Grizzlies on the Chilkoot River

On Friday, just before leaving Klukwan on Saturday, we drove to Haines for dinner and errands and detoured to the Chilkoot River where it feeds into Chilkoot Lake, a common playing and fishing ground for Grizzly bears.  We saw two mamas with their nearly year-old now babies, and I wanted to share some of their playful pictures with you in the beautiful river.

Klukwan, "An Ancient Village"

I spent a week in Klukwan, mile 22 on the Haines Highway and the only Alaska Native village accessible on the highway system.  Klukwan is on the Chilkat River and home to the Tlingit Indians; the population of the village is only 95 in last Census.  I was able to come courtesy of the Rose Rural Exchange Program, sponsored by the Alaska Humanities Forum and hosted in Klukwan by Kimberly Strong and Lani Jones.  Kimberly's house is a bed and breakfast, and she is the Tribal Council President.

We flew from Anchorage to Juneau and then on Wings of Alaska from Juneau to Haines on a prop 8-seater -- only at 1500 feet.  Mostly we were there to learn traditional ways of preserving salmon, and from Monday to Friday we learned to cut up salmon (Sockeyes or Reds) and then dried fish, smoked fish, canned fresh-pack, and prepared naayadi, half-smoked squares of fish that you then boil or bake and serve with red potatoes!  We came home with lots of examples of all to eat and learned a lot in the process.  We also had baked fish heads one day, and I did actually try a fish eye -- which I was told is similar in texture to a raw oyster, which I also don't like!

I hope you enjoy the pictures of us working together in Klukwan and the view from my bedroom overlooking the Chilkat River and Takshanuk Mts.  They were socked in much of the week with gray clouds and drizzle but still beautiful!  We had fish hash for breakfast this morning with some of our fresh-pak!

  

Going to Klukwan

View from my front door - mountains are hazy in the background - flowers are glorious!

I'm back in Alaska, as of Sunday, and I'm so glad to have cooler weather than we were having on the east coast.  The last few days have been sunny and pleasant and only about 60 degrees.  It's felt warm though, and I wish I'd taken pictures of people lying in the grass, running in jog bras, everyone out walking around in shorts, just like we're in southern California!  Everything's relative, and in Alaska, this is summer!

Xtra Tufs - my new Alaska boots!

I'm back at work a week and getting ready for the fall semester, but I'm also getting ready for my week-long trip to Klukwan, a rural Alaskan village, for a cross-cultural immersion experience sponsored by Take Wing Alaska and the Alaska Humanities Forum in partnership with UAA and the Anchorage School District.  I'll be going to a Traditional Fish Camp, which educates younger people in traditional Alaskan ways (as well as me!)  My new "Alaska" boots, appropriate for everything except formal dinners, are going with me - it's rainy, and I'll be cleaning fish, and learning to smoke, can, and dry fish the traditional way.

Klukwan 1997 

 The following is heavily plagarized from State of Alaska Community Information Summaries to tell you more about Klukwan.  I'll give you my own version when I return! Klukwan is pronounced CLUCK-wahn, and has a population in the 2010 Census of 95.

It's located on the north bank of the Chilkat River, about 22 miles north of Haines, off the Haines Highway and lies at the junction of the Kleheni and Tsirku Rivers, 100 miles northeast of Juneau. It is the only inland settlement in Southeast Alaska. I'll take two planes to get there on Sunday, Anchorage to Juneau, then Juneau to Haines on a much smaller plane.  Coming back on Saturday, I'll take the ferry from Haines to Juneau and then fly from Juneau to Anchorage. 


Klukwan has a maritime climate characterized by cool summers and mild winters. Average summer temperatures range from 42 to 66 °F; winter temperatures average from 4 to 31 °F. They receive much less precipitation than is typical of Southeast Alaska. Total precipitation averages 23 inches a year, with 104 inches of snow.

In 1880, the U.S. Navy reported the name of the village as "Chilcat of Klukquan," which is said to mean  "the old town." The Chilkat tightly controlled the trails to trade with Interior Indians. At that time, the  Chilkat numbered approximately 1,000 among five area villages. In 1881, the Willard Mission and  School was constructed in Haines. Four canneries were built in the area by the turn of the century.  In the late 1890s, the Dalton Trail from Chilkat Inlet to Whitehorse offered an easier route for wagons  and cattle to the Klondike gold fields. However, the Chilkoot Trail out of Skagway was used by most prospectors. By the early 1900s, Klukwan was the last remaining Chilkat village in the area.  A federally-recognized tribe is located in the community -- the Chilkat Indian Village. The Klukwan Whale House - circa 1895 Klukwan is a traditional Tlingit village, well known for its Chilkat blankets and dance robes woven from mountain goat hair and cedar bark. Fishing, logging, and subsistence activities support the community,  and it has the largest concentration of bald eagles in the world, at the Chilkat Bald Eagle Reserve.  Population is 80 percent American Indian or Alaska Native. Logging on village corporation lands on  Prince of Wales Island provides seasonal jobs, and the community is also dependent on subsistence.  Salmon, halibut, shellfish, deer, mountain sheep, bear, and berries are harvested in season. Several  residents participate in blanket weaving, jewelry making, and moccasin sewing.

See you when I return!

Summer in Upstate New York

How about a post from "not Alaska?"  We've been in upstate New York since late May, though Judy was traveling to conferences through much of June in Albany, NY, NYC, Roanoke, VA, & Boston.  Brian was working on getting our 32' Allied Seawind, "Petrel", ready for sailing, and she's been out on the water in Oneida Lake many times now!  As I'm writing this, we're anchored in the South Bay overnight, and we're planning to head through the canal system to Lake Ontario, then up to the Thousand Islands, on Monday, July 11, returning in 2-3 weeks.  We'll post our sailing adventures along the way!

We've been combining staying on the boat with staying at Judy's mothers and seeing as many relatives and friends as we can -- the time goes so quickly!  Judy's also training to be a Wisdom Course leader with Landmark Education (www.landmarkeducation.com) along the way, and we're climbing our last two peaks to complete the 46 "High Peaks" of the Adirondack Mountains -- we did Marcy last week and are planning to do Allen Mt. tomorrow to finish them. The High Peaks are all of the mountains over 4,000 feet.

We have five adult children all roughly in this northeast area for the moment, and it's been great to spend time with each of them.  After this summer, they will be more scattered -- Jessica, Judy's daughter is planning a move to Los Angeles at the end of July, and Colleen, Brian's daughter, just graduated from RIT and is looking for a job out west.  We treasure this last summer when everyone can be together - who knows when that will happen again!

Leaving Alaska for the summer

Oh, no!  It's time to go!  Little did we know it would be so hard to leave when we got here.  We love the thought of going back to see friends and family and sail in Central New York, but we surely will miss what has come to be home in Alaska -- and the mountains, and Prince William Sound and the hiking and biking and starting to fish this year and all of the places we now want to try kayaking.  Brian will be leaving in two days to fly back -- Colleen is graduating on Saturday from RIT.  Judy is following next Monday, via Portland and only back for Memorial Day Weekend before leaving for Albany, Orlando, Roanoke and then back to CNY on the 10th of June. 

So what's been happening?  More shrimping on Prince William Sound, biking on the Coastal Trail, many nightly walks, last dinners with friends, shopping at the first weekend of the open air market downtown -- Judy tried a bite of whale with an Native Alaskan artist selling his paintings who had two friends visiting who had just killed a whale up north in Pt. Hope and brought him some whale meat.  If you're Eskimo, he told us, you're never really full until you have whale meat.  It was interesting, and there's really not anything I could compare it to!  Walked to Barnes & Noble and got reading material for the flights.  Packing's done, shipped some things back for sailing while we're back.  We're busy right up until the last minute.  Judy had an orientation all weekend for a Cross-Cultural Immersion Program.  She'll be going to a village in rural Alaska for a week in August as a part of a university program to learn about traditional Alaska Native culture.

So our last posting for awhile - probably.  Maybe we'll continue our blog with pictures from Oneida Lake and Lake Ontario, the Thousand Islands!  We're fortunate to be going back and forth between two beautiful areas of the country!  We'll miss the Chugach Mountains and look forward to being back here in August -- in the meantime, sailing is not such a bad option! 

A Hiatus from Sharing on our Blog!

Sorry we've been off-line for the blog, but not because we haven't been doing anything --rather we've been busy doing everything!  Judy was in San Diego for a conference, then in Los Angeles and Ojai visiting family, then Jessica came back with her for a visit.  Brian started going out on Carl's boat with him 2 times a week at least to set shrimp pots and harvest shrimp -- is that called harvesting?  Prince William Sound out of Whittier, and you'll see from the pictures how beautiful that is.  Judy and Jessica went out with them Thursday -- early enough that we started in the fog and then the mountains emerged as the fog burned off for a beautiful day.  Altogether that day we saw moose, goats up on a mountain, eagle, six or eight harbor seals sunning themselves on a rock in the Sound, a sea otter diving alongside of us, and a bird rookery with thousands of birds alongside the water and all of the way up the cliff.  Birds on the water, in the air, on the beach and on the cliff -- everywhere!

Brian saw three moose on the trail on his bike ride yesterday -- no skiing anymore for us, though we did just see an article about skiing in Hatcher's Pass, where we started on November 8.  I guess we could have made it six months instead of five if we had been persistent!  We're also getting ready to fly back to upstate - Brian's going on May 18 for Colleen's graduation from RIT that weekend, and Judy's going to a conference in Portland May 23-26 then on to Syracuse.  It's hard to leave, even though we're anxious to see family and friends back in New York.  It's been a wonderful 9 months here, and we'll also look forward to coming back here.  Salmon and halibut fishing when we return!

Sailing on Resurrection Bay out of Seward

Sailing in April -- who would have thought we'd be on the water faster in Alaska than on Oneida Lake!  We sailed with our new friends Kim and Claudia today on their 36 foot Islander.  Seward is about 2 hours away, and this is their first trip out this year.  They were kind enough to take us out for what ended up being a 6 hr. sail round-trip to Thumb Cove, a beautiful spot as you'll see us anchored in the pictures.  We had good wind and sailed between 5 and 6 knots the whole way, with only a couple of tacks on the way back.

A little wine, cheese fondue with apples and strawberries and baguettes, and even though it's still cold, a beautiful sunny day at anchor keeps the boat plenty warm.  It's a two hour drive, but a spectacular trip through the mountains with Cook Inlet on one side of the highway a good part of the way and the sun setting over mountains and water on the way back.  It's daylight til 9:30 now and not fully dark even around 10 or so.

Brian is in heaven -- we had what we call an "Oh My God" weekend.  And -- keeping his wildlife count going today - two sea otters and a harbor seal in Seward in the bay and a couple of eagles, ten moose on the drive home.  We hear there are no end of picturesque coves and places to anchor in the North Gulf waters.  And . . . we're looking forward to being on Oneida Lake in another month and sailing Petrel again too!