SOME PERSONAL THOUGHTS ON ALASKA, SUMMER of 2007

With Alaska now almost 400 NM behind us and a lazy day here at anchorage in Pruth Bay while waiting out a gale in Queen Charlotte Sound, I find myself trying to understand how Alaska could have so thoroughly captivated me this summer, the most memorable one of my six decades.  I had been to Alaska before, hunting and fishing in the Brooks Mountain range north of the Arctic Circle, so it wasn’t just the uniqueness of the geography, although Alaska’s unparalleled beauty certainly played a major role. 

 It wasn’t just the boat either.  There could not be a better boat for what we did than our Nordhavn 55, ALWAYS FRIDAY, and the summer would have been impossible without her!  In many ways she was the catalyst that made it all come together.  She has certainly afforded us fantastic opportunities that would not have been possible in her absence…. but we had enjoyed the boat in southern California, Catalina Island, the Pacific coast, and the Inland Passage through Canada without generating the excitement that later permeated every minute of my summer in Alaska. So AF was important and essential, but it was something else as well.

 Was it our best friends and family that joined us along the way, enjoying the sights, sounds and experiences of this wonderland with us?  Yes, they all certainly played a major role, but I had spent multiple summers of my life with them without the resultant impact of this summer. However, there was one very notable exception.  I distinctly remember when we first crossed the border into Alaska.  It was one of the great memories of the trip for a reason that you would not guess.  We had gotten behind schedule in meeting our friends Jim & Monica in Ketchikan, and Frank had been scheduled to leave for home from Port Hardy, BC after joining us in Victoria, CA.  Kathy & I found ourselves 450 NM away from our rendezvous in Ketchikan with no way to make it on time with day trips through the Inside Passage.  So in a gesture of friendship which would not surprise you if you knew him as I do, Frank said “I can’t leave you like this”, cancelled his reservations home, altered his busy work schedule, and extended his trip to Ketchikan!  He and I then ran the boat through the open Pacific for 54 straight hours through a weather window that allowed us to meet the Harts on time and in Ketchikan!  That personal commitment made to us by Frank began the Alaskan experience at a personal level few close friends ever have the opportunity to experience!  It was actually a return trip for both of us, as Frank was with me on my first Alaskan adventure when we were dropped off by float plane in the northern Alaskan wilderness for ten days of moose and bear hunting about ten years ago.  Life doesn’t offer you many friends like Frank, and he will always be among the brightest memories of the friends in my life and our trip!

 So what else was the chemistry that came together from June through August of 2007 to yield the unique experience that has certainly changed my life, and quite possibly a significant portion of my future?

 After pondering this question all summer, I think that I may have a possible answer.  It was a combination of all of those things mentioned above, plus an ingredient new to my life…...the wonderful people of Alaska!  Here in the rough order that we met them are some of my new friends that turned a journey into an indelible, fantastic memory!

 It actually all began at the beginning!  On our first day in Ketchikan, we met Bill & Mary Pfiefer through her sister in California whom we had met during the commissioning of ALWAYS FRIDAY.  We knew nothing of each other until that day, but within hours of our first meeting, they had dedicated their next several days to seeing that we all (the Harts included!) enjoyed Ketchikan to the maximum.  If you have read our journal, you will recall that Bill is 1/8 native Alaskan of the Tlingit tribe, and a real student of his (and therefore Alaska’s) past.  His pride in his heritage generated a respect in me for Alaskan history that led me to read all that I could find about the history of this magnificent state!   Their warm welcome at both the beginning of our trip, as well a repeat performance of their hospitality on the homebound leg, left us with the sincere hope that we will once again enjoy the company of two of the nicest, most gracious people that you could ever hope to meet!  It was just the first of many relatively brief associations that quickly led to friendships that will endure far longer than the image of Alaska in the rear view mirror.

  Next up on our Alaskan All Star Team was Craig Forgaard of Gustavus, AK.  If you have followed our trip, you already know him well.  Craig’s pictures are all over our internet picture albums simply because he made many of our most vivid memories possible.  We met him shortly after our initial arrival in Auke Bay Harbor near Juneau as he endeared himself to Kathy by guarding Raleigh from the eagles when we inadvertently left her a pathway to the front of the boat where eagles had enough “swoop room” to take Raleigh “out for lunch”!  From that day on, Craig went out of his way to make us feel at home in his home state.  In fact, it was Craig that took me for my first shopping spree at Western Auto & Marine where I walked in as a tourist, and walked out as a local!  (Remember the Carhart pants and red suspenders?  All Craig’s work!)  And his education of me didn’t stop with our mutual sartorial splendor!  He taught me how to tie the rigs for halibut after giving me a dozen 12/0 circle hooks that later yielded such success that we were routinely throwing 75 pound fish back into the bay!  He showed up on the boat one day with a newly purchased navigational chart of Glacier Bay with all of the “secret” spots known only to locals marked for my use.  As a direct result of that effort, Lauren and Nathan (our daughter and her husband) each caught their first halibut, and Nathan took the lead for AF’s largest fish contest with a 50 pounder (later bested by fish of 60, 75 and 135 pounds – all taken at spots recommended by Craig!).    He taught us the techniques for Dungeness crabbing, and then loaned us the equipment to do so!  When we were successful beyond our expectations, he took the crabs home to boil them since we didn’t have a pot large enough to cook our catch.  He not only showed us how to catch prawns (shrimp to us), he actually went with us, set out all of his traps for us, and gave us the shrimp!  And Sockeye salmon!  We probably caught more than all of the other tourist combined!  How? – You guessed it – Craig!  And when Kathy’s father, Charles, said that he had always wanted to catch a salmon, Craig took me to get the correct lures and showed me how to rig them most effectively.  Did it work?  Fifteen minutes after the lures went into the water at Three Hill Island, Charlie had landed a ten pound Coho salmon, the first of his 87 years!  Within an hour, ten more were onboard, and waiting for the freezer!  When we asked questions about his home town of Gustavus, he responded by picking us all up at Bartlett Cove in his fuel truck, and showing us everything that there was to see in the town (including their home!).  The few times that we had Craig & Marylyn over for dinner on AF paled in comparison to what he did for our Alaskan experience.  I sadly recall the image of our final departure from Auke Bay on AF with Craig waving good bye from his boat JONATHAN.  My thoughts then, and my thoughts now are that I sure hope I get to see him again in his world!  I have never enjoyed the company of a new friend as much as I did Craig’s during this summer of a lifetime!  (….and I think I may have talked him into putting the Camels down!!)

 A few days after our initial arrival in Auke Bay (Juneau), I had the good fortune to cross paths with Greg Gallant on the dock adjacent to ALWAYS FRIDAY’s berth.  Greg had just returned from a fishing trip in his skiff STORMY SEAS, and was cleaning seven beautiful King salmon!  These were the first ones that I had seen in Alaska, and of course I introduced myself and began asking all the fishing questions –where, how, what bait – all the usual stuff.  Greg patiently answered all of my questions, and then had several of his own about our boat, the trip north, and our plans for the summer!  After knowing me for about ten minutes, he offered us a King salmon fillet, made even more special by the fact that it was a white King salmon, the ultimate delicacy of the salmon family!  I offered him a tour of our boat, and several days later he and his wife, Terri joined us onboard AF for a visit. His fascinating life as a king crab fisherman out of Dutch Harbor in his younger days could be made into a movie.  From that day on, Greg was an important part of our Alaska experience!  He took me for my first King crab experience, then cleaned the crabs, boiled them on the dock by AF, and gave them to us!  Among my many pleasant memories of Alaska, our days together in his skiff halibut and salmon fishing in the rain stand out vividly as highpoints of my days there!  If you were to ask Lauren and Nathan (our daughter and her husband) the highpoint of their visit with us, you would almost certainly hear of the day that Greg picked us all up in STORMY SEAS during a chilly rain squall and took us with him to check his King crab traps!  When someone from Virginia is given the opportunity to see a trap pulled up from 300 feet beneath the surface filled with crabs measuring three feet across, it becomes a lifetime memory!  When they were then presented to us as a gift, it became even more memorable!  It was always a welcome call when retuning from one of our many trips out of Auke Bay to hear a call from STORMY SEAS on the VHF welcoming us back “home”.  It was a sad occasion when on our last departure from Auke Bay, beginning our southward trek ultimately to Virginia, I heard our last call from Greg’s boat as he said goodbye and good luck to ALWAYS FRIDAY from his favorite halibut hole.  If I ever get back to Alaska, he will be among the first of my calls to my great Alaskan friends!  I really miss these guys!!

 Perhaps the most unique experience of my summer gave us priceless memories of three new close friends – Glen & Jean Carroll, and their skiff man Ian.  You could never ask to meet nicer people, but for a tourist from Virginia to find them in Alaska on a commercial fishing boat from Homer was a long shot at best!  The memories of the night that they invited us to a sockeye salmon and prawns dinner onboard F/V HADASSAH in Auke Bay Harbor would have been enough to make our All Star list, but to then take me with them on a salmon seining trip to Tinakee Springs catapulted my time with them to the “Priceless” list!  To spend three days with quintessential commercial fishermen (or fisherpersons since Jean was an essential part of the fishing team!) while they practiced their profession was a thrill that no one could expect in a lifetime!  Not only did they allow me to intrude into their world, but somehow they made me feel truly welcome in their company!  No part of the fishing process went unexplained; no question went unanswered…and Glen even left me on the bridge to take a turn at HADASSAH’s wheel!  Ian not only made sure that I understood the essential role of the skiff man in the seining process, but also took me with him on several sets so I could see the process from that point of view.  To show you better why we have such strong feelings for our Alaskan friends, I’ll tell you of the night that AF was returning to Auke Bay in fog and rain after a great week in Glacier Bay.  I called the harbormaster on the VHF radio for a slip assignment, but there was no answer.  A few minutes later, Ian came up on his handheld VHF to tell us that he would meet us at the harbor and find a place for us to dock.  He had heard our unanswered call while eating dinner at a local restaurant, and left to help us tie up at night in the wind and rain!  Why would Glen & Jean let me into their fascinating world and make me feel so welcome?  Why would Ian go out of his way so many times to make our Alaskan visit as pleasant and as memorable as possible?  I don’t know, but maybe you are beginning to see why I think Alaskans are the best people on earth!  I would sleep even better if I knew that I will see these special friends again one day in Alaska! 

 Then there were two young men that added significantly to our days in Auke Bay.  Both were younger than our children – both were salmon fishing guides with charter services out of Auke Bay.  James Mothershead took Kathy & me for our first successful King salmon trip, and made every minute of it into a special day in our summer.  You have never seen anyone try harder to make the day rewarding for his fishermen!  It was with James that we saw the Bald Eagle attack the salmon and almost drown in the effort.  It was James that stayed out an extra hour and a half until Kathy caught a King salmon! Although she had caught several nice Chum salmon, he wanted her to have a King…and he got her one!  We fished with him twice more; once with Phil; then with the Taylor’s.  On every trip, his personality and perseverance made the trip more than expected.  If he represents the next generation of Alaskans, the state will remain a wonderland of wonderful people!  Eddie Kelly’s part in our experience sprung from Susan Greene’s amazement at his ability to catch King salmon from the Auke Bay Harbor docks!  As she watched him bring in several, she offered to take one off of his hands if he ever found himself with too many to use.  (Susan is a really helpful person!)  A day or so later, Eddie showed up at the boat with a cleaned white King salmon for our pleasure!  After a tour of AF, Eddie was officially our friend!  He took Kathy to the grocery store, and took me to Western Auto & Marine - each guaranteed to cement a tight relationship with our family!  The night before we left, he joined us in Juneau for pizza, and promised to join us again in his hometown of Seattle when we pass through there in September. 
Why would two young men less than half my age make such efforts to ensure our enjoyment of Alaska?  It’s more of that magic of the North that I have been speaking of all summer!

Next, if you know me and you met Paul Johnson of Gull Cove, you would know that he would be a “best friend for life” type for me!  Paul was born in Alaska before it was a state; a fact which he laments precludes his running for President of the United States!
(Not unlike my dilemma that I can’t run for Pope since I was born a Methodist! However, I remain a fan of the Pope’s big hat!)  To offset that cruel twist of fate, Paul has spent his life in Alaska hunting, fishing and living off the land!  (Note that I did not say “his adult life”; he explained that he has not yet grown up!)  He and Tammy now run a guide service near Idaho Inlet, the site of our serendipitous meeting when that dramatic fog bank at the entrance to Elfin Cove forced us into the inlet for the night.  Paul and Terri were among the guests on Steve’s boat when we and the Walkers, our guests onboard AF for the week, were invited to join the party going on there.  Over the next six weeks, AF made two stops at Gull Cove, welcomed Paul & Tammy on our boat at Elfin Cove, and joined Paul and John (his guide in the business) at the restaurant at Bartlett Cove when we met at Glacier Bay.  On every occasion, it was if I were playing with my good friend of many years!  His infectious smile and irreverent humor, coupled with his grizzly bear appearance makes him a memorable character, even among the many unique personalities of the Alaskan scene!  There is nothing that I would rather do than spend several weeks in the wilderness with Paul!  We would be safe from the bears, but we might laugh ourselves to death!  Maybe one day we will get to see!  I very much hope so!  By the way, the last time I talked to Paul, he was planning to go to Hawaii for the winter to lounge on a nude beach!  If any of you are in the market for property in Hawaii, follow Paul to that beach.  His bright white presence there will instantly deflate property values to about $0.50 per acre! 

 What are the chances that when a thousand foot cruise ship pulled up next to us at Marjorie Glacier in Glacier Bay, the pilot onboard would become a good friend that we would see in person twice before leaving Alaska; even joining him and his wife in their Ketchikan home for an afternoon?  Well, that is exactly what happened!  Doug McPherson was onboard the NOORDHAM as a bar pilot when we both witnessed the calving of an office building-sized iceberg from the glacier – the largest one that Doug had seen in his 20 year career!  His admiration for Nordhavn had precipitated the first VHF conversation between us, but many others by email, phone and in person had followed that eventful day.  He and Jean had come to the dock in Ketchikan to see us off, and Doug and I discussed the possibility of the two of them joining us on AF for part of our southerly trip.  It is amazing how events in Alaska spawn such friendships in so little time, but I saw it happen more times than I would have guessed possible.  Maybe it is because so many in Alaska have such similar interests or they simply wouldn’t be there!  Maybe the oddest part of the equation is that my interests exactly parallel so many of those who have found Alaska to be their home for life. Whatever the case, Doug and the experiences that we shared together have become very meaningful memories of our summer.  I think that there is a good chance that more memories are to come for us with Doug & Jean before Virginia Beach shows over the bow!  I hope so!

 Ken, the captain of the FAIRWEATHER EXPRESS II, a tour boat in Glacier Bay, and his son Luck, a mate on the boat are yet more great memories of our northern adventure.  ALWAYS FRIDAY again started the friendship when they expressed an interest in our boat.  After the obligatory tour, Ken and Luck became a wealth of information about Glacier Bay and its sights.  Their expertise was no surprise since they spend eight hours a day on the waters of the Bay searching for bears, wolves, Orcas and Humpbacks to amaze the tour boat crowd.  It was Ken who told me exactly where and when to be at Three Hill Island to ensure that Kathy’s father caught a Coho salon!  Ten minutes after our arrival there on the rising tide, Charlie had a ten pound trophy in the box, thanks to Ken!  Both Ken and Luck were on the dock when we brought in our 135 pound halibut, and it was Ken’s daughter who jumped aboard and finished the filleting job that I had begun!  Our last bright memory of Ken was when he called us on our way out of Glacier Bay for the last time to thank us for the times we spent together over the summer.  Imagine that – he was thanking us!  What a role reversal that was!  If I am ever in Glacier Bay again, I will not leave without seeking them out for fond recollections of the summer of my life, with significant contributions by my friends,  Ken and Luck!

 Then there were Doug & Donna Nolder.  Doug is a retired Alaskan Airlines 737 pilot, and Donna is the expert fisherwoman of the family!  Doug wandered by the boat one afternoon and fell into my web of a boat tour!  Several days later, they came by for a visit and the friendships were begun.  Before we left, Doug and Donna had taught us much about Juneau and Douglas (its bedroom community), best of all, they had taken me Coho salmon fishing on their boat at Handtrollers Cove, a famous hotspot this time of year!  How was it possible to meet so many nice people in such a short time?  It wasn’t me – it was Alaska, home of the nicest group of people that you could ever hope to meet! 

 Do any of you remember Doug, the commercial fisherman and owner of F/V ORACLE?  I’m sure that Phil & Susan do, as he was the fisherman sharing the dock with us at Taku Harbor when for no good reason, he walked up, introduced himself, and gave us a Sockeye and Coho salmon from the hold of his boat!  He had just caught them that day, and the fish represented cash in his pocket – until he gave them to four strangers from a foreign land (the East coast!).  His admiration for AF was the catalyst for his visit, but his kind heart was the reason for his gift of the salmon.  We actually ate the salmon that night in a memorable meal docked in a landmark of Alaska!  The next morning, as we passed the fishing fleet on our way to Tracy Arm, he hailed us on the VHF to say that he was taking our picture as we passed, and would email them to us later! (and I am sure that he will!)  But that was not the end of the story.  On our final exit from Juneau, I heard Doug on the radio, again fishing from ORACLE!  I called him to once again thank him for his contribution to our great time in his home state.  He remembered us well, and offered us his best wishes for a safe trip home.  I have fished for 35 years in Virginia and never had anything similar to our experience with Doug.  Our memories of him are just another reason that Alaska was so special during this summer of so many men’s dreams!

 So there is my case!  I think that the reason that I so hate to leave this place after such a wonderful summer is not a geographical one, but far more importantly, a personal one!  The kind of people that have been drawn to Alaska are my kind of people, and I hate beyond words to be leaving them.  Maybe one day I will see them again – or maybe they can come see me …in my little log cabin on Shelter Island, the one with the little aluminum boat and the float plane tied up out front!

Buddy