Pacific NW

Expeditions

It was wonderful waking up in Tenakee again! We rose late and made our way to the bakery in town, where we broke our seafood-hunting diet with fresh bread. Later I used the internet computer at the library. I couldn’t get into Yahoo! to check my mail because it was a strange computer. The librarian and another lady from town didn’t know anything about computers either. They started jabbing the screen with their fingers and shaking the box. Somehow the three of us got the thing working with a lot of luck! Justin and I walked the town and acquired more top-notch kindling for the woodstove. Alaskan yellow cedar. It makes the boat smell very good inside. We also took on a full load of dry split spruce. There was a huge pile of it at the end of the dock and we got it from the same fellow, Gary, whom we traded beer for wood before. What an excellent feeling to have a full woodpile again! The gravel “road” through town is lined chock-full with berries of all sorts. Today the thimbleberries were out in full force, and we grazed our way through town. People here grow fantastic gardens, and all around were cherry trees, apples, raspberries, strawberries–everything. The air smells sweet with all the flowers and the humpback whales are still out there in the inlet chuffing away. At times like these I have to ask myself why I would ever leave such a place. It is true paradise! In the late afternoon it began to downpour. Justin and I went for a hike to Indian River, outside of town. A winding path led us under huge spruce and cedar trees, their canopies so thick that the ground was bone-dry underneath the bigger ones. We got up to the bridge that crosses the river and suddenly a mother grizzly bear reared her head up out of the salmonberry bushes directly in front of us! It was a moment in time unto itself, like no other, She roared in our faces and lunged off into the brush, snapping a broad path through the vegetation. Her cub scampered wildly at her feet! There was an instant when we weren’t sure if she was going to turn back, but then she was gone. Justin and I drew together and opened our jackets out to appear larger. We yelled and stomped the ground and probably caused the bear some minor irritation. Once on the comfort of the suspension foot-bridge we watched the bears from a more secure position, as they made their way up the river. Talk about experiencing nature first-hand! I stayed up very late reading, writing, and soaking in the hot springs.