Working Working

Last year I helped a friend build a garage with an apartment on top.  Here's the link to the start of the project:   http://whitekingsalmon.blogspot.com/2012/07/matts-garage-project.html  

Here is how I left it at the end of last summer: http://whitekingsalmon.blogspot.com/2012/09/matts-garage-dried-in-or-almost.html

This summer, understandably, Matt wanted to get some siding on it so that he wouldn't have to worry about the Tyvek being blown off. 

First we built a roof between the buildings.














The weather was so nice we even got most of it painted before we put it up.  It looks so much nicer when the bottom of the plywood is painted!  It's a nice breezeway to get out of the rain.

Hike to Bear Lake

The weather this summer has been impressive.  However, the few hikes I've done have been in the mist and fog.  Bear Lake was no different. 

You start from pole 71.  To get to pole 71, you take Sawmill Creek Road to the very end (all 8 miles of it) and park.  Then you hike on the gated and locked Green Lake Road toward the Medivijie Salmon Hatchery.  Start looking at the electrical poles from the Green Lake Hydro plant and turn left into the woods at pole 71.  Easy, huh?  It is, however, a good 45 minutes just to get on the "trail," which is an occasional "flag" of surveyor's tape that someone (and you don't know whether that someone knew where they were going or not!) tied to a bush or tree.

Matt's favorite cedar tree - and it's a whopper.

 There's a bit of "exposure" on the way up, but it's not too bad.  "Exposure" appears to be a word that indicates how steep the hill is that a person is trying to get across.   Like most things in life, different people have different tolerances of "exposure."

We're almost to the lake.  Nice flowers.

We're at the lake!  But you can't see it.  It's just to the left of the snow.

It's July 19, and there's just a little water without ice near the outflow.  The outflow tumbles down the steep mountainside - almost a waterfall.  Bear Lake water is clear as clean window glass.

It cleared up a bit.  You can see a bit of the lake.  You can also see the "iceberg" under the water.  Pretty clear water, huh?

Duck!

Matt borrowed my camera and took this picture of a spider web in the woods.  They're just amazing - except when they're in your face.

This is a cedar tree that has bark ripped from the trunk by a bear.  The bear takes its incisor and "scores" the bark at the top to be able to tear the bark off the tree and eat it.  The score marks are visible in this photo because the bear has torn the wood just a bit and green algae has grown in the tear. 

Those bears are amazing.





If you go to Bear Lake on a decent day, you can see forever - or at least a long way.  But some days are foggy.  It was still a great hike.

Mt. Edgecumbe VOLCANO hike

Some days are rainy, some are misty, some are cloudy, and a few - but just a few - are sunny.

This was not one of the sunny days - in fact, it was pretty foggy and misty.  Not good when you're hiking 3000 feet up - the weather usually gets worse as you get higher. 

 The Mt. Edgecumbe trail is marked by a very nice gradual 6 mile walk - and then you climb up and up for one mile.  I took this photo at the wrong angle.  You can see how the earth surface is flat and the hikers are leaning into it.  Pretend the hikers are straight up and you'll get an indication of how steep the mountain is. 

Nice view, huh?

The rock cairn on the right, in front of the person on the right, marks the top of the trail.  They're pretty happy to have made it.  Hopefully, they have jackets, hats, and gloves - it's freezing up here!

Nice view, huh?

But there was a surprise on this hike.  Zuill Bailey, renowned cellist, brought his carbon fiber cello and gave us a concert.  I have to say I was very impressed.  My fingers were frozen and I had gloves on.  I don't know how he played one note, much less a whole (short) piece.  Zuill is pretty famous.  You can find him at zuillbailey.com, of course!

A better picture made the best photos at the Guardian News website.  I can honestly say that I helped make that happen.  James Poulson, one of my favorite photographers, took the photo and he was hypothermic - trembling, etc.  My friend Bob lent him his gloves and hat and I lent him my jacket.  Also, I'm clearly a star in the picture.  You can see me to the right of the guy in the green jacket and between him and the blond female. 

Someone on the Sitka Summer Music Festival Board brought some champagne.  I wasn't even insulted that I wasn't offered any.  I confess that I lead the charge downhill when it was minimally polite, and headed down to warmer elevations. 


Sometimes it's sunny and some days your head is in the fog all day.

Commercial Salmon Troll - Day 6

I've told my tale, and I'm sticking with it.  I'll leave you with a few photos to remember it.

The gear is ready.

A nice king salmon.  They are really pretty.

A nice place for a rest.

Peaceful.

Commercial salmon troll opening, Day 5

Commercial fishing is different than any other job I've ever had.  The biggest reason is that it's so singular: you're out on a boat and the object is to catch as many fish as possible.  There are no hours or schedule.  Time and work is dictated only by weather and numbers of fish. 

To be honest, I'm not all that excited about the fishing part.  Yes, I know, if you're actually reading this, you're wondering "what the heck?"  What I like is being outside all the time, but honestly having a cabin and warm stove to retreat to for meals and sleeping.  I like the constantly changing weather and ocean, seeing the occasional whale or porpoise or cruise ship or whatever.  I like not having to think about the past or the future, just the here and now.  I like being out of cell phone range and not knowing the news.  I like being on a boat, but having a purpose.

The trip lasted on more day.  We caught about 600 cohos and 120 king salmon.  I didn't get any pictures of unloading because I was ass over teakettle getting fish out of the ice and into the bucket which is hoisted onto the fish dock.

Interestingly enough, it was an "old home trip" for Tom and me.  He had taken me out on my first commercial fishing trip in the summer of 1980, 33 years ago.  I made about $1000 on that trip and about $2500 this trip.  He paid me 20% this time though as an "experienced" deck hand rather than 15% the first time.  I can't complain either time.  Luckily, it wasn't for the money.

Commercial Trolling - JULY 4!!!

It's July 4, and we're catching fish - mostly cohos but they pay something.  

Catching the fish is the easy part, processing them is a little more time consuming and more work.

Basically when you're catching fish, it's run the lines, clean fish, run the lines, clean fish, ice down the fish, run the lines, clean fish.  You get the drill.  I can't say it's sophisticated.  It's also good to get a snack and something to drink once in a while - if you're lucky.

This is a nice little haul for two lines, three kings and two cohos.

Here's a better haul.  These are already gilled and cleaned up.  Most of the time, blood and slime is flying around.

The whole intent is to get all the blood out of the fish so it doesn't spoil and ruin the meat.  One of the reasons troll fishing has survived is that it specializes in high quality fresh or fresh frozen fish.  But there is a lot more work per pound of fish compared to other types of fishing like seining, gilnetting, or trawling.

When you clean a fish, first you cut around the gills and pull them out.  This allows the fish to bleed out easily.  Next you slice the fish from anus to between the front bottom fins.  With a little cut on the left and right of the gullet, all the guts come out.  Yep, throw everything back in the sea for the other creatures to get a treat.

After slicing the bloodline along the backbone, all the blood is scraped out of the fish.  Then you take the seawater hose like is on the left, and wash the fish out.  Finally you slightly cut the bones toward the rear of the backbone.  With a little artistic hosemanship, you can wash out the main arteries with sea water.  That's why the water coming out of the fish on the left is bloody.

We place the fish in a big tub of constantly changing sea water and let that wash the fish some more.  Then it's time to get them on ice, one of my least favorite jobs.  You fish them out of the big tub, drop them softly on some ice in the bottom of the hold.  When you get them down in there, you line them up in the bins with bellies and head opening up.  After chopping some ice, you fill the gut cavity and inside the head with ice.  Finally, you throw a small layer of ice over all the fish to get ready for a new layer.

Now get out of the hold and do it all again!

Commercial Trolling - Day 3

The best parts of fishing, and many other endeavors, are the unexpected moments: the rainbow off in the distance, the occasional humpback whale cruising by, the calming of the ocean after a crappy bouncy day.

King salmon are voracious eaters.  This photo shows a herring that I took out of a salmon stomach.  Next to it is a "hoochie," which salmon like to bite on.  The hook is just visible to the bottom left of the hoochie.  I'm not sure how much correlation there is to a herring and a hoochie, but the hoochies work!  By the way, forget this photo or I'll have to come after you.  Fishermen don't like to give information away like gear that works or locations that have fish!  Then you'll catch more than us!

Herring and needlefish are two of a king or coho salmon's favorite foods.  In this posed picture, the herring is on top and the needlefish are below.

Out of the 5 different types of salmon, kings and cohos eat other fish and will bite a hook.  Humpies, or pink salmon, will also - but they're not worth much at the fish dock so trollers "shake: them - which means unhook them back to the ocean.  Chum, or dog salmon - along with sockeye, rarely bite on hooks because their main food is zooplankton.  That's why they are targeted using nets.

Commercial Salmon Trolling - Day 2

Without giving you too much boring detail on how the fish gear works, fishing leaders are snapped onto the troll wire (the part that hangs down straight into the water) about 5 fathoms apart from each other.  The depth of the wire depends on the depth of the water and trollers develop "drags" that are at certain depths.   In general, we fished with about 30 fathoms of wire spooled out.  We snapped leaders on the wire every 5 fathoms (a fathom is 6 feet just in case you didn't want to google it) for about 6 leaders per wire and 24 leaders in all (4 lines, two on each side).

When you "run the gear," a person turns the handle on the hydraulics and a wire comes up.  As the leaders show, the person unsnaps it and coils it up on the stern deck just behind the cockpit.  The cockpit is a lower area in the back of the boat so you're working the gear at waist height.

Tom has a "just legal" king salmon on the hook!! (King salmon have to be 28 inches long in order to keep them.) You can see the wire hanging down with the little blue collar.  He pulls the leader and gives the fish a smack on the head with the gaff hook to stun it.  Then he turns the gaff hook around and uses the gaff part to lift the fish onto the boat.  

Oh yeah, here it comes!

Look at that ocean - nice and calm - what a nice day for fishing.

And there's the fish safely aboard the boat.  He unhooks it by pulling the leader with the gaff hook in the crook of the hook and back goes the leader and hook into the water.

On the right of the photo are fish he caught earlier that have been "gilled" and bled.

Nice job, Tom!

KING Salmon Commercial Fishing - July Opening

About the third week of July, my friend and past boss called me and asked if I wanted to crew for the July 1 king salmon opening.  As you may know if you follow this blog, I like king salmon.  I'm not passionate about catching them, but they are a beautiful fish - as well as tasty and strong.  After checking with the appropriate personnel, I said "Sure."

Tom cooked us a special "pre-season" dinner - steak on the BBQ on June 30.  Once the season opened the next day, there wouldn't be time for fancy dinners.  He's a good cook and it was great.  We anchored up at Biorka and this photo looks back toward town.  You can't see it from here so don't look too hard.  The other boats are commercial trollers and are anchored up with us.  I always like to see the mountains in the background with the clouds hanging above them.

As a little background, Tom's boat is a 46 foot troller named the "Lady Brijet."  A troller catches fish with multiple leaders hanging off four lines that go as straight as possible down into the water.  You can see the bow pole hanging out in front of the boat.  One line hangs down from that.  Then another line hangs down way out on the "main" pole which you can see amidships.  The reels on the right of the picture pull the lines in and out using hydraulics.  

You can see the poles again in this picture.  The Lady Brijet is a very comfortable boat, with galley, dinette, and captain's chair in the main cabin - and sleeping berths up forward.  There's a big fishhold in the middle of the boat where the gray box looking thing appears.