Hinchinbrook Island

Warning, this blog entry is going to be heavy on the pictures. Here's another shot of the city airport and some shots to give you the sense of the terrain we flew over in our long 15 airborne minutes flight.




Here we are, safe on arrival after landing on the beach at low tide. Senor was stoked to sit up front. Entranced, actually. It took him a while to work up the nerve to touch the steering wheel.





Our home sweet A-frame for the next few days!

Let the firewood gathering commence!


So, there was a lot of this on the first day.



Here's the scene indoors, actual darkness.




Here's the same scen illuminated by flash. As you can see, even at high noon the inside of the A-Frame cabin was quite dim!





Boodah, ever happy:






Here's the "facility". It was actually quite nice. It had a glass window hatch that looked like it was from a submarine that you could open if the interior aroma got to overwhelming.




Everybody embarked on a fishing mission except Momma and Boodah, who stayed behind and held down the fort. Fortunately, the fishing mission was a success, and tasty salmon and even a trout were brought home and cooked up later that night. As the weather slightly improved, the dudes mustered up their surfing mojo. After Jake failed to talk the other two into hiking two miles to the point break, they hit the beach break right in front of the cabin. Here's Jake, looking at the waves with the binocs, and demonstrating his water friendly wetsuit.



Jake is very manly. He is not afraid of cold water or rain.



Surfer magazine, don't even think about pirating these photos.



And then it happened. Sun, glorious sun! The dismal, trapped at the end of the world feeling gave way to the realization that we were alone on a deserted island paradise. What a difference sunshine makes! Of course, we were too busy reveling in the sunshine to take many pictures. But I promise you, it was beautiful!

Fishing,lure retrieving, playing.




Folks with lots of creativity and skills used flotsam and jetsam to make cool stuff around the cabin. Swings, hammocks, etc.












And then, all to quickly, the plane came back to take us to reality. Doors off to fit the surfboards in! Somehow all of us and all our crap made it back in just two plane loads!





One stop at Team Wilyo's (where Boodah's always inspired to rock!)(and we are ever grateful for the always warm and welcoming hospitality!)



and a couple of long flights later, and we were home sweet home!

Cordova City Part 2

Hey, we flexed our democracy muscles and voted today. Should be interesting. Two more elections coming up. Lots of democracy around these parts! Okay, back to the Cordova mission update. Day two, what did we do? We got our fish poles, including a new one for mister, and headed out to rustle up some fish. Here's Boodah enjoying a nice afternoon nap under a protective layer of mosquito netting.

After not catching fish for a few hours, we went back in to town to hike and pick berries.

The Cordova ski club bought Sun Valley's original chairlift (lots of history - Hemingway rode it) and installed it right in town, so in the winter when the powder's deep you can ride North America's oldest ski lift up the hill for some sweet turns. In summer, the ski area also doubles as a nice day hike offering spectacular views.

At the mid-mountain stop, we couldn't resist a photo op with Boodah on the chair – but we failed to notice this sign:

Needless to say, we were quite surprised when, 30 seconds after taking Boodah off the chair, it started moving. And moving fast. Yikes! Definite disqualification from the parent of the year award!

The ski hill was loaded with the berries.

Which explains why it took us three hours to summit. (Couldn't possibly be related to being out of shape.)

Boodah LOVED the berries. A significant part of our vacation consisted of

changing some very messy berry laden diapers. About seven a day, in case you wanted specifics.

Day Three:

The next day we attempted to catch silvers at another location. We hiked a couple miles down the Eyak River to a fabled spot. Along the way we saw loads of bear sign and some HUGE bear tracks. We were nervous, but we didn't see any bears. And we took

solace from the fact that no group larger than 6 has ever been attacked by a bear. (Whether that's an accurate fact, we aren't sure, but it's reassuring if you're in a party of six.) Again, we caught no silvers. And again, Carey, the ultimate fishing ninja, caught them effortlessly! He and Sam both caught silvers. They have the silver touch. Here's Genevieve with a real fighter on the line! But alas, it got away. With the lure. As if not catching silvers was enough of a sportsmen healthy self confidence destroyer, Justin and Dawson also attempted to catch Halibut off the town docks, as avid fisherman in Cordova sometimes do. They just weren't biting. (Of course, Jake and Megan arrived later that day. Jake hooked a silver within about 5 minutes. Hmmm.)

Up next: Hichinbrook Mission:

Up bright and early, we checked out of the King's Chamber and made our way to the City Airport, which

consists of a gravel strip adjacent to the road along Lake Eyak. Boodah got some of his first flight hours on the flight.

This was the part of the adventure that reached high soggy levels. Sogification extreme. Naturally, the dudes built a large fire outside. And got drenched. The smarter half of the group stayed indoors.

Cordova City

Cordova is Alaska's "hidden treasure." Every guidebook and website will make sure you know this fact. It is a true fact. The cruise ships are too big to fit in the port, and there is no road to it. You have to fly or take the ferry to get there. In any event, it lives up to the hype. Right off the bat we saw deer, otters, and this hungry little black bear munching away on the town's massive salmonberry stockpile.

We stayed at Skater's Cabin, an old CCC cabin on Lake Eyak recently restored and within walking distance to town. Fortunately we didn't ever have to walk. Being good Americans, we drove. Somebody's got to keep those oil companies in business, right? Anyway, Skater's is awesome. Basically, a covered roof and a big wood stove is all it is, but it can't be beat for $25. It actually gets more expensive each night if you stay longer. (It's an effort to let more people enjoy it.)

We enjoyed a warm welcome to Cordova right off the bat. When we were trying to figure out how to get our surfboards and all our gear and all of us into our super sexy mini-van rental, the Alaska Air ticket agent kindly gave our surfboards a ride to town in her truck, and also showed us all around. Thank you nice Alaska Air ticket agent!

After that, we met the only grumpy person in Cordova, at Cordova's famous Baja Taco buscabin. She was not pumped about Paxson Revel climbing on her bus. Incidentally, she was not pumped about a lot of things. Customer service, for example. Even Sam and Carey, who also ate there once, had a similar experience. It is odd, as the place comes so highly recommended. At least by the guide book writing types. "Best fish taco north of San Diego." We're more apt to say, "One of the best fish tacos across the street from the AC in Cordova, Alaska." We never went back for seconds.

In any event, she was in no way reflective of the rest of the town's population, who all seemed quite pumped, and were very friendly to us tourist folks.

"You should surf the glacier." It was the same advice everybody gave us as soon as they saw the surfboards. Everybody wanted to tell us about the dudes who wandered into Cordova last year and surfed the wave (caution, adult language) created by a calving glacier. That, in fact, was a much more complicated mission than it seems from the Outside magazine articles. Basically, they had to sit around in the river - which has quite a fast current, waiting hours and hours until a big enough chunk fell. Then, the surfer was towed in by jetski. Kind of a gear intensive operation. We ourselves hung out for hours at the glacier waiting to see a chunk big enough to create a surfable wave. We can assure you, it takes a while. But it's a highly pleasant afternoon activity. And if you get tired of the spectacle, you can always wander around picking salmon berries and trying not to step in Grizzly poop. Better yet, trying not to become grizzly poop. Lots of bears at the glacier. According to the campground hosts, they are becoming a bit too comfortable with humans. We all know what happened the last time that happened!

On the way back from glacier viewing, we ran in to Sam and Carey, who were catching tasty silver salmon. Mmmm. We were inspired to get fish poles and give it a shot ourselves, after a lovely sunset stroll of the docks and a restful night at our fine abode, the King's Chamber.