9/15/12
First off, apologies for taking so long between updates, but I have a few excuses. The paramount one being that I had to learn one last rule of fishing: never leave your computer under an open folkshole, sudden Alaskan rain storms will make sure you'll regret it.
Since the last time I wrote, our fearless leader has been merciful. We ended our seining season early this year. The ADFG closed the coast so we retreated to Sitka and tried our luck. In this case our luck was just like everybody else's, lots of smelly jellies and dark minuscule salmon. Not to mention the calmness of the water made it, dare is say, boring.
Unfortunately Kurt was coming down with a cold so the prospect of grinding away for such uninspiring catches was less than thrilling. To the delight of Turkish, Leif, and I, he called it quits August 22. Skiff man Chris came aboard after our last set with the face of a boy pulled out of a candy store, "What the hell are we stopping for? There's money in the water!" You have to admire his attitude but even he will agree that it has been a treat to be done early, we got to experience some summer in the lower 48.
Last season I brought the boat down to Bellingham but this year it stayed up North so I was able to enjoy a Freedom Flight. I bought a ticket from Sitka to LA, long live stark societal contrast. I arrived in Lala land to the aroma of smog and perfume. You trade the cleanliness of Alaskan air for the cleanliness of lower 48 citizens. You also have a lot of choices to make on land.
Up north on the Middleton your choices are slim to none, Captain pretty much chooses your next moves for two months and it's easy to get used to. In LA I had to decide where to go, who to see, when to get up, what to eat, what to wear etc. Red and green lights are no longer things to stay on one side of, apparently they mean stop and go, and in LA, yellow means speed up. So much stimulus was overwhelming at first so I decided to regress to what should have been familiar, the ocean. I went surfing with a buddy from college at Manhattan beach. This was far from familiar. The water was less like an ocean and more like a bathtub. I don't understand how wetsuits get sold down there. Instead of the usual salmon jumping out of the water there were dolphins. Instead of Bald Eagles there were sentinels of pelicans riding the waves. All boats were in the distance so no engines rumbling, just the crash of a set and the cordial apologies of a sorry surfer "Didn't mean to cut you off bro!" This isn't the SoCal I had been warned about as a native of NorCal, this is fantasy.
Unbeknownst to me my fair Alaskan complexion was on a mission to match the hue of my famous red shorts. So for all the pluses, I received a minus the size of my epidermis. In my downtime I retreated into the shade of my friends' house and applied aloe vera while watching television. It must have slipped my mind how addictive this can be when in possession of the remote, I gorged on the unbeatable combination of US Open Tennis and cartoons until my eyes bled.
After LA I was able to crash a camping trip to Yosemite for Labor Day weekend. Besides avoiding the Hanta virus we were busy hiking among the rat race of tourists. This was baffling because a hike in Alaska rarely includes other people, in fact your main concern is finding the trail and avoiding bears. In Yosemite hikers were clogging the well-marked trails like bacon does arteries, without the great taste bonus.
Eventually I found myself at home in the Prius breeding grounds of Mill Valley. There it was business as usual, old friends, local hangouts, and of course packing to leave forever for the umpteenth time. This time was for real though, I've been paying rent on a room in NE Portland so when I hit the road there was a real destination in mind rather than whatever couch would have me. It was all so familiar that I had a rather speedy turnaround. That means I was strapped for time and too many people fell by the wayside. If you didn't know by now, I'm super popular. I got a lotta friends in a lotta cities. LA and Marin still have people I need to grab a beer with but it'll have to wait till next time. Me, Moses, and mi Moustache are en route to Portland.
Why Portland? They say a rolling stone gathers no moss. Well I've been rolling around since graduation and I'm looking for some moss. If you've ever seen the forests in P-town you'll note that the moss is not only abundant but has a regal quality that can only compare to The Shire. So let the hobbit-chia project begin and please, if you're in town, let a brother know.
