrator this week on Craigslist here. It’s the most deluxe model – with a timer AND temperature control. The person I bought it from said the fan worked, but that it didn’t heat up, and she didn’t want to mess with it. I’m not sure if she checked to see if it was under warranty, but maybe she did, and found out – like I did – that it’s hard to get a hold of anyone there…. AND the part the unit needs is out of stock. Which might be because everyone else who bought the same unit had the same problem. It was the only part on their site that was out of stock.

She was asking $60 (the units are $200-$240 plus shipping new), and I offered her $20, explaining that if I couldn’t fix the unit,  I could still use the trays and racks to stage second batches for my same size model dehydrator in Craig. She readily accepted. What else are you going to do with a broken dehydrator you can’t get parts for. She was happy for me to take it off her hands.

I got on You Tube and started troubleshooting. I tested the wiring with a multimenter, and found that it wasn’t the fuse – a common heating failure cause in dehydrators. It was, indeed, the out of stock thermostat that was to blame.  I tried to order a similar thermostat from Excalibur’s site for the same size unit that does not have a timer, and would change the wiring to make it work. That thermostat they did have in stock. It was  $40 for the thermostat (which weighs nothing) …. and  $197 for UPS shipping. If you live here, you know that my UPS shipping quote is not a misprint.

I then tried to get a hold of someone there to see if they would ship it by USPS mail, which should cost about $20. The person or AI on the chat function was no help but gave me a number to call. When I called and was on hold for awhile, I hung up.

I then started trying to figure out how else I could make it work. I looked into 110 V thermostats for things like toaster ovens or heating systems (stove and clothes dryer thermostats are common, but are 220V. They might work, but that’s above my skill level)….Then I thought: I have a bad toaster oven in the garage to go to recycle. I took out the temperature control thermostat from the toaster oven. I had to cut and splice some wires, drill new holes to mount it, etc in the guts of the dehydrator…. but it worked!  And heat at full blast looks like it comes up to 165 F – same as it’s supposed to with the stock thermostat !.  The shaft that holds the knob for the temperature control is far shorter for the toaster oven thermostat than the stock thermostat,  so the female housing on the knob wasn’t long enough to reach it. I found some vacuum hose in the garage that goes over the shaft tight, and that works like a dream.  Easy!

So, two rounds of STICKING IT TO THE MAN. What a week!!!!

I got out trapping with Nick yesterday. He traps most of the same country that I did when I trapped marten near Juneau. I did it almost entirely solo. Nick had his brother run the boat for him while he got dropped off to walk up the beach and make 2 sets in the woods right near the beach at each stop.  His brother was out of town yesterday, so I lucked out and got to run the boat while he checked his traps.

The first check is usually the best, especially trapping how we do here. You may still get more marten in subsequent checks, but not likely as many. Futhermore, this stretch of beach dictates where you can set your traps by both the prevailing winds and the makeup of the beach. You can’t set on a beach if the waves may be too big to allow the checker to get on and off the boat at the beach, and you don’t set on a beach with rocks that are too big to walk up to the woods. So, you set this beach, make two or three trips to check the traps, and expect that you’ve caught the marten you’re going to get there this year. Then it’s time to pull your traps for the season, or move them to another location, which isn’t all that feasible due to the distance and exposure to other promising marten locations for the weekend trapper. Or in Nick’s case, you change your furbearer target, and go after beaver.

Like deer hunting on the major islands in Southeast Alaska, the harvest pressure from Juneau’s small population cause long term decline in the marten population.  We harvest marten and deer along the coast – marten usually within 50 yards of the beach, and deer not much more than a mile from the beach, for the most part. Except for Douglas Island and the road on Admiralty Island from Young Bay to the mine, the closest roads (from the logging days) are some 50 miles or more from Juneau. The wildlife harvested near the beach will be back-filled by the virtually untouched populations inland from the beach that are not subject to harvest by man. Population fluctuations are mostly influenced by such things as snow levels, and predator and prey populations.

I met Nick at the boat launch around sunrise at about 740 am to find a coating of ice on the ramp. The temperature is about 20 degrees.  We used our feet and a piece of 2 by 4 drift wood to break up the ice so his truck had traction to launch the boat. Once we got the boat into the water, there was a half inch of ice in the harbor, too. So more breaking up the ice using the pike pole, then tying off the boat and using the prop wash, and then pulling the boat back until the ice held it again, and repeat. An hour after we arrived, we were finally off.

The morning skies were clear and blue. The sun just coming up over the mountains behind town. I realized as we left the harbor and picked up speed that I’d forgot a facemask. I cinched my marten fur trapper hat down tight around my ears,  pulled my jacket hood up over the hat, tucked my nose under the front of my jacket, used the windshield on the otherwise open skiff as a windblock, and gritted my teeth.  We passed a lone troller as we rounded the island. It was my old friend Matt, out fishing for a winter king salmon on his commercial boat.  I met Matt when he towed me on the Dutch Master with his little double-ender El Nido into the Funter Bay dock when I ran out of fuel so many years ago and we’ve been friends ever since.

The seas were calm and we made easy time. We arrived at Nick’s set furthest from town about 30 minutes later, and I immediately recognized the country. I’d trapped this stretch of beach a decade or more ago. I remembered some of the sets where I caught marten. I remember another day I was setting out my traps on the last day of deer season at one location, and I’d taken in my rifle just in case.  I set my traps, then walked up into the woods about 20 yards and  blew on the deer call. A deer stood up in the snow about 70 yards away. I left the innards of the deer for the freshest bait ever, and had marten in my trap the next time I checked the sets in early January,  At another site on my line, I didn’t return to the boat in time and the tide went out from under it. I spent the next 8 hours in the boat or wandering the beach waiting for the tide to finish going out and come back in.  When the boat finally floated, I idled in the pitch black between rockpiles using the GPS to a spit on an island a half mile away, where I anchored the boat and hiked in to our cabin at midnight.

When I saw Nick coming back down the beach from the first set, I idled back to the beach. He walked out in the water up to his waist in his chest waders, pulled himself over the side of the square bow on his boat, swung a leg over, and flopped into the boat.  Like me, he set two traps at each location. A trap was missing from this site. Remarkably, the patch of woods where he set the trap was bare ground under the canopy, even after the 4 feet of snow we got a few weeks ago, so no tale of what happened to the trap was revealed in snow.

We headed down the beach to the next set. When I saw Nick emerge from the woods this time, I saw a furry tail in the 120 conibear trap he carried. When he got closer to the boat, I saw he held not one, but two traps with marten!  Wow!  The marten are fluffy and beautiful in their brown colored body and yellow throat patch in this sub-freezing weather. If the weather is warmer, they can look like drowned rats, with their fur all matted and tangled from the rain.

Nick takes a spare set of traps with him when he checks his sets so if he connects on a marten, he can bring the marten back, trap and all, to let it thaw out first so he doesn’t damage the fur trying to remove it while it’s frozen. He replaces that trap with the spare one he carries with him. The next set was another double!  Wow.  We now had 4 marten in the boat and some 30 more traps to check. We were both wondering how long this success could continue.

It didn’t take long to know we weren’t going to get a double at every set. Or even a single. The next 3 or 4 sets had nothing. Nick rebaited these and added more lure. We started getting a marten here and there again, and by early afternoon,  had a nice pile in the boat. Three of the last four sets were in spots a bit exposed to wind coming out of a mountain pass. I managed to find a spot to get him into the beach and back off again, and he got all his traps checked.

It was mid day, and we had the option of checking his shrimp and crab pots. My feet and hands were cold by now (Nick was, if anything, overheated from his workout). Nick wanted to get home before sundown, as his driveway ices up and makes it tricky to get his boat and trailer back to it’s parking spot. So, we decided not to check the pots. And that was a good thing, as the Coast Guard needed something to do. With no other non-commercial boats out on the water, they came by and checked us. A young Coastie – obviously not an Alaskan – asked “you boys out for a joy ride?”. I controlled my laughter to think we’d just take a ride in an open boat miles and miles from town in 20 degree weather. I  said “No, we’re trapping”. That peaked the crew’s interest. All of the boat crew were 20-somethings and interested in what we were doing. Nick handed one of the crew our paperwork and showed him our life jackets and other safety gear. As that crewman filled out paperwork, Nick showed the rest of the crew the marten and the traps and answered their questions. Nick said he gets checked about this time every year, since he’s the only one out and about. When the Coastie’s left, we were now really glad we hadn’t checked the pots, as we were going to get in close to nightfall after the delays of chipping ice at sunrise and a friendly check by the Coast Guard late in the day.

Matt was still fishing when we came back by him, so I pulled the boat alongside to show him our catch and introduce him to Nick. Matt is born and raised in Juneau, and I knew he’d enjoy seeing the marten, and the comraderie of the only other boat out on the water he’d see that also happened to be a friend. He said the Coasties hadn’t checked him and figured it was because he was a commercial boat. Might be they already checked him another time.

We got to the ramp, got Nick’s boat on the trailer, and I waddled my way to the car in my winter garb and boots. I was soon home and as always, the warmth from the woodstove never felt so nice nor the coffee taste so good.

Photo: Nick Orr

I have a scoop “grain” shovel and a sleigh push shovel for moving snow. I mostly use the scoop shovel since you can’t throw snow with a sleigh shovel. Roy was here from Haines, America on his way to Florida and a new hip. He and Brenda got stuck here with us in Juneau for several days during a 4 foot dump of snow. He helped me shovel off the roof, and both of our shovels broke in the process. We repaired them, but I knew I’d better get another set because winter is just starting.

Every store in town was sold out of shovels. Home Depot said maybe they’d get some in at the end of the week, but they weren’t sure.  So I thought I’d better airfreight some down from Anchorage, as another foot of snow was on the way. I found Home Depot there had plenty, so I asked my nieces and nephews and Peace Corps friend Roxanne in Anchorage if they could pick them up for me and get them to Alaska Air Cargo, and all said yes. Since there’s minimum freight charges for freight (e.g., you get charged for 50 lbs whether you send a pound or 50 lbs), I thought I’d put a post on Facebook and Craigslist saying I was going to bring some shovels down and see if anyone else was interested so we all could share the freight charges and make the freight cost per shovel manageable. I looked on Alaska Air Cargo’s freight cost estimator, and, as best I could, guessed what the costs might be based on shovel size and weight. The sleigh shovels were $50 at Home Depot, to which I added $25 in freight cost, and the scoop shovels were $44, to which I added $16, so the totals would be round numbers of $75 and $60. Hopefully I wouldn’t lose my shirt on this.

I put the posts out and the phone started ringing. Immediately. Whenever I post for something like this, I clearly state to call me, and many today just can’t. They’ll send me a message. Which I don’t respond to, because I’ve found over the years that many of those that message don’t follow through. Some people tried messaging first, but then started calling when I didn’t respond, while others followed the directions and called straight away.  In 20 minutes I had orders for 22 sleigh shovels and 5 scoop shovels. I took the posts down as soon as I could – while I was still on the phone with the last caller. I did not expect there to be that many, that quickly, and I didn’t know if the Anchorage family could handle so many shovels in their vehicles, etc.

I put my order in to Home Depot for the shovels, along with a roll of Gorilla Tape to tape shovels together if necessary. The kids could get the shovels right then (Sunday) but couldn’t deliver to air cargo the next day til after work. Roxanne, who just retired, said “I’m Retired”, and said she could get the shovels right now and take them to air cargo the next morning. She won.

She called the next morning from the terminal to say that the agent said if I shipped “General” freight, that it might be 5 to 10 days for it to get on a jet from Anchorage to Juneau. Huh?  I’ve shipped moose meat from Bethel to Anchorage to Juneau, and it has beaten me home!  How could it be this long?  Then I figured – must be others doing what I’m doing. The agent said if I shipped “Priority” it SHOULD go out sooner, but could also get bumped. Again, huh??? Why is the fee 30% more and might not matter?

Roxanne then asked for a manager. Roxanne told the manager she was shipping the shovels to me and a bunch of other Juneauites desparate for them – and not to a business. We needed to get down the shovels down here as we already had 4 feet of snow and another foot was on the way. That was all it took!  The manager was originally from Juneau!  So I paid the Priority rate for the shipment and hoped for the best.

I’d taken everyone’s name and phone number down and told people to expect the shovels Monday night or Tuesday morning, depending on if flights made it in, etc. We got another foot of snow on Monday, but the shovels made it in on the morning flight on Tuesday. Bless that manager!  I’d put chains all around on the truck tires and plowed the driveway so I could leave for the airport. Then I texted the group and said I’d be at airfreight in about 45 minutes if they wanted to get their shovels there, or they could pick them up at our house on Douglas Island when I returned, and took off. It took the full 45 minutes to get to the airport, as I only travel at 30 mph max with chains on, and I ended up taking off the front chains as soon as I got over the bridge into town, as tires on all four chains was too much on the mostly snow free Egan highway to the airport.

When I got to air freight, it was a mob scene. All the head-in parking was full, and now there were trucks parallel parked on either side of the roadway in front of the freight office. I thought, crap!  Everyone is here picking up freight like me, and there is going to be a line out the door. But when I got inside, there was no line. Just one other customer. As I waited with my agent to pull up my order, a man came in and asked, “Are you Mark?”  “Yep”, I said. Then it hit me: all those people lined up along the road were there to get their shovels!  All but one of them beat me to the airport.

I paid for the freight and pretty soon, people were helping me open the boxes and then throwing cash at me or taking down my venmo information until I finally took a breath and realized I better start keeping track of all this. I stopped handing out shovels for a second until I got everyones name and their order and marked down if they gave me cash or venmo. Within a few minutes, everyone had their shovels and it was like it was Christmas and I was Kris Kringle. People seemed so relieved.

When I got home, I contacted those who wanted to get their shovels at the house. They, too, showed up within minutes. Pretty soon, all the shovels were gone, except for one I delivered today to a woman who didn’t dare drive her little car out the snow covered North Douglas highway.

I added up the cost of the shovels and the freight. I collected $1,320 for shovels and an additional $614 for freight. My freight charges were only $600, so I thought- crap, I’ve got a surplus of $14. I sort of felt guilty about having $14 extra dollars. But WAIT!  The gorilla tape was $12!  I can live with a $2 surplus. Which, of course, won’t be at all once I compensate Roxanne with some kind of gift, as she’d never take money.

The most gratifying part of the whole thing was that one of the new shovel owners sent me a message later thanking me for getting the shovels down here, and especially thanking me for not taking advantage of the situation and gouging people with the cost of the shovels. Nice.

Now, time to get back to the shoveling.