Totem Park

Mt. Edgecumbe (cross your fingers) the dormant volcano

Gym/Airplane hanger

Today is Thursday, August 12th and it is freaking beautiful out.  This is the first day that it has been nice since I've been here and it is amazing.  There are mountains that I could tell were there, but couldn't see and I saw the volcano, Mt.  Edgecumbe, for the first time today!  It was amazing.  This is also my second day working at MEHS.  The first day we had a tour of the school and grounds, which are extensive.  The facility used to be a military base during World War II!  What is now the gym used to be the airplane hanger, along with the University of Alaska Southeast-Sitka (which is teeny compared to Edgecumbe).  There is a room in the gym that is used for storage that has a giant map of Alaska on it that has been there since WWII.  Upper campus is where the dorms (3 girl dorms and 1 boy dorm), the cafeteria, the clinic, mailroom, and Kuspuk (another academic building) are located.  Lower campus has the gym and the main academic building. 

Main campus building

The main academic building is sort of in the shape of a pentagon and is open in the middle with a courtyard.  It is a really interesting setup.  You walk outside and under an overhang to go between classrooms.

Since it was such a nice day, Tracy (the previous AmeriCorps who met me at the airport), suggested that we go to Totem Park.  It was completely amazing!  We got there and it was low tide, so we were able to go out on the beach, which was quite rocky, don't worry though I am quite agile.  Catlike, as Darby might say. 

Totem Park beach, volcano, me and Laura trying to catch fish

The salmon are spawning right now and so if you stand on the beach you see fish jumping out of the water constantly.  It was really, really cool.  It was so neat to just be standing there and suddenly two fish are hopping out of the water on your right and then three on the left.  I've never see fish act like that and it is awesome!  We walked around the side of the beach, going towards the river entrance, which only caused the number of fish jumping around to increase. 

Eagles

We weren't on the trail at this point; we were sort of walking next to the trail on the beach, which I must say was really fun.  Laura decided that she was going to try and catch a fish and so she waded out into the river and tried to catch some of the salmon.  Well, needless to say she was unsuccessful, but quite determined.  At the beach, Laura kept finding little tiny crabs and jelly fish.  The little crabs were really cute, albeit annoyed with us.  We came around a curve in the river and saw two bald eagles sitting on the bank eating something (I don't want to know what).  Jonathan had never seen a bald eagle before so he freaked. 

It was awesome, though, they were just sitting on the shore and then they flew away with the mountains in the background, it was beautiful.  Eventually, we did get on the trail and went to the bridge which goes over the river.  The fish were just all swimming in one place.  It was very strange, but interesting, to see.  Look at the picture to see what I mean. 

Strange fish

Once again, Laura tried to catch a fish.  I mean, there were a lot of them in the river, but what possessed her to thinking that she was capable of catching one I do not know.  Now that we were back on the trail, we walked the trail backwards looking at all of the totem poles.  That was an amazing experience.  Sometimes the animals are difficult to decipher, but we tried our beast and Laura knew some of the Tlingit and Haida stories that the totem poles were based on so we got some of the history while walking around.  What a day!  After I got home, I walked down to McDonald's to take night pictures of Mt. Edgecumbe.  MickyD's has a stellar view right next to the harbor.  Such a beautiful day in Alaska!

Mt. Verstovia behind one of the fish processing plants (blue)

Gavan Hill in the front(right) with Harbor Mountain in the back (left)

The Sisters, on the right side of the Sisters is Verstovia and on the left is Gavan Hill