Steelhead Firewood

The fly shop is now closed.  But…  Tanis and Eden are still selling firewood this season.  $30 for a wheelbarrow load,  or $300 for a truckload.

You can make arrangements through him at the old fly shop number (907)784-3087.  All the hangar doors are locked for FAA/TSA reasons,  so you need to make arrangements ahead of time.

Merry Christmas from Up North

I hope you are having a spectacular Christmas Eve!  Sitting down after dinner,  reading through my e-mail and had to drag the kids over to watch a funny attachment.  Then I had a vision from our past – NORAD SANTA!!!

Once upon a time,  we started tracking where Santa was on this holy night of nights.  The first time was when Tanis was just a baby down in Montana when we were visiting Teen’s family.  They had older kids,  so we sat by the tiny computer screen and waited forever for the little video clips to load.  Ended up giving up on the dial-up streaming and just refreshed the map throughout the night to see where the red dot of Rudolf’s nose could be seen.

Col. Shoup, the “Santa Colonel”, US Air Force

This is the 65th anniversary of CONAD/NORAD’s Christmas tracking,  so tonight we read a little history of the event.  This was from NPR last month – an interview with the children of Colonel Harry Shoup…

This Christmas Eve people all over the world will log on to the official Santa Tracker to follow his progress through U.S. military radar. This all started in 1955, with a misprint in a Colorado Springs newspaper and a call to Col. Harry Shoup’s secret hotline at the Continental Air Defense Command, now known as NORAD.

Shoup’s children, Terri Van Keuren, 65, Rick Shoup, 59, and Pam Farrell, 70, recently visited StoryCorps to talk about how the tradition began.

Terri remembers her dad had two phones on his desk, including a red one. “Only a four-star general at the Pentagon and my dad had the number,” she says.

“This was the ’50s, this was the Cold War, and he would have been the first one to know if there was an attack on the United States,” Rick says.

The red phone rang one day in December 1955, and Shoup answered it, Pam says. “And then there was a small voice that just asked, ‘Is this Santa Claus?’ ”

His children remember Shoup as straight-laced and disciplined, and he was annoyed and upset by the call and thought it was a joke — but then, Terri says, the little voice started crying.

“And Dad realized that it wasn’t a joke,” her sister says. “So he talked to him, ho-ho-ho’d and asked if he had been a good boy and, ‘May I talk to your mother?’ And the mother got on and said, ‘You haven’t seen the paper yet? There’s a phone number to call Santa. It’s in the Sears ad.’ Dad looked it up, and there it was, his red phone number. And they had children calling one after another, so he put a couple of airmen on the phones to act like Santa Claus.”

“It got to be a big joke at the command center. You know, ‘The old man’s really flipped his lid this time. We’re answering Santa calls,’ ” Terri says.

“The airmen had this big glass board with the United States on it and Canada, and when airplanes would come in they would track them,” Pam says.

“And Christmas Eve of 1955, when Dad walked in, there was a drawing of a sleigh with eight reindeer coming over the North Pole,” Rick says.

“Dad said, ‘What is that?’ They say, ‘Colonel, we’re sorry. We were just making a joke. Do you want us to take that down?’ Dad looked at it for a while, and next thing you know, Dad had called the radio station and had said, ‘This is the commander at the Combat Alert Center, and we have an unidentified flying object. Why, it looks like a sleigh.’ Well, the radio stations would call him like every hour and say, ‘Where’s Santa now?’ ” Terri says.

“And later in life he got letters from all over the world, people saying, ‘Thank you, Colonel,’ for having, you know, this sense of humor. And in his 90s, he would carry those letters around with him in a briefcase that had a lock on it like it was top-secret information,” she says. “You know, he was an important guy, but this is the thing he’s known for.”

“Yeah,” Rick says, “it’s probably the thing he was proudest of, too.”

Produced for Morning Edition by Jasmyn Belcher Morris.

Fond memories of Christmas…  I hope you and yours are having a good evening.  As I type this,  Santa is over Bermuda with 5 billion gifts delivered so far…  And we’re about to sit down for a family game of pinochle.  Take care and we’ll see you in the new year.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight…

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“Happy” December 7th…

We’ll be “celebrating” with another day of cleaning and organizing the hangar bay…  Got the two Beech 18 wrecks moved out of the back corner and all the junk in,  around and behind them sorted and/or hauled to the dump.  Trying to make space to continue with our big construction push throughout the short-dark-cold days of winter.  Hoping to have the back end of the building completely sealed up by spring.  Putting enough into the renovation this year to buy a PBY…  But gotta do the building first,  unfortunately.

Plane photos from the Levi Ballard collection, poster from our propaganda collection…

Prayers for Haines

We have survived three back-to-back storms now,  with 7 inches of rain (or more) falling over a 5 day period.  As bad as things were around Yakutat,  Haines really got hammered.  Mud slides have shut down the road leading in and out,  with two people still missing.  One is a kindergarten teacher,  the other is the Executive Director of the Haines Economic Development Corp.  More news about the slides here:

Breaking: Four of six missing found safe in Haines

Hmmm…  First time I have inserted a news link since WordPress decided to make their website terrible and it makes a neat looking block for it automatically.  Interesting…  But still a mess to post things…  Anyway…

Situk just barely missed 3,000 CFS,  but is already down under 1,500 now.  I think our fall steelhead season is good and over now.  Multiple trees are blocking the road to 9 Mile just past the dump,  making it impossible to drive out there right now.  This is right at the dump,  so I imagine there are a LOT more trees down especially along the new cut areas.  I hate to think what the rover float looks like right now…

The power company AVEC will be taking down the power to the airport for the next week every day from noon to 4pm,  as the local timber company tries to clear the trees along the power lines.

***Update***  They finished with the tree cutting yesterday,  so nevermind on the power outages…

If you made it to Yakutat this year,  you undoubtedly noticed a LOT of cutting happening along both sides of the road to the airport.  That is State of AK Mental Health Trust land.  They were given large swaths of land to use for earning revenue for the Mental Health programs in the state and Yakutat saw quite a but of logging on those lands over the past couple years,  including out at Icy Bay.  Several trees fell along the buffer between the clearing and road with these storms.  Sitka Spruce have no taproot and stay up because of all their friends and neighbors providing group protection.  Leaving single trees and thin strips will result in a bunch of trees blowing over…

We lost some siding pieces above the fly shop door and had a LOT of leaks along the windows,  but no real lasting damage.  A couple snow shovels went missing.  Around town,  fences blew over,  roofs were damaged and trees fell.  But we have much to be thankful for and our thoughts are with the people of Haines,  who lost two friends and neighbors from their small community.  This is Alaska though and Alaskans are tough.  They will dig their way out,  rebuild and be stronger for it.

Yet Another Storm

Over the past week,  we have had three back-to-back storms with winds topping 60+ knots.  The first two topped 70-80 knots (81-92 statute miles),  while our current blast is a little lighter.  Siding is banging,  water is leaking all over.  Quite the ride.

I’m feeling like we are in for one heck of a winter up here.  Not a lot of snow (yet).  Juneau and the rest of Southeast had a really good dumping that broke records last month,  but that storm missed us.  Had maybe about a foot so far,  but it is all washed and blown away now.  From my 2nd floor window in the hangar,  there are little piles along the Lodge and YCA from off their roofs and one little patch the State DOT piled along the taxiway,  otherwise zero snow remains.

Air temp is actually in the upper 40’s.  Situk water temp is still in the upper 30’s,  but rising,  along with the flows now topping 1000 CFS.  We are looking at more storms through the week with heavy rain and/or mixed rain and snow as far out as the forecast shows.  Gonna be a wet one.  River is going to stay blown out.  If you were thinking of one last steelhead trip in the coming week or so,  I’d cancel it.  Not looking good.  We warmed up and we needed the water to come up a bit,  but be careful what you wish for…  It is coming up alright…

But we got our stoves installed,  so now we have 4 rooms in the hangar heated.  Yay!  So long as the power doesn’t go out and that has been happening throughout these blasts.

Hang on tight for a wind ride this winter!

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone Out There!

Hope you all are well and ready.  Teen is sitting on the couch watching some Hallmark movie and I’m not willing to surrender my man-card tonight to watch with her,  so I have been busy baking pies in the kitchen.  Um…  wait!  What?  At least I wasn’t wearing an apron!  Or a skirt…

Weather has been wild to say the least.  Deep cold last week pretty much shut any fishing off with the Situk’s water temp dropping to 33 degrees.  We’ve been seeing a little rain,  a little snow,  then a week or two of deep cold clear skies,  only to repeat the cycle.  Yesterday the ramp was coated with a 1″ thick sheet of polished ice.  Tonight,  it is 41 degrees and the wind is hammering the side of the hangar with rain.  Maybe it’ll cut into the ice enough that DOT’s sand doesn’t just slide off in the wind.

But with this rain and this temperature,  I’m betting the bite will be back on again this weekend.  Not much of a snow pack.  Maybe about 5 inches out in the open and none in the trees.  Water temp is back up to 37 and flow is spiking,  but only 235 CFS right now.  Still below average.

Meanwhile back at the Hangar…  For many years,  we have only had one room with heat.  My office,  not any of the bedrooms.  This week,  we received three more heaters,  so now we have heat in two rooms and by this weekend,  #3 and 4 will be heated.  Nothing quite like slipping into the sheets when your bedroom is below freezing.  For the entire winter…  Did I mention my wife is a saint?  She gets a heated bedroom now,  in our huge drafty old Army Hangar.  Merry Christmas hon…

We have so much to be thankful for this year,  even though it was “2020”.  We have some big decisions in the coming weeks and will keep you as abreast as we can moving forward.  This was a tough year and we’ll have to rethink our priorities for next year.  I’m still a ways away from making a final decision on the fly shop,  but to be honest,  I don’t know how much longer it’ll be around.

When I opened the shop,  I was in my 30’s.  That first year,  I had a few people tell me they were shocked I was so young.  Well,  now I’m in my 50’s and no one would think that,  for good reason.  Like I said,  there will be some changes in the new year and I’ll do my best to keep you in the loop.  You have become family to us and are a very important part of our lives.

Take care.  Have as great a holiday as you can depending on your local restrictions on merriment.  Our Thanksgiving is pretty much the same as always…  Just the 4 of us around the table,  eating,  eating again,  playing Pinochle,  then eating again till we’re ready to burst and need a long nap.  Followed by more eating.  Just three pies this year and since the rest of the family doesn’t really like pies,  they will all be going down my own gullet.  As it should be!

Wow!  Just had a flash of lightning and great rumble of thunder!  While waiting for the photos to load…  Better get this posted before the downpour knocks out our internet and my post gets zapped into oblivion…

Airport Bears

As most of you already know,  the Jet hit a bear upon landing last Saturday.  I have had people sending me news articles from around the world because (apparently) this is pretty big news even internationally.  Most of the articles were pretty accurate with just a little embellishment about the poor little cub that is now an orphan.  My favorite though was from TMZ,  which decided to add some color about how the incident happened in the wee hours of the morning before sunset.  Um…  flight 66 lands at 520pm…

Looking out my office window… Parked in front of our fuel facility.

Yesterday,  the mechanics were able to replace the damaged parts and took the plane out onto the runway for a run-up and looks like everything is fine.  The sow hit the engine cowling on the inboard side.  Bashed in the cowl,  but nothing was ingested into the engine itself.  Had that happened,  then they would have lost the engine,  which would have cost tens of millions.  As it is,  the cost is probably only in the thousands…

Flight 61 taxiing off the runway Sunday morning

No one was hurt (except the bear of course).  The cub was nearly two years old and would have been sent on his own shortly anyway.  Probably before mom went to bed for the winter,  which also should have been anytime,  or already.  The silver salmon run was not great this year on most rivers,  so the bears around the airport are pretty hungry.  Very few fish in the ditches.  When Teen and I brought cookies out to the mechanics on Sunday,  there was about 8 bald eagles on the runway,  so one of them must have managed to drag a near-dead coho out of the drainage ditch and everyone was clamoring to get a taste.

According to the news reports,  this is the first time a bear has been hit by a plane.  Birds are a far bigger risk to planes and they get whacked all the time – including eagles.  Back in Washington when I was getting my pilot’s license (a couple centuries ago),  the rental Seneca III from Crest Airpark hit a flock of seagulls landing at Renton Field,  causing severe damage to the twin engine plane.  They found more than 20 dead birds on the runway,  plus the ones embedded in various parts of the plane.

Back when I was a kid,  “the airline” used to reflect the state who’s name they used for their identifier,  therefore also reflected the struggling eclectic people who lived here.  Today,  they more reflect the sensibilities of Seattle and California…  One 727 featured nose stickers of the moose the plane had struck as though it was a WWII fighter plane with the number of “kills” it had under it’s belt.  If Alaska Airlines was still a great airline,  it would have a bear sticker emblazened on the nose of N615AS,  but alas,  it isn’t.  They are more concerned about berating one of the 6 only passengers on the entire 737-700 who pulled his mask down briefly for a sip of water.

With one bear down,  there are still no bear shortages around here.  Here are some photos from Monday around the hangar…

It isn’t unusual for bears to be out and about all winter here.  Yakutat’s bears don’t truly “hibernate” because there is year-round food.  Same reason we keep most of our eagles all winter too.  Silvers continue to come into Tawah Creek and therefore the airport drainage ditches through into February.  By March,  we start to see eulachon returning and they continue through into April,  when we start to see thawing.  Deer and calving moose have a tough time getting around in the deeper snow,  so red meat is also a menu option.  We’ll see periods of deep cold,  but then it warms back up and rains again,  so the coastal climate creates a very different condition for bears than you’d see in Montana,  or the Alaskan interior.  Driving to town with the mail through the winter,  we’ll see fresh tracks in the overnight snow around the Ophir Creek Bridge.

PS.  Still frustrated by the New and Improved WordPress.  Have typed in a few fall steelhead fishing reports,  only to have them vaporize before I could post them.  A combination of our slow connection and older browsers no longer being supported.  The hassles are really not worth the effort,  so I expect to either stop blogging all together,  or finding a different home and letting this one drop.  Besides,  WordPress is limiting speech for conservative news sites and I’m pretty much done with them for that as well.

Memorial Day 2020

 

Overdue Kenny Rogers Post

Our internet was down for 5 weeks due to a huge snow pile in the way of the HughesNet satellite dish,  so this slipped by without posting…

I wasn’t really much of a Kenny Rogers fan.  Not enough to buy any of his records anyway.  I have one – The First Edition’s Greatest Hits – that I swiped from my parents when in high school and took possession of all their records…  One of my dad’s favorite 8-tracks he played in the cabin was the one with Lucille.  Other than that…

As a young adult,  my first career was as a movie projectionist.  One day,  Kenny Rogers came to the Parkway Plaza Cinemas in Tukwila,  WA to waste some time before his concert was to start in Seattle.  He hid out in the projection booth till the lights went out,  so as to not attract attention and disrupt things.  Just a really nice,  humble guy.  Signed autographs for the staff,  chatted,  answered questions…  Like he was your favorite uncle who always gave you a better deal than the tooth fairy would give you…  He watched The Mosquito Coast with Harrison Ford,  by the way…

Years later after Teen and I were married,  we flew down to Vegas for my cousin’s wedding.  One night,  my aunt JoAnn really wanted to “drag” us to see the impersonator show.  Ya,  like I needed to spend my evening watching someone pretend to be Barbara Streisand…  We stalled and delayed and eventually JoAnn gave up and we waited out the evening in one of the hotel bars listening to a perky blond chick sing and do comedy.  It was OK,  I guess…

The next morning in the paper,  there was an article about that night’s impersonator show.  It appeared that the Kenny Rogers impersonator hung around a long time and wouldn’t leave the stage.  “You know,  this one isn’t as good as the KR impersonator we saw last time…”  Gradually people realized it was actually THE Kenny Rogers pretending to be his own impersonator…  He sang ALL his duets with Dolly and Barbara and all the rest.

So humble and not full of himself that he would prank a random audience and play for free with a bunch of impersonators and have one hell of a time.  And I was so full of myself that I missed the damn thing!  I’m sorry JoAnn!  My bad.  Still one of my biggest disappointments in life,  which also means I have had a pretty blessed life!

Rest in peace.  You were truly one of the greatest human beings the entertainment industry has ever had.  A blessing to the world.  I became a fan.

How’s About a Fishing Post?

OK,  maybe it is time for me to come out of my slumber…  Sockeye run is going on now and everyone has been nervous about whether they would show up,  or not – after last year’s state-wide disaster.  Well,  not a record-breaking run this year,  but so far,  not all that bad.  Most people are able to catch their limits right now.  The lodge boats have done just fine floating with 3,403 fish counted through the weir.  Holding in a couple large groups below the weir,  so if you are on one of the groups,  great fishing.  If not…  Empty water…  They just aren’t stacking up yet.

Comparing this to years past…  As of this date:

2019 – 3,403
2018 – 288 with a run total of 26,704 (last year’s disaster)
2017 – 33,855 with a run total of 91,146 (the run was extremely early)
2016 – 1,306 with a run total of 55,454 (normal)
2015 – 2,239 with a run total of 94,987 (normal)
2014 – 7,277 with a run total of 102,308 (huge run)

So…  of the past five seasons,  we’re better than 3 and worse than 2…  I’m confident the run will turn out OK.  So far…