Greg -

Jack and I made our rounds quickly this morning as the road has been very quiet this summer.   At the end of June, a young Wrangell resident failed to return from a solo hiking/kayaking trip.   The trip consisted of kayaking in a packable boat to the Berg  Bay cabin and then hiking roughly twenty miles over incredibly steep,  rugged, and snow covered terrain to the Katete River, where he planned to kayak to the Stikine River near the Mt. Flemer cabin, just west of the Canadian border.   He was to then kayak down the Stikine, eventually making it back to Wrangell.  As the attached story details, after he failed to make a scheduled check-in via a SPOT transponder, a search and rescue effort between the Wrangell Fire Department, Sitka Mountain Rescue, and eventuallythe US Coast Guard and Alaska National Guard was launched.  Helicopters were a regular site during our stay at the Mt. Rynda cabin.  The search was called off on July 5th after finding footprints and a few pieces of gear.   A memorial service was held last Friday.   Although people don't seem to talk about it much, I'm sure that it's had a quieting effect on the entire community.

Wrangell Sentinel Story on Colin Buness

We worked at Long Lake yesterday.   The rec crew has been hard pressed to keep up with all of their scheduled maintenance projects this summer.   Cutting the grass around this shelter is one of the jobs that's fallen by the wayside.  Jack and I cut brush along the trail most of the afternoon and then took the Forest Service skiff out for a paddle after we finished.

On our way back to camp, we followed a bear on the road for quite some time, the bear being completely unaware of our presence until I whistled at it.   He whirled around and just about jumped out of its skin before running off into the brush. 

Today is our day off.  Jack wanted to "chillax" at the camper, so I took the canoe for a paddle near Earl West.  I was hoping to see bears feeding on beach grass but had no luck.   AltI did see one on the road on the way back to camp.