Overdue Fall Steelhead Report

We have Thanksgiving coming in a few days.  And it is cold.  Granted it has been negative double digits in Anchorage,  so our 3+ last night sounds balmy compared, but our first official frozen water pipes this morning was plenty cold for me.  Most of the chest equipment is in the hangar bay, so today’s workout was miserably cold!  Tomorrow is shoulders day for those playing along at home…

Jeremy Cook sent me a couple pictures that are now nearly a month old…  They were here at the end of October,  creeping into November 1st.  Everything was looking good back then with flows and water temp perfect.  Fish numbers were a bit weak,  but they did pretty well I thought…  Here is what he said:

“Hey Bob, we went 10/18 between 3 of us this past Th-Monday, not huge numbers but there were fish around and all were bright and feisty.  All were caught between 9 mi bridge and where the trail disappears 2 mi upstream.  Walked to the confluence but too many dollies around.  Tried upstream of the landing one am but I think we were right at high tide instead of catching the incoming tide, regardless no fish

Anyway there are some fish around so hopefully you can get out there this fall!  Thanks for all your help.”

Here are the two photos he sent…

Since their trip,  I have had two other reports…  First up…  the guys from Anchorage came down and stayed at the Forest Service cabins for a week.  Caught a couple steelhead,  but didn’t see a lot.  That would have been about two weeks ago.  They were planning to return for Thanksgiving,  but just cancelled based on the weather forecast this coming week…  Snow every day.  Also briefly talked to a couple guys who hadn’t been here before…  They ran into a lot of dollies and salmon,  but as of our visit in the parking lot in front of the shop,  hadn’t seen much in the way of steelhead yet.  Then we didn’t see them again before their trip ended.

So…  conditions as of right now aren’t that bad…  Flow right now is at 243 CFS tonight and even with the air temp hitting 3F this morning at the airport (the 9 Mile gage air temp isn’t working),  the gage water temp was 35F today…

Cold,  but not that bad considering…  Now,  we’ll be much warmer as the next storm hits tonight.  

Not supposed to be much for accumulations.  1-2 inches tonight before turning to a mess of snow and freezing rain.  Then rain and snow tomorrow.  Sounds kind of miserable (aka steelhead weather).  Haven’t had any actual FISHING reports in over a week,  so I would assume we have a few more fish in the river,  slow-lethargic fish in the cold mornings with them waking up a bit as the water warms later in the afternoon.  Flows are good.  I wouldn’t be afraid to make a trip right now,  but expect it to be miserable.  

And for an update around the hangar…  Our first two bigish snow events came and went.  Cancelled Alaska Airlines flights as the State DOT struggled to get the runway clear,  only to have it buried by the time they got to the other end of the runway…  8 inches of wet snow on the ramp when ACE was prepping to take off in Anchorage with our morning mail and UPS,  so they cancelled a couple mornings as well.  Then it turned to rain,  so we had a ton of leaks again.  Puddles in my new gym!  And the Toyo heater is waiting on parts,  so freaking cold in there!  Then the next wave of snow hit with another foot,  then it cleared off for a couple days and single digit nights.  Winter is definitely here in my big unheated barn.

Have all but one piece of equipment assembled now.  Yay!  And I’m not exactly sure what the heck this last piece even is…  Have a list if missing parts,  but everything is functional.  Will be laying down the rest of the flooring for the temporary walled area in hopes of fitting everything inside that area and getting a little heat on it.

This is essentially where everything will go until we get the new permanent space completed…  This is a drawing I made for the State to show the change to what areas will be “public” and what areas are “secure”.

And that’s about it…  Tanis has some interesting winter projects going on,  so I may post some photos of that.

It’ll Be A Busy Winter

Winter is doing what she can to rear her ugly head in Yakutat.  We woke this morning to work the ACE plane (mail and UPS) to find a dusting of fresh snow.  The first to stick this year.  We have had a couple flurries,  but this is the first to stick.  It continued to snow off and on most of the day,  enough to have the State DOT plow the ramp.

OK,  today was back day!  Yay!  Second time to do back since we unloaded the container.  I have a LOT of equipment yet to assemble,  but we have a couple rooms all done and set up,  with just a couple pieces to complete.  The rest all will end up inside the hangar bay.  Right now,  we have no heat there,  so working out this morning was absolutely miserable below freezing!

We have another year at least of work on the new final gym space in the hangar bay.  The entire 1st floor for the new building at the back end of the bay will be the weight room,  about 40 feet by 120 feet.  In the meantime,  we are putting the equipment in the other 1st floor spaces along the southwest side of the building.  So essentially the 4 rooms on the same side as the fly shop.  It’ll be EVERYTHING other than the fly shop space…  The room pictured below is the “leg room”…

Leg Extension and Leg Curl on the far left under the windows,  unassembled 45° leg press at the far left corner,  huge double-squat rack to the right far wall with the seated calf hiding in the far right corner.  Smith Machine near right and standing calf in the middle foreground.  I also have a Sissy Squat in the hallway behind me.  And I have another Leg Press on order, along with Adductor and Abductor.

And this is the dumbbell/bench room – the largest room along this side of the building.  Dumbbells to 150lbs,  two sets of fixed barbells (one straight and one EZ-bar),  two flat,  two incline and two decline benches,  Preacher bench,  two VKR’s (one with pull-up and dip bars),  selectorized Bicep Curl,  Triceps Extension and Ab Crunch machines.  That was all I could really cram into this room and still have space to do stuff.

Finishing up the two smallest rooms along this side of the hangar…  the 10’x20′ room has two private treadmills.  Will eventually have a couple bikes as well,  but for now,  just the two treadmills.  Then the larger corner room is 20’x20′ and has one more treadmill and all the aerobic steps,  benches,  small neoprene dumbbells,  bungees,  etc.  My mirrors didn’t come with this container,  so the far wall will eventually have mirrors and the long wall on the right will have a couple big TV screens for DVD aerobic classes,  etc.

And then there is “the rest”…

Hangar Bay is a little dark (and a lot cold)…  Above is my 8-stack with two Lat-Pull-downs,  two seated rows,  two Triceps press-downs and cable cross-over.  Because of the space issue,  I’ll try to cram two selectorized pieces against the wall between the two row seats.

Then we have parts sorted and piled out in the hangar bay proper…  17 more pieces to assemble and fit into a 40’x20′ room I’m going to build around the equipment that can 1) maybe be heated and 2) secure access to the hangar bay and therefore the ramp.  Can’t allow public access until I have the area secure.

Most of the equipment has their bolts and nuts still attached.  These are just the “other” bolts,  washers and nuts…  This is going to take me all winter…

And even if the reigning Mr Olympia was to work out here,  he’d still have no chance of having the biggest guns in the gym.  Right now,  our 80 year old Normandy survivor carries that title.  Thank you Pratt & Whitney.

Loading/Unloading the Container

It has been a VERY long process to get the gym up and running.  And we’re still a long way from that…  Started working with the company down in California back in 2018 to get our particular wish-list together.  We were nearly ready to pull the trigger,  then something happened,  where the entire world locked down their economies all at the same time.  Then,  they locked up gyms throughout the country,  including the one at Yakutat High School that I had been using for years to try to stay in shape.  Time to move forward with another option in Yakutat.

Then…  “they” started paying people not to work.  The company I was using in CA couldn’t get any laborers to show up.  Gym chains were permanently closing locations right and left in an effort to stave off total bankruptcy.  You’d think used gym equipment would be easy to come by,  but that wasn’t the case.  All those gym nuts that weren’t allowed to go to a commercial gym started grabbing anything they could get their fingerless gym gloves on.

Chest Press and Triceps Extension

My Iso-Lateral High Row in the foreground

Pieces of misc equipment not assembled yet

The 8-stack without the weight stacks

VKR on this end, the Smith Machine at the far end

Strength Industry takes in equipment from mostly 24 Hour Fitness and LA Fitness locations that close.  They strip everything off,  bake the frames to remove the old paint,  sandblast,  powder-coat everything in whatever color you want,  then reassemble with all brand-new parts – seats,  rollers,  cables,  pulleys…  everything.  They do beautiful work,  all the equipment is as good as brand new and ends up costing half what a new gym would cost me.  Yay!  Except it took them an extra 5 1/2 months to finally get everything finished with conditions as they are in CA.

Deep in the container-3 boxes are the treadmills

Building a second floor to stack things

One of the pallets of plates

Everything (almost) in

Doors actually closed!

A friend sent me a link to an auction in the Seattle area for a gym that went under (Normandy Park).  Cheaper equipment than I was looking for,  but it wouldn’t hurt to pick up a few pieces at a cheap auction.  Ya,  about that…  Things ended up selling for up to 4 times the new retail price…  People are nuts!  I ended up winning one shoulder fly machine and the lockers from the locker rooms.  They came up on the barge right away.  My big order out of CA…  Nope.  The equipment was ready,  but Lynden Transport (Alaska Marine Lines’ parent company) couldn’t get a container delivered to the warehouse.  The plan was to have a container dropped off,  taken to the train,  transport to SEA by train and loaded onto the AML barge.  We missed two more barges.  Instead,  AML had to hire a trucker in SEA,  drive all the way down to San Bernardino,  wait two days while they load the container,  then drive it back to SEA!  Because you can’t get a truck to deliver a container in CA period.

So…  it made the barge.  Barge made it to Juneau.  Barge turned back to Juneau and offloaded the container because we had 20 foot seas.  Yakutat was cancelled.  The following week,  they scheduled an extra trip to Yakutat,  but turned around again when seas were expected to be 30+.  Our storms were scheduled for Thursday and Friday every week,  while the rest of the month was beautiful.  But following week,  they made it in.  Our grocery store shelves were again full and the bar had booze.  And I had my container.

Here it is!

Oh, dear Lord!

Offloading, but 5 feet off the ground

40 endless feet, 31,000lbs

At last!

Now,  the work really begins…  When we’re done,  we’ll have the best equipped commercial gym in Alaska…

The Barge Arrives…

The original barge cancelled out of Juneau because the outside ocean seas were over 20 foot.  They rescheduled last week and we were again hit by another storm right on schedule.  But…

Entering Yakutat Bay

Calm seas,  so the Pacific Titan tug is bringing the Skagway Provider barge into port as I’m typing this.  We’ll have groceries in the stores again!

August Update…

This has been a pretty quiet summer around the shop!  I think a lot of people think we’re already closed…  Nope.  We’ll be open through the end of the season.  Lots of coho flies to move,  even if we are out of waders and jackets.

We just had a really intense storm pass through a couple days ago.  We had a passenger flight to deal with right in the middle of the worst of it.  Howling winds and driving rain.  Fear not,  we won’t stay dry for long…  Another big storm system is barreling toward us as I type.  Here is the weather service warning for the next 48 hours…

Special Weather Statement
National Weather Service Juneau AK
928 AM AKDT Tue Aug 10 2021

AKZ017-110500-
Cape Fairweather to Cape Suckling Coastal Area-
Including the city of Yakutat
928 AM AKDT Tue Aug 10 2021

...HEAVY RAIN WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY...

Heavy rain with an atmospheric river arrives Wednesday morning
and continues through Thursday. 48 hour rainfall totals are
expected to be 5 to 7 inches in Yakutat with greater amounts
possible in the mountains.

Decreasing precipitation Tuesday evening will allow area rivers
to slow or subside. However, back to back rainfall events has the
ground already saturated and rivers will respond quicker. Please
be alert to sharp rises in water levels with some streams nearing
bankfull and possible flooding of low lying or poor drainage
areas. Along with flooding potential, isolated landslides are also
a concern.

Uncertainty remains in timing of when heavy rain shifts away SE.
Stay up to date on the latest forecasts through the week as this
event evolves.

You read that right…  5 to 7 inches coming.  The river didn’t totally blow out on the last storm because the ground was so dry.  Just soaked in mostly.  Flows topped out at 466 CFS after about 3 inches of rain,  but we’ll definitely be blowing out tomorrow!

Fishing has been really good this season,  with the Situk blowing past the escapement goals for both sockeye and kings.  This makes 3 out of 5 years where the king totals have exceeded 1,000 fish.  Sockeye exceeded 100,000 fish as well.  Now,  we have the humpy invasion,  but early silvers are in the river as well.

Lots of spare time here,  with the gym equipment missing yet another barge.  They are promising to make the next one,  but they promised that last month too…  Just hoping to have something to do when the world ends…

Take care and hopefully we’ll see you soon!  Come take some of these flies off my hands at 40% off!  We’ll be open 10am to 6pm every day except Sundays and our anniversary (Sept 15th) through the end of the coho season.

Gym Delayed Again…

Another update or locals…

The gym equipment will be missing the barge again.  Looking like the late July AML barge out of Seattle now.  They “promised” me it’ll make the next one…  The problem really comes down to me being too picky and wanting very specific equipment.  The Hammer Strength benches are hard to come by.  The last batch coming out of a bankrupt gym ended up arriving at the refurbishing warehouse without the benches…  They had been sold off separately for top dollar.  I agreed to swap out the benches for a cheaper brand,  but they took in another batch that has the good ones.  So it is looking like I’ll be getting what I want,  but they wouldn’t be ready to make it to Seattle this month,  coming out of southern California.  Here is what they look like right now…

Coming out of the oven,  having had their old paint baked off.  Next will be sandblasting and powder coating,  reassembly,  new pulleys,  seats,  cables, bearings,  etc.  Here’s what our squat rack looks like:

Our plates came out of a 24 Hour Fitness that went under,  so they’ll be stamped with their logo.  I can live with that.  I wanted urethane-coated with grip handles.  They have the dumbbell and fixed barbell sets from this same place,  but only as a back-up.  I want new ones of a specific type,  not the urethane-coated hex dumbbells that match the plates.  They are just hard to get my choice right now and the cost of steel has skyrocketed,  along with lumber and everything else.

Here’s what a pallet of plates looks like,  waiting for the rest of the equipment to be finished.

The rooms are pretty much ready.  I need to finish the hardware on all the barn doors,  but that can be done after the equipment is in place.  Have two walls to build to enclose a section of the hangar bay that will connect the aerobics area to the weight area and house the extra equipment that won’t fit in the existing spaces.  Then in another year after we finish the real gym space at the back of the hangar,  we’ll have to move everything and take down the temporary walls.

Here is an updated drawing of the temporary location of the gym.  Not ideal having three separate rooms to house the freeweights,  selectorized and plate-loaded equipment,  but it’ll have to do for now.

Update for Locals… The Gym

I have been unable to open the blog interface page for a week due to bad weather and being out of bandwidth with HughesNet…  Seems to be functioning today though.

The gym equipment missed the barge,  so we are another month delayed.  Those who had promised to come out and help offload the (probably 2) 40 foot container – maybe next month.  Barge leaves SEA on June 24th,  takes a week to get here and then a few days for AML to deliver.  Let me know if you are still interested.  First step will be to offload all the equipment into the hangar,  then put up the full-wall mirrors,  then we can start moving the equipment into the finished spaces.  I’ll have far more equipment than will fit in the currently available rooms,  as we continue to renovate the long-term gym space,  but with all the uncertainty,  I wanted to get as much equipment in as possible while we still can.  It’ll take some extra time to figure out how to squeeze what we can into the finished spaces.

Before we can officially have the space open to the public,  I’ll have to get an updated airport security plan approved by TSA and DOT.  To have access,  you’ll have to pass a security check and follow some very strict rules.  This isn’t the school…  Should be fully functional by August though – IF the equipment doesn’t miss the next barge.  They are still stripping and powder-coating some of the used pieces and the dumbbells/plates have doubled in cost this spring.  I’ll post info on the hardware store bulletin board when we’re ready to “open”.

Here is a PARTIAL list of the equipment that is coming…  This is the first half of the order (the other half will come after the full new space is renovated in a year or so).  When we’re all done,  Yakutat will have the best equipped commercial gym in the state (possibly excluding what may be at the colleges,  military bases and on the slope…).

Basic Equipment List for Yakutat Gym v1.0
Quantity	Description
Selectorized:
1	Hammer Strength Select Series Prone Leg Curl
1	Hammer Strength Select Series Seated Leg Extension
1	Hammer Strength Select Series Chest Press
1	Life Fitness Pro 2 Series Pectoral Fly/Rear Deltoid
1	Hammer Strength Select Series Shoulder Press
1	Flex Fitness Standing Calf
1	Life Fitness Signature Series MJ8 Multi-Jungles Gym
1	Hammer Strength Select Series Abdominal Lying Crunch
1	Hammer Strength Select Series Cable Lat Pulldown
1	Hammer Strength Select Series Fixed seated Row
1	Hammer Strength Select Series Biceps Curl
1	Hammer Strength Select Series Triceps Extension
Plate Loaded:
1	Hammer Strength 45 Linear Leg Press
1	Seated Calf
1	Hammer Strength Iso-Lateral High Row
1	Hammer Strength Iso-Lateral Low Row
1	Hammer Strength Iso-Lateral Row
1	Hammer Strength Iso-Lateral Bench Press (Vertical)
1	Hammer Strength Iso-Lateral Incline Press
1	Hammer Strength Iso-Lateral Decline Press
1	Hammer Strength Iso-Lateral Lat Pull-down
1	Hammer Strength Seated Bicep Curl
1	Hammer Strength Seated Dip
Benches and Racks:
1	Hammer Strength Smith Machine
1	Hammer Strength Olympic Flat Bench
1	Hammer Strength Olympic Incline Bench
1	Hammer Strength Olympic Military Bench
4	Hammer Strength Multi-Adjustable Bench
2	Hammer Strength HD Elite Multi Adjustable Bench
4	Hammer Strength Flat Bench
1	Hammer Strength VKR
2	Hammer Strength Decline Bench
1	Generic Non Brand- Sissy Squat
1	Flex Fitness Systems Double Tier Dumbbell Rack
4	Flex Fitness Systems Single Tier Dumbbell Rack
2	Flex Fitness Systems Barbell Rack
1	Flex Fitness Systems Seated Arm Curl Bench
1	Life Fitness Signature Olympic Squat Rack
Weights:
1	5-150 Iron Troy Iron Pro-Style Hammertone Dumbbell Set 5-150
1	EZ20/110 Troy Iron Barbell Set — 20-110lbs EZ Curl Bar
1	ST20/110 Troy Iron 20-110Lbs Straight Barbell Set
6	Olympic Bar 7 Foot Black Oxide Bar with Central Knurling 20KG
2	Olympic Bar 5 Foot Black Oxide EZ Curl : 800 lbs Capacity
60	SPARTAN 45 Pounds Plate Rubber 3 Slot Grip Design
40	SPARTAN 35 Pounds Plate Rubber 3 Slot Grip Design
40	SPARTAN 25 Pounds Plate Rubber 3 Slot Grip Design
40	SPARTAN 10 Pounds Plate Rubber 3 Slot Grip Design
20	SPARTAN 5 Pounds Plate Rubber 3 Slot Grip Design
Cardio:
3	Life Fitness Integrity Series Treadmill (CLST)

Haven’t decided on a name yet…  Open to ideas…