July 9th

It almost took a crane to drag Jack's listless body out of bed this morning at six. We needed to be to the ranger office by seven in the hope of being on the water before nine. Our plan was to work the Kunk Lake trail with the rest of the crew splitting wood and making repairs to the boardwalk portion of the trail. They trail is located on Etolin island, two miles directly West of our site at Nemo Point across Zimovia strait.

The trail leads from the shore up through the timber to Kunk Lake which sits just below tree line. Incidentally, the tree line in SE Alaska is around 2,000 feet above sea level - the Colorado tree line near Denver is roughly 11,000 feet above sea level.

Even though the skies were as dark as ever, no rain fell on us as we made our way from Wrangell to the trailhead - a trip of about 20 minutes. On the way, we saw something swimming in the ocean that turned out to be a deer. It was about a quarter mile from shore, swimming toward the far shore of Zimovia Strait - a distance of about three miles at this point. The guys guessed that rhe poor creature had been either chased into the water by a preditor or fallen down the steep, rocky bank and was unable to climb back out. What a long, cold swim - three miles of 54 degree salt water.

On the trail, we split into two groups. Bob and big Mike worked on the boardwalk while Glenn, Jack and I hiked on to the shelter at the lake to cut trees for firewood. Most of the trees had been killed by the incessant gnawing of porcupines. A pocupine will gnaw ever square inch of bark from a tree before moving onto the next and can decimate a fairly large section of forest if not checked by cars, wolves, wolverines, or other predictors.

We showered at the bunkhouse, reloaded with supplies, and headed back to camp around five.