These past 5 days have been days spent mustarding up courage, then waiting around, psyching myself up, then waiting around, hiking and seal watching, then waiting some more.
I'm sorry this entry is so long, but these last 5 days have been filled with great stories and blissful happenstances that I feel compelled to account for all of them.
This is a long account, you may want to grab some coffee or tea and a snack if you are going to temp to obsorb this in one sitting. This will be my last entry, I think, for a while, so I want to get it all in before I forget. I don't want to leave anything out because I have had some good experiences and met some amazing and kind people. So bare with me, but make sure to read it all, everyday in St. Paul has been great.
Day 1
I was scheduled to leave Anchorage and fly into St. Paul Island on Saturday. The plane I was on is a little pond jumper that seats 14 plus two pilots. There were two of us "Scientists" on board, and easy to spot, (the only non Aleuts on the plane). As we boarded, and I took my seat I noticed that I was the only one around taller than 6', (much like it has been every where in the AK), and as we boarded the plane I began to realize why. The celing of the plane stands at about 4 feet high. The grandma of the family on board with us two scientists started busting my balls admeditly about how great it is to be 4'9" at times like this. Joe and Ben, put another tally for reasons why its better to be short. The ball busting didn't stop. As I took my seat, she sat two seats behind me and noticed that the seat in front of me was stationed directly in between my knees. I was literally straddling the seat in front of me. She then started back in on me kicking her legs around excited about all the leg room she enjoyed. After the second light hearted and sweet attack, I took this to mean that anything is fair game. So I asked the pilot, who was squatting down in front of us at the front of the cockpit to give the pre-flight pep talk, if he had a pillow or a phone book for the sweet old elf in the back seat so she could see outside her window. Her family cracked up and I was instantly whirled into a banter of ball busting for the rest of the trip.
We landed in Billing ham which is a small town on the edge of the main body of Alaska. This town is a hunter and fishermen's dream escape. The plane that left before us for chalked full of camoflaged men and women ready to strike down either a bull mouse or carabou, as well as fishermen heading there in a hurry to catch the last of the salmon run. I got to talking to a man that I sat by in the airport on his way to Dillingham for the 9th year in a row. He was from Salt Lake City and on a mission to top the salmon he brought back from 4 years ago, I wont exaggerate the size of the fish and I forget what size he had said, but he had this childlike wonderment and excitement in his smile when he talked of the week he had waiting for him when he would arrive to his "little slice of peace and quite", as he referred to it. As we landed in Dillingham, the airport was nothing to write home about. None of the airports from now that I will be landing in will appease a mother's concerns, the setting is not far from that of an industrial park. But they had free coffee, and the people in the airport were all smiles and laughs, I've noticed that the demeanor of most of the Aleuts I run into is the same way, as long as you show them and their home respect. The plane was just stopping for gas, so we just got out and stretched the legs a bit.
I was extremely nervous on the flight into St. Paul. Butterflies were pounding on my stomach. But after the stop in Dillingham and a couple of quick, deep breaths of crisp cool air, I was back to my slightly cocky, but confident mind set of what I was about to do. I was not allowed to see the Bering Sea at all on the entire flight. Clouds loomed over it for looked to be 3 layers thick. This did not let up all the way to St. Paul Island. The pilots were young. You could tell that the comuter flight to St. Paul was not one handed out for seniority. Both pilots look of my age, no older than 27. They tried to land the plane three times with no success. They looped around one more time and were told to move on. They flew us to a tiny island south into the Aleutian Islands called Cold Bay to get instructions on what to do. I asked why Cold Bay was named so, and got a strange look from my ball busting Aleut friends. They thought it was obvious, 'cause it is cold there. Then I fought back, well aren't all of the Islands cold? What makes this one so cold to distinguish it from other cold bays? I did not get a satisfactory response. I think it's because there is no other distinguishing characteristics of the bay to name it anything else. The pilots got back to us and told us that we were heading back to Anchorage. The pilots were at the end of their alloted hours of fling time for the day, so we could not try again. So I landed in Anchorage and hailed a cab ride back to my bunk house, where I could just imagine the looks on all of my new great friends who I had said good bye to for what I thought was going to be 3 months.
The cabbie I got was a Southern man with a welcoming southern accsent. He hailed from North Lousianna, moved to Anchorage 4 years ago to get away and try something new. We got to talking about sports and the Saints and Cowboys. He told me he was huge Saints fan and knew of a high school buddy who had played for them in the 70's and early 80's. I chimed in to tell him that I knew a special teams player by the name of Steve Gleason. His eyes lit up and a smile holding bright yellow teeth came out from his whit beard. He told me that he cried when Steve blocked the punt against the Falcons on the first Monday Night football game played in New Orleans after the hurricane. I told him I was from the same town as Steve and close friends with his step sister. I told him of the day I had had and the day I will have tomorrow sitting at the airport all day on standby. As I went to pay he told me, since I've had a "whopper" of a day and that I knew Mr. Gleason, he knocked off $5 dollars from my fair. I thanked him kindly and lugged my stuff back up the flight of stairs I thought I had said good bye to. Day one of my AK adventure over. Time to get up tomorrow and try and go through all the mental prep for getting on a boat all over again.
Day 2
Day two was spent all day at the airport from 6 am until I couldn't get on the flight to St. Paul due to over booking at noon. Luckily the same family was in the airport from the flight yesterday trying again. They had been trying to get to St. Paul for one more day than I had, so they had priority on this flight. There was celebration going on in St. Paul to celebrate 25 years of independence from our Federal Government. This island exists due to the Fur Seal trade. The people who live here are decedents of Russian kidnapped natives put here to kill and prepare fur seals for trade and export. This lucrative trade was a large driving force for the purchase of Alaska. 25 years ago, the Government finally left and allowed the island to set up their own government for the town. So this was going to be the first large scale celebration the island has put together. So the family was really anxious to get home, for there was going to be a dance that night and the ball busting grandma told me that she excited to see the community together in celebration. I spent awhile talking with them, they had made sandwiches this time for the long wait and they invited me to partake. The grandma said she made me a balogna one for me this morning, 'cause I was full of it. So I asked her if hers was full of spit and nails then, she laughed and gave me a hug. I love that old lady, she wouldn't tell me her name 'cause she said everyone called her grandma and that's what I was to call her. I didn't get on the plane this day, but all of friends did so I was happy. I learned that they had landed and made it to the dance. I went home to the bunk house for one more night to wake up and head to the airport early the next morning to get on standby.
Day 3
Monday morning started escorting Mark, one of my newly graduated observers of AOI, to the airport and showing him the way since I have all the experience navigating around the terminal. He flew out on time at 7am to Dutch Harbor, and I sat around playing the waiting game and napping in my usual spot. My friends had all got on the plane the day before, so there were no bolngana sandwiches to be had this day. The flight got delayed from noon due to weather, and we would hear a report a 2. 2:00 came and went. 2:30 they told us the plane was there and we would begin boarding at 3:00, still no word on me though. This was a game I had to play in order to show my boss that I was trying to get to St. Paul, the airline had told me yesterday and that morning that it would be hard to get me out. But 3:00 came, and they called my name and I was off to St. Paul to get on my crab boat finally.
This cute Aleut sat behind me with her beautiful baby boy, who was amazingly quite the entire flight, and the rest of the plane was filled with another family trying to get back home after a weekend in Anchorage. They had spent the first couple of days in St. Paul to celebrate, then decided to head to Anchorage to see other family. The flight went off without a hitch, I think it was because there was a new pilot, who was at least 30 and had some experience landing in St. Paul. When I arrived there, the family that I had been with on my first trip was there in pickup trucks, pulled right up to the run way to pick up the people I sheared this flight with. Grandma clapped when she saw me and said, "Welcome to my Island." What a beautiful lady.
When there I saw the other Scientist, he was on his way back home to Anchorage along with others who he had seen for the celebration. They had seen my boat in the harbor, because they don't normally get boats that big in the harbor of St. Paul, everyone knew which one I was supposed to get on. They said the boat had been waiting then left, and that I was going to be a popular guy when I got on board. I already knew this, the boat had been spinning its wheels waiting for me the last couple of days, but there was nothing I could do about it. This girl Lou, who had just graduated from OSU, yes stone a beaver, said that she could give me a ride out to the dock to see if my boat was coming. She is here working for NMFS, the same government entity I altuimitly work for, in research of the Fur Seals. She is a very sweet girl with a great smile and a person who I am blessed to have run into and met. We went to the dock, no one around. It's Labor Day, of course there won't be a harbor master around. No large boat either. So she took me back to the NMFS field office so that I could call my company. They told me the boat was out, and that they wont be back in until tomorrow. Lou and Greg, the other person living in this huge field bunk house that NMFS has, told me to stay with them until everything get sorted out.
These two people have been saviors to me. They have feed me, given me a place to stay, and made me fell welcomed since the moment I was stranded and fell on their door step. I stayed the night there, Lou cooked an awesome curry from scratch over rice, we sat around talked about how the two of them made it to St. Paul and the research they were doing. Greg is a self proclaimed "bird guy" working for a wild life refuge that takes in data on all the birds in the Aleutian and Bering Sea Islands. He has been coming to St. Paul now for three years, spending 7 to 8 months of his year here, making sure to leave before the winter hits. Lou is on a 3 month contract to help out with the counting and tagging of the fur seals which inhabit the island. This island is a large breeding ground for them. We chatted a little more, watched a movie, and it was off to bed. This was the first mattress I have slept on since leaving Spokane. The beds in the bunk house in Anchorage were foam pads. So it was a welcomed night.
Day 4
I'm sorry I have to end this now, I just got word that my boat is finally going to be here, and they want to just do a touch and go. I have an hour to get ready again and get to the dock. These last two days here in St. Paul have been great, and it was a blessing that the boat hadn't been here so that I could see this beautiful island and be shown around by Greg and Lou, two people who I was blessed to have met. I will finish this entry as soon as I can, and start some new ones from aboard my first vessel, the Pavlov. I am excited and pumped. Thank you all for your comments, and I'm glad that you enjoy reading about my adventures. I hope they aren't too long winded, I just don't get to converse with you and I'm sure you all know how I like to tell long stories. Sorry for this abrupt end, but stay tuned because day 4 and 5 involve me boating among the fur seals, standing within 10 feet of them, and a little fox who followed me on my walk around the island.
I will back on line before you know it.
- Casey
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