The town is so small the 4th of July parades goes around twice and its still over in 15 minuets!

porcupine!!!

jeff ben and I caught fish, jeff built a smoker at the cabin out of sticks and skunk cabbage and smoked the fish

fish I caugt in a hole in petersburg creek

petersburg lake, sunset on the longest day of the year

beer on the porch at low tide, first week I was here

So more to come, I will start taking more photos as well. Boat photo to come soon.

Back to Alaska

So everyone knows I am back in Alaska. So far its going really well. This year on cabin crew is me, Jeff (my boss) and Ben he is from Vermont. Ben knows a lot and has worked with Jeff on Cabin crew here for 3 summers now but a couple years ago so now he is back for another summer. He has built is own house in Vermont so he knows construction, so overall I will learn a from the both of them. I went to Swan lake for a couple day for work the second week I was here and this coming week I will be going out to Castel River cabin for a night. Then the 18th-20th I will be in kake for the kids fishing Derby. The the week of the 20th I will be at Petersburg lake with the YCC and wilderness crew. I am at Kidos Kave right now (the bar) and we are watching the world cup game on a projector screen. Cara and I went to 4 yard sales this morning and I got a cast iron grill ($8), a pressure cooker ($15) and a fire proof safe ($2), so a good Saturday morning so far. I know I need to post photos of the boat and other things but I haven't taken any photos yet so they will be coming. I got my first pay check yesterday at midnight so I will now start my budget. I have been fishing but have not caught anything or gotten any bits yet. They are closing the slough for the whole summer to salmon but I can still go and try to caught some trout. I did see a bear already when I was out at Swan lake it was a big healthy black bear and I will post a photo once I get it together. But overall, its going great, work is good and it should be a busy summer with work, the crew is great and its a good group of people in town this summer. I have been putting my name around for any kind of winter work so at this point I fell like I will find something and my name will be passed around town. But overall nothing really new, just life is going great and the idea of not having to go back to college at the end of the summer is awesome! Hope everyone is doing good and I promise start to respond to voice mails and write letters!

Pics

Oso and his King Salmon





Momma Bear with 2 cubs
Bear


Bear


Blind river Rapids

outhouse, bears and King Salmon

The outhouse is coming along very nicely. We have the walls up, siding on and rafters built. Tomorrow we are heading over to Petersburg Mt so see where we will place the outhouse and to start digging the pooper hole. This weekend was pretty productive. Friday was typical...laundry mat, Oso had his radio show and I went out the road to Beach Comers for dinner with some friends. Saturday Oso and I went driving around out the road and ended up fishing at Blind river rapids. Not a lot of fish but so happens a lot of bears. When we got down to the river a bear was across the river and one was on our side of the river. So we headed down the river away from them to fish. We both did not have our waiters but we got in anyways we were up to our hips and then Oso realized he had his cell phone in his pocket so it was toast. Then a bear was behind us on the side we walked down on so Oso yelled and told him to get and he listened. I think I was more focused on where the bears were at then the fish so we decided to head home. On the way back up to the trail head we saw another bear but with two very cute baby cubs!
Sunday we went to Crystal lake Hatchery to see what its all about because I am keeping it open as a possible job next year. Then we went back to Blind river rapids to fish. We did not see any bears but high tide was only 11.3 so it was still pretty shallow and lots of rocks to get my hook caught on. So in the end I was catching the allusive sea weed and occasional rock, however Oso managed to catch a king salmon on his fly rod which was only a 6 lbs line test. 45 minuets later he landed it and threw it back. It was huge! The salmon come up the river to spawn and then die so this fish had been in the fresh water for a couple days now because it was darker and turning brown, so its not as pretty as it could be. Oso said it was still hard and not slimy yet so you could still probally eat it but not for to much longer. Anyways here are some pics and videos!

pics

petersburg lake (my section) after


before


sun over Petersburg lake


dill pickles and salmon berry jam


salmon berries


wood shed I help built

Petersburg Lake

SO I was at petersburg lake for the last 8 days. We built a wood shed and re-finished the cabin. We had some time left so we used the cross cuts to cut some fire wood. Before that I was at West Point and caught the biggest fish yet a 16 inch Dolly. I caught about 5 fish that week and kept about 3 they were very yummy for breakfast. Also yesterday I went salmon berry picking and this morning made some jam and cucumbers were 36 cents each at the grocery store so I also attempted to make some dill pickles. Tomorrow I am going to a wedding reception in town and then next week Monday-wed I will be out at Castle river and flats doing a log out mission and doing the regular maintenance to the cabins. Then the last week in July I should be in town out the road working at the nursery building an outhouse to put on the Petersburg Lake trail. SO here are some pics

Petersburg Lake

I just bought my very first fishing license today...$145 and if I wanted the king slamon stamp it would have been another $100, but I figured this way when I get off work for the day out at the cabins I can walk down to the lake and fish. So Monday we flew out to Petersburg Lake by float plane. Its a wilderness area so you cant use power tools so I learned how to do everything the old fashin way which is very time consumming. So Tuesday we woke up made some coffee ate breakfast packed our lunches and we started to hike the trail. The trail is 10 miles long but the we needed to hike to the wilderness boundry which was only 6 miles from the cabin. So with our packs and tools we hiked the 6 miles and then took lunch. After lunch we started to hike back while working. We were brushing and logging out the trail. So day one we got maybe about one mile done and we stashed the tools for the next day. Wednesday we got the rest of the trail logged out and brushed and I twisted my ankle in the morning. So I got to hike 10 miles on it and by the end of the day it was swollen and a little bit brused. Thursday we stayed around the cabin fell a tree with the crosscut and split and stacked fire wood. Friday the plane came around 11am to get us.
For Monday I will be flying out to Kah Sheets bay in the morning and then getting picked up that afternoon ( 2 of us are going ) and then Tuesday we will all go by boat to the lower cabin (Kah Sheets Lake) to bring in fire wood and I think we are spending one or two nights. You can look up the cabins on the link posted in the blog post titled going out west So here are some photos so far...
. Helicopter get up, still missing my helmet


I think this is Paterson Glacer
Swan lake, still frozen over and 5 feet of snow




Swan lake
swan lake
Petersburg lake Wood shead done with crosscuts

Petersburg America

Tried to connect to the wireless to upload some photos but did not work so maybe next weekend I will try. I will be off to Petersburg Lake Monday-Friday camping out. We are flying over by float plane and I will be learning how to use a cross cut saw since its a wilderness area. Swan lake was awesome and the helicopter ride was bad ass. 5 feet of snow and the lake was still frozen we had to shovel our way to the cabin door. This past week has been training at the office so pretty uneventful. Tonight at sandy Beach is the sesonal Forest service picnic which I will be going to get free food and beer yummy. Also I found out ontop of what I am getting paid I also get Cost of living which is another 20% so hopefully I will be able to save some money this summer. But we also have a lot of pro deals this summer so I can see myself buying a lot of gear. Smartwool, snow peak and MSR for now but we are trying to get a sleeping bag and backpack company as well.

during one of the trianings the lady ment to say petersburg Alaska but said Petersburg America and for some reason Cara and I found it so funny I have to get up and go get myself together because I was laughing so hard, so now thats the new joke

Alright well I will hopefully talk to everyone soon I guess tomorrow
or next weekend would be the only time, but I will keep you guys updated and hopefully get osme pics up soon

Whales

Today we headed out to West Point cabin and Portage Bay Cabin. We cleaned the windows, swept, dealt with the poo in the outhouse which yes was very smelly, took the brusher and cut back the grass along the path and filled the wood shed. Heading out of town about 20 minuets into the boat ride I saw my first hump back whale and on the way home we saw another one. Also at one of the cabins someone had killed a bear and skinned it and took the meat but left two paws so that was kinda cool and gross to see since it was still on the fresher side. I am also learning a lot about boats and how to tie knots I now have the clove hitch down.
So tonight I will pack and get ready for the over night and ride into Swan Lake. It should be pretty cold still and lots of snow. Also I have come to realize that I can NOT row a row boat for the life of me. We anchor the big boat in the water and then row to the beach with our supplies and ourselves and for some reason the waves, current or wind gets the best of me and I am no where near the boat. Today Jeff Taped the whole thing on his camera so if I get a hold of it I will show you guys because its pretty comical. Also I can now officially drive stick shift, I made it to town today without stalling once!