Days Off June 25th/26th

These were the first two days off that we didn't have pre planned. I let Jack sleep in as long as he wanted on both days. He's been giving his Kindle a workout lately and has three books that he is excited to read waiting in the hopper. These days are perfect for kicking back and reading.

On Wednesday we drove to town just after noon to do laundry, take showers, refill with gas and water, and visit the library. After completing our errands, I dropped Jack at the library and headed over to the shooting range to fire off a few rounds. The range is open from dawn to dusk, which gives the residents of Wrangell over 20 hours of access each day. I love Alaska.

Before we drove back to camp, we hiked up the Dewey trail on the hill above downtown Wrangell. It was a short boardwalk up to a deck overlooking Wrangell harbor.

Earlier in the say, We met with our friend Beth who flew in last week to help train the guides at the Anan bear area. Beth is a veteran guide has who worked the area the past three seasons. This tear, the Anan crew is comprised entirely of first year guides so they brought Beth back for a few weeks to help establish the work routine at the site. The permitting of the area starts July 5th, giving locals a chance to access the area without a permit for the first few weeks of prime bear viewing season.

The latest reports from Anan are that not only are bears already starting to frequent the area but that salmon are already starting to run - roughly two weeks earlier than normal.

Dee, the supervisor of the Anan area, invited us to make the crew change run with her tomorrow. We'll take the boat down in the morning and return in time to start the potluck. We're excited - the Anan area is a unique place for viewing a large concentration of bears in their natural habitat.

After racking out for the night, we had a knock on the door of the camper around ten o'clock. It was three local women who asked to borrow an Allen wrench. They were coming to Nemo Point to spread their grandmother's ashes but couldn't open the urn without the wrench. I didn't have a wrench that fit but was able to open the urn by hand. Off they headed to cast grandma to the wilds of Nemo Point.