Sarcar Lake

Jeremy and I had a day off a few days ago and we went up canoeing up Sarcar Lake. We brought food (smoked salmon), beer, fishing poles, and sun. :) It was a great day. We had some rapids at negative tide - that was great fun. I have a lot of bruises and cuts from that adventure. Also, tweaked my ankle a little bit. It was awesome.
We finally got up the lake and we were the only ones around. It was so wonderful. The water was so calm and peaceful and it was so quiet. We saw some duck friends, sea otter friends, and a seal buddy. We paddled down to the south end of the lake and had lunch on a island big enough for two and a half people. There was a small something in the water that kept breaching the surface but never enough for us to actually see what it was so we spent a good half hour trying to catch it. We finally got it and it turns out it was a small fish, maybe a trout. Jeremy set the hook so hard that he pulled the fish five feet out of the water and it yanked itself free and just floated for a few seconds. It was cool but very surprising. Then we went up to the north end of the lake and found the forest service cabin. You can rent it out for a few days and we want to do that eventually but I don't know if we'll get to it this season. Around the bend from the cabin was a river mouth and a lot of pink salmon were hanging out there so we got some catch and release in. It was lovely, lovely relaxing day off. I'm bruised, my muscles are sore, I have cuts all over my feet and hands and I'm sunburned but it was so lovely. It was exactly what we needed.
Only three weeks left. See everyone soon!

Fishing on the big boats

The other day I got to go out fishing on one of the big boats. I went with Bryce again and had a great time. We caught all of our limits on silver salmon (6 person), king salmon (1 per guest) and halibut (1 per guest). I caught the first king. I was so happy! Then I caught two of the four halibuts. The weather was kind of gray but not too rainy which makes for more comfortable fishing. It was nice to get out of the lodge and see something of the area we're in. I'm starting to get a little bit of cabin fever and it's always nice when it's relieved. I have had a great summer so far but working all the time and not really being able to leave due to schedule, weather, and remoteness gets to you after two months. Only one more month to go. Then I spend a day in Portland, OR and a day in Salt Lake and then it's off to Maine for more adventures.






In more animal news: I saw a bear! It was a couple weeks ago but Jeremy, Ryker and I went out to Whales Pass and visited the artifical salmon run there and saw a black bear try to catch some of the fish as they attempted to swim upstream. It was really cool. The bear was maybe 15 feet from us. Good times. Also, I fed a seal with my bare hands yesterday. We have a seal buddy who hangs out in our cove, Sealy Dan, and the lodge boys feed him after they cut fish at night. So on my day off I went down to the dock and took several salmon bellies down with me and dangled them in the water. At first nothing happened but then two big brown eyes came out of the darkness and just stared at me like "Are you gonna feed me?" I'm pretty sure I jumped. It was very surprising. He came back a couple more times and each time it surprised me. So cool! I have never fed a seal before. That was a very neat experience.
Love love! I enter the real world oh-so-soon and I'm not sure if I want to.
See everyone soon!

El Capitan Lodge

Awhile ago I posted some pictures of the "guest" part of the lodge. I took some more pictures of where the crew lives so you can get a better sense of how life is up here. It's kind of like the camp in Dirty Dancing (first one, with Patrick Swayze). I enjoy it.

The road coming into lodge. That first cluster of buildings is where we live.









Our humble cluster. I live in the cabin in the shadows, with only the door visible.














The rest of the cabins, water tanks, laundry room, bathroom with satellites on top of them. You know, kicking it rustic style.

Sunny days

Hey. The internet has been kind of spotty recently. So I apologize. I don't personally mind; I love being shut off from the world. It is a wonderful feeling. It's been awhile since I updated so here goes.
Jeremy and I had our six month anniversary on July 16th, for which he bought me a pool cue and a really warm hat. The hat was more for kicks but the pool cue is baller! I love it. It's mad smooth so I hit a lot harder than I'm used to but it's nice. A couple days later we went into town on our day off cuz I had never been and had lunch in town as a "date". As far as one can go on a date out here in the wilderness. It would have been much better had I been able to eat but due to my massive hangover, that was kind of hard. We had a group of people, the Wehyrichs (or the Whine-richs to us) and they are a handful. They're all professional race car drivers and a few of them are royal dicks that drink a lot. That being said, most of them are really good at pool so it was fun to play them. But I kept winning so the losers would buy me drinks and my partner would buy my drinks because we were winning...it didn't end well. I'm really happy that it was my day off the next day. Overall, I had a good impression of the group but they are not nice people. Very entitled.
Yesterday we went fishing up Sarcar cove. We took our whaler boat up (what we nicknamed El Cap 71 cuz of the radio channel that the lodge boys are on) and it was Ryker, Jeremy, Andrew and I. Ryker is Ryker maintenance, Jeremy is Captain Lota, and Andrew is Matthew McConaughey cuz he takes his shirt off whenever he can. I tag along and gaff and gill the fish and drive the boat. It's a lot of fun. We killed it yesterday. You can catch up to 6 salmon a day per person and we caught 8 sockeye and 4 pink. They were jumping everywhere. It was kind of cool. I then cut the fish afterwards - the things I'm learning up here. Tomorrow was also the first changeover day in the past couple that has gone as planned. Changeover is when one group flies in and the other flies out. A lot happens on changeover day. We normally try to fly people but that is weather dependent and the weather has not been in our favor recently. So we've had to drive people, which takes longer and makes everyones work day longer. But yesterday was a normal changeover day so it was nice.



We've had a few sunny days recently so my skin has actually seen some sun. We had three beautiful days in a row and I laid out everyday and started to burn. But that's ok. Sun is lovely up here. Everything is so pretty and the sun makes it that much prettier. It has been humid that past two days, which makes me unhappy, but no one else notices because they're used to way worse humidity. I said something the other day about the humidity and someone from Hawai'i was like, "Oh really?...I guess so." I love Utah most of the time but it does not do humidity well.
My days are pretty routine. Everyone has kind of hit the mid-season lull, where it's just a lot of work and not a lot of rest. It helps when you can connect to a group, because then you break up the monotony of job. But I haven't really been able to connect to the past few groups so it's been less exciting. I do get to go fishing on the big boat in two days. Should be fun. I haven't been in awhile.
Overall, I'm doing well. Loving the lack of rain and sometimes sun. My knee fluctuates between feeling bad and being totally ok. It all depends on how vigilant I am about ice, advil, and my knee brace. Yesterday was particularly bad as far as pain goes but I just popped some advil and went back to work. It will be nice to figure out how injured I actually am. Hopefully this lull will pass soon because it is so lovely up here that I don't like to be in a rut.
Love everyone! Barring lack of internet, I'll update more often.

Bonfires and beer

So there's not a whole lot to do up here in your free time besides sleep, adventure in the wilderness, and well, drink. Also, burn things. We don't recycle anything because it's too expensive so we burn all of the trash that we can - boxes, etc. A couple weeks ago we had a large amount of pallets from all the supplies that were delivered at the beginning of the season. This meant of course that we should go burn things. With a lot of gasoline and booze. So one night we drove up to the bonfire pit - a clearing about twenty minutes up the road - and did just that. It was great. It burned really hot and big. We made a game of throwing burnables into the inferno and Andrew started another game of throwing rocks at the metal can across the clearing. The things we do to entertain ourselves up here. Good fun.

A couple nights ago we had another fire, but much smaller. It was right outside crew cabins and there was about ten of us there. We had an iPod with speakers and lots of dancing and a guitar. It was nice to let go and just chill. It was also the night before my day off so I didn't have to worry about getting up in the morning. Also a lovely feeling. I danced with one of the pilots (Scott Dagnon) for Island Air, the airline company Nani and Scott also run, and just enjoyed myself. It was a lot of fun.

On my day off two days ago, we went out on a fishing adventure. We went up Sarcar (the lodge is located in Sarcar cove) and fished for sockeye salmon. I went with Jeremy and Dagnon. I learned how to fly fish, how to bleed a fish, how to drive a boat and how to filet salmon. It was great. So much learning and so much fun. I like cutting fish, I want to get better at it. Work is going well. I make between 25-30 sandwiches a morning, drink a lot of coffee and walk a lot. And I'm getting good at making fires. I've dropped a fair amount of weight and gained a fair amount of muscle in return. I also got a knee brace so my leg hurts less, which is wonderful. Another thing: it turns out people buy you drinks when you make them their lunch. I had no idea the buying power of sandwiches. It's amazing. The guests found out that I'm the one that makes their lunch and they were like, "You're our favorite person! Thank you so much." I wanted to say, it's just sandwiches but I am learning that is not the case. It's kind of nice to know that. I must be off to work but there's my update for now. Love from the wilderness.
Cheers,
Emily

Canoe adventure

Jeremy and I always have the middle of the day off together so we went on a canoe adventure today. It was great. We canoed upstream from the lodge to a metal bridge. We went wandering into the forest, and it is some forest. Moss, moss, moss is everywhere, even on the tree branches. I bounced on a very springy log for a little bit. We found a deer trail and followed that for a bit. There are trees everywhere. There's room for people to pass through but it is packed. Almost no sign of human life. We saw one fly fisher. We did get within 7 feet of an eagle though. It was perched on the branch over the river waiting for food to come by. It was so cool. As we were walking back to the canoe, it dove in the water. Awesome. There was a family of ducks in the water too. The babies were following the mom and the one at the very back would drift then rush to catch up then drift again. It was adorable.

It was a good adventure. I have work in about an hour. Woo work. Also, got paid yesterday. My bar tab wasn't bad at all. I was happy.
Love everyone! Cheers!

Update

Update on my life up here. I may have pulled a tendon in the back of my left knee, so that makes work (i.e. lots of walking) interesting. I'm doing it though. I had a day off yesterday. I spent the day sleeping, eating, playing Final Fantasy Chronicles: Chocobo Tales, and going to the bar. Jeremy is slowing improving his pool game and I'm learning darts so it's a lot of fun. I have to step up my pool game though. There are alot of decent-to-really-good pool players up here. It's lovely.

Quick list of the people I work with.
Jlota, Cody, Andrew - lodge assistants. Basically they carry things...a lot.
Jaclyn - housekeeping.
Lisa - bartender.
JJones, Chris, Jon - chefs.
Whitney - server. We rock the kitchen together.
Rachel - float. She relieves everyone on their day off.
Kenji, Billy, Justin, Derek, Bryce, Trevor - boat captains. Only five are ever working at a time.
Ryker - maintanence guy. You have to say his name with a slight hick accent. Ryyeker.
Margaret - does reservations for the airline.
Nani/Scott - married, the couple that own and run the lodge.
Nahele - massage therapist. Married to Bryce.
Huck - Nahele's 4 yr old son. He speaks huckanese.
Parker - Nahele's 7 month old girl. Adorable.
Emma - Nani/Scott's. 6 yrs old. Also very cute.
Skye - Nani/Scott's. 11 yrs old.

I think that's everyone. It's a solid crew. We all work hard, play hard, drink hard. Not much to do up here besides work, shoot the shit, and drink. And get really good at pool and darts. It's a good life. I haven't thought about or missed my phone for about three weeks. It's lovely.

Another update: I am going to Portland, Maine (funny) in the fall. I will be there for nine months working for Portland Stage, a theater company out there. It's a paid internship that provides housing and I will be working on lighting and learning sound design. Should be a good time. I head out right after I'm done with Alaska. More updates coming soon.
Cheers!

Gone Fishin'

Fun fact: I have never been fishing before. And I work at a fishing lodge. Go figure. So the other day I had the day off and had a chance to go out on one of the boats. It was so much fun! First of all, there are so many creatures out there! I lost count of how many humpback whales I saw. They were everywhere. Apparently it's a good sign for the fishing and so cool to see them. We saw them all morning, blowing water out of their blowholes and breaching the water. So wonderful.
At some point our captain, Bryce, threw a dead fish in the water and an eagle swooped down not five feet away from me and snatched it right out of the water. I'm pretty sure my jaw was on the floor. That was absolutely amazing. I also saw two sea otters, one on the way out there and the other on the way back in. I thought the first one was a log until it moved. Last I checked, logs don't move. But it still took me a few seconds to realize that it was a creature. So fricking cool. I am so in love with the wilderness up here.
And..I caught a fish!! I caught a king salmon, weighing in at 15 lbs. It was a nasty battle. That fish was really really stubborn. Really really stubborn. I had a lot of fun. It was a good first experience. My time up here just keeps getting better and better.
Cheers!

Pictures!

Here are some photos the of the lodge and the various inhabitants, most of them furry. The weather has been lovely, which helps make the pictures better.

The bar.








Bald eagles eating something dead. Nom nom.










The dock, minus a couple boats and the float plane.










Fatty, aka Storm. A really cute but stupid dog.









Storm and Coho hunting for yummy things in the water. Coho is judging Storm while he digs.









Crabs! So many crabs!














More to come. Cheers!

Arrival in the Wilderness

So it's day 3 of my time in Alaska. So far, so good. I love it up here. It took me half a day, three flights and an hour long car ride into nowhere along a sketchy dirt road to get here. The first day I just hung out, settled in and did some introductory stuff. The wilderness is crazy up here! So wild. Absolutely stunning and absolutely impossible to describe.
As we flew in from Ketchican, there was water everywhere with tree-covered islands popping up everywhere. Some islands just had trees on them and were like little round plates and others were bigger, with rolling hills and beaches and lakes. EVERYTHING is covered in trees. You can tell where they've logged in the past and are beginning to reforest. Just breathtaking. So wonderful. Also, the air is unbelievably pure and the water is drinkable without any adjusting. It tastes so good. So pure.
I had my first day of work yesterday: all day on your feet, doing dishes, laundry, setting tables, clearing tables, more dishes, and more dishes. My day looks something like this. I work from 4:30-8:30 am, sleep until 12:30, eat lunch and play for a few hours. Then I work again from 4:30 -8:30 pm and hit the bar for some pool or darts afterwards. I go to bed around 11:00 and repeat. Pretty tiring but definitely worth it.
Today is the second day so I'm starting to get into the rhythm of how things work and the pecking order. It's a great place to be. The place are great, the landscape is beautiful. The sun rises around 4:30 and sets around midnight. Well, almost sets. There's always some light somewhere. Very disorienting.
Pictures to come later.
Off to nap now. Cheers!

12 Days

12 Days before I embark upon my Alaska adventure. I will be working at El Capitan Lodge, a sport fishing lodge located on Prince of Wales Island. My title is kitchen assistant but really I'll be the kitchen wench. Food prep and so on.

I'm so excited to spend my summer in Alaska! I've never been so it will be quite the adventure. I don't have cell service but have internet access so I will update this as my main form of communication.

Adventuretime, here I come!