Christmas 2005

Happy Solstice, Happy Holidays, Happy New year

It’Äôs ’Äì8 C and tomorrow’Äôs new band of precipitation will bring snow! There is ice in the creek and we hope our Read Island homestead is ready for winter. We’Äôve finally replaced our faithful old ’ÄúIsland Comfort’Äù with a larger woodstove. We’Äôve rebuilt the hydroelectric system with a new pelton turbine. The woodshed and the food cellar are full. The kayaks are put away . Our thoughts about sea kayaking are mostly looking forward to another Vancouver Island kayaking season and in this last week before the end of another year, business efforts give way to family reunion, friends, and holiday cheer.

Our kids are arriving home. Albert came from University of Victoria via Greyhound; Emily’Äôs schedule is more tenuous because Montreal is in the grips of a major blizzard and Mirabelle Airport is currently shut down’ĶBut our house is cozy and we are happily anticipating everyone home for the holidays. Fir boughs line the windows and scent the rooms and at night coloured lights on the outside decks contrast the dark forest and otherwise uninhabited shorelines. When we are all gathered home, we’Äôll savour a few of our family traditions, starting with the search for a little tree and a joyful evening adding lights and decorations as we enjoy some Christmas carols, Ralph mulled wine and Lannie’Äôs Christmas Stollen.

While we indulge in family traditions, special foods, friends and celebrations, our thoughts also turn to those people who are less fortunate. We write some cheques to assist various efforts that we hope will help make the world become a better place. We ponder our own efforts, and resolve to do better and somehow more’Ķ And also this time of year, we wish our family and friends ’Äì indeed everyone who shares life on the special planet ’Äì a time of peace, good health, good challenges and happiness. We wish that everyone can have enough to eat, clean water, security and shelter. We hope for an end to war, for love and compassion to spread over the earth.

From our family to yours, please accept our good wishes for a peaceful holiday season and goodness that lasts all year long. We also hope that Santa some how puts a sea kayak in your stocking!!

Alaska in November

Alaska November 2005

When we told our friends we were going on holiday to SE Alaska, no one asked if they could ride in our luggage. We’Äôve seldom chosen a well-traveled path and Southeast AK in winter is no exception: just a little darker, chillier, and stormier than home!

But it has been a good adventure and a good break from routine. Brother, Steve and lovely Rachel have made us feel at home in their cosy abode on the shore of Tenakee Inlet. It’Äôs an amazing and grandiose world here. Mountains on mountains on mountains, slate skies and wet horizons.

We arrived in a stormy downpour at Juneau. The ferry was delayed and conditions were too windy for flights out, so we settled ourselves for a day of exploring the town. The state museum proved fascinating, a wealth of information about native history (including much about kayaks and kayaking) as well as a refuge from the driving rain. A little soaked, we had lunch in a local hangout near the harbour, and then a jaunt through town to a couple of bookstores, including the Observatory where the proprietor offered us lots of historical perspectives on early coastal explorations and native lore.

Next morning we boarded the ferry for Tenakee, an eight hour route departing Auck Bay past Admiralty Island and through Chatham Strait to Chichagof Island. En route we saw whales spouting and fluking as we departed Hoonah at Icy Strait. When the ferry docked at Tenakee Springs, Steve met us and we loaded into his open skiff for the 5 km ride to their house. Built on the hillside with green metal roof, it reminds us a bit of Read Island and the house Steve helped us build 25 years ago!

We are fed and warm and drying out. We have the grand tour of the house and the workshop. We take a walk across the beach and around the bay on one of the trails for which Tenakee is famous. Next morning is still wet and blustery but there are whales spouting out front! Steve gets his recording equipment ready and we layer on warm clothes, survival suits and raingear. Off we go in the little skiff, heading for the white plumes of the whales’Äô breaths.

Whales! We have never been this close on purpose. And these are humpback, much larger than the Orca we sometimes encounter at home. Steve is a whale researcher and has a special permit allowing him to follow the whales as close as possible. He is taking photographs of the tail flukes, which identify a whale just like a fingerprint can ID us. We spend about 5 hours out in the boat, until we are totally cold and wet and it is beginning to get dark ’Äì at 2:30! But what an exciting day we have had.

Tenakee is a small community. There is the ’Äútown’Äù: a long row of small wooden houses perched on the waterfront. There is a boat harbour, a small boats dock and the ferry dock, both at the end of long piers. There is a big clapboard building that is the store, a tiny post office, a firehall, the bakery, all old wooden structures along the quarter mile of dirt road which is centre of town. The community hall/library and the school are both newer and bigger, fully modern services! Tenakee’Äôs bathhouse is perhaps its most unique feature, disguised in a little white building near the dock. On the door there are bathing times posted for men and women. Inside there is a warm dressing room and a few steps down to the concrete bathing area. In the centre of the floor is a rectangular pool, a fissure bubbling crystal clear water, perfect hot bath temperature. What a treat on a cold winter day! (Tenakee ’Äúdeveloped’Äù in the late 1800’Äôs as a seasonal retreat for miners who had to wait out winter.)

We enjoyed walking the beautiful forest trails that run east and west of town to the homes along the inlet in each direction. This community values its’Äô un-roaded wilderness and treasures these amazing walking trails. We enjoyed meeting many people who live and work here, people who love the challenges of remote lifestyle and who value simplicity and nature’Äôs bounty more than the ease of city life and superstores.

We shared American Thanksgiving at a homestead tucked in the forest behind a long pebbly beach. We walked from Steve and Rachel’Äôs place: with casserole and pies in-hand we tromped down the trail a ways and then across the tideflats and around the beach’Ķ a few rushing rivulets to wade too! Molly built the house herself (after her partner was drowned in a kayaking accident 20 years ago.) It is an amazing log house, the hemlock logs are gnarly and beautiful, a magical in the lichen dripping trees. Friends and neighbours arrived for this traditional gathering.

Weather changed for the last days of our visit -- and people stopped talking about the incredible rain! Wind switched to the north and skies cleared. Temperatures plummeted from unseasonally warm to freezing. One night it snowed and we really felt like this was Alaska: white mountainous wilderness.

We had the grand tour of Tenakee, a great visit with Steve and Rachel, and managed to help out with a few things, too. Ralph made a stained glass lamp for them, we did some outdoor projects and helped with some window trim’Ķ Rachel and I found time to knit and felt a couple of hats. We shared good meals and stories and pictures. We relaxed! And we didn’Äôt want to leave! But leaving was part of the adventure, too. We enjoyed the ferry ride out and saw Northern Lights during the nighttime voyage. Our flight out of Juneau was a glorious tour over Alaska mountains and waterways and we recognized Tenakee from the air! Also a thrill to look down on our own beautiful home as we flew over the Discovery Islands... and now we’Äôre back home with new energy and fresh perspectives on life’Äôs challenges!