Cordova Mission Overview

Here's a brief run-down of the itinerary. We'll provide more in depth blogs with time. First, we met Justin and Elle in Cordova. Three days of glacier viewing, berry picking, bear dodging, and silver fishing (NOT catching) ensued. And of course, let's not forget hearts, our go-to game. Elle's a gourmet chef, so the eating part of the adventure was always pure tasty goodness.

We met up with Sam and her beau Carey for a couple of nights. They were camping with bears a la Grizzly Man, hiking for deep corn August back-country ski turns, and silver fishing (AND catching. Not that we're bitter. At least they shared their bounty, which we supplemented with the few dollys we managed to land.)

When Jake and Megan arrived Wednesday night, our crew was complete and off we went via Cessna 206 to Hichinbrook Island. There, we enjoyed very close quarters in a dimly lit cabin while approximately 36 inches of rain fell in the ensuing 36 hours. Sam and Carey left after 24 hours, never having seen the sun. One person in our party was totally unphased by the weather. You can probably guess who.

The surf conditions were excellent. Off shore and fairly big. Here's a shot Justin took. Unfortunately, it was so crappy and cold, rather than don the wetsuits and paddle out, the dudes just wandered around near the cabin building large fires and felling dead trees. The ladies hung out inside the cabin, wondering what we'd gotten ourselves into.

Alas, day two at the cabin was still filled with rain, but a lot less of it. By the afternoon, it was barely falling, and off wandered the intrepid surfers.

Finally the sun broke out, and the beauty of Hinchinbrook revealed itself. Just as the dudes flopped out of water on the last day, the cessna showed back up and we were whisked back to society.

We enjoyed a couple wonderful days full of donuts, Tommy Burgers, sonograms, and the excellent company of Team Wilyo (and future rock star Austin Musashi) in Anchorage before heading back home to Dutch. And we were stoked to have the super bonus visit of Justin and Elle, who joined us out here in our boondocks residence for a few days. Thanks for visiting, Justin and Elle! It was awesome to hang out with you guys! The surf's bigger in winter, so you'll just have to come back again!

Baby Stokely

Looks like we can scratch Eviana off the name list.

New technology is fairly amazing.

Vacation!

That is, if the planes fly today. (No dice yesterday on account of fog.) Paxson Revel started the vacation staycation style, with some living room surfing.


Pretty good form.

We're off to Cordova, Alaska's "hidden treasure" as everybody likes to call it. It's off the road system, but close to it. And cruise ships don't fit in it's port, so it remains fairly authentic. And we hear there's a Bohemian feel to the place, which should help us feel at home, given our roots. Glaciers, fishing, surfing, hunting, etc. After a few days in Cordova, we'll be chartering a bush plane to Hook Point on Hinchenbrook Island for some surfing, beach-combing, berry picking and clam digging good times.



So, how much is inflation hitting you folks in the lower 48? Our power bill just doubled. And the cost of a Granny Smith apple (one, not one pound) is $2.63. American. (Not that we're complaining. At least the berries are still free!)

Volcano Trifecta Okmok-Cleveland-Kasatochi

So, we get to enjoy a third Aleutian volcano erupting! Kasatochi. Granted, it's extremely unlikely we'll notice this one, as it's out between Atka and Adak. The cool thing about being in a small town is we've met a lot of the people who have had first hand experiences with these volcanoes. For example, we met the rescued biologist while touring the fish and wildlife boat, M/V Tiglax. And Dawson married two of the folks from Fort Glenn last winter. Here's a link to one of the cowboy's Myspace pages. (Kind of spoils the cowboy imagery a bit, doesn't it? On a remote, desolate windswept island, a cowboy tends the herds... and his Myspace page.)

This picture of Kasatochi is from the ever excellent AVO website, taken by Brie Drummond back in 2004. I hope the recently evacuated biologists were snapping photos!

This eruption may not seem that dramatic, but it may very well add a second village to the stranded list. No planes have landed in Nikolski, sandwiched between erupting Okmok and Cleveland, since Okmok first erupted. And only two boats have been there in that time. Now, Atka will be between two active volcanoes, potentially boxing it in too. Yikes!

Num-Nums (Salmonberries)

They've arrived! I can taste the pie already.

New Fish Pole & Practice Camping

As the humpies have arrived, we've embarked on a family mission to catch them. Even Boodah, with his new fish pole, got in on the action. He, like his Boppa, caught a lot of seaweed. But he actually managed to get one on the line! Alas, the kiddy fish pole was not up for handling humpy power, and his first big one got away.

All tuckered out after a hard day of fishing!

When camping, Boodah goes by the camping name of Bu-Du. As in, "Bu-Du more num nums?" He loves the salmon berries. He's very serious when he eats them, though. He must really be concentrating on savoring them.



We were in the video aisle late Saturday night, uninspired, and decided to head out to Morris Cove for some spontaneous practice camping. Bu-Du slept great. Unfortunately, on account of his preference for sleeping perpendicular to us, we didn't. But we'll just sleep that much better tonight!

Helping pack for next week's big mission.