The Search for Blue Lake Dam

Blue Lake

 No one works in November apparently.  All of the other AmeriCorps members are off constantly this month.  I have school all the time and I’m there while they’re sleeping in.  Slackers.  So, on Friday, I was working (as usual) and those reprobates where off, again, and I got a text from Searra saying that the dam was overflowing and that we should go see it.  …  Yeah, I’m at work.  Can’t just leave and go see the dam (although, that would be sweet).  The last few days it has been raining like crazy.  On Thursday, we were at the other AmeriCorps house for seafood night, (Which as a side note was delicious, we had black cod.  It melts in your mouth.  Freaking awesome.  Laura’s boyfriend is a fisherman so they always have sweet seafood.  Amazing.) and there was some serious weather up here in the Southeast.  The wind was crazy (as it often is) and it was pouring down rain.  Times like this make me realize the necessity of rainpants.  Then it started thundering and lightning, which got people all jazzed because it doesn’t do that very often up here and suddenly it was hailing.  A lot.  Now, the hail wasn’t huge or anything, but it blanketed the streets in a way that made it look like snow.  So, we’d been having weather like that and apparently the dam is always in imminent danger of overflowing so I guess it was only a matter of time.  If you read that Newsweek article about Sitka, the name of the lake will sound familiar- Blue Lake and the water up there is were the town gets both its power and its water.  Now, I’m at work, reading this text message.  Why did I have to work at a boarding school?  If not I could get holidays, report card and I don’t feel like school today days off too, but no, boarding school it was.  Lame.  Right now, sunset is around 5pm-ish and then with twilight and everything it is fully dark by 5:45 or 6pm.  I got off work at 4pm and called one of my roommates, Amanda, and asked her if she wanted to go with me to see the dam.  We met up and went in search of the overflowing dam.  However, what we did not account for was the fact that neither one of us really knew where the dam was.  So, we had to call Charles, (Laura’s boyfriend) who is from Sitka, and ask him how to get to the dam.  Information semi-firmly in hand we drove off.  To get there we had to drive out Sawmill Creek Rd to nearly the end and then turn up this very, VERY sketchy dirt road.
On the way up, we stopped because you were able to see into the Fortress of the Bear, which is a couple of large round cage-like things that the town built to keep a couple of bears when they became semi-domesticated (don’t ask me how because I definitely don’t want to know) and it could be considered sort of like a local zoo.  They charge people to go up to these look out on the location, however if you are driving up this shady dirt road going to Blue Lake you can just look down into the Fortress because to get to Blue Lake you have to drive up the side of a mountain.  So, we stopped to take pictures of the Fortress of the Bear, which has a name that is much more impressive than the actual place.  However, the bears were not out to entertain us and it was cold so we took photos and got right back in the car and continued on towards Blue Lake.
Now, I’m driving my car, which just as a reminder is a four door Impala that is very low to the ground, and I am swerving, well, actually turning really slowly because you can’t really swerve when you are going so slow, around these huge potholes that in some cases I think were as big as my car.

If you look closely, you can see the blue of his jacket!

In some cases, when you cannot get around a pothole I found myself hoping that it was shallow, all the potholes are filled with water because of the constant rain here, which make determining the depth of a pothole from the drivers seat extremely difficult.  It was so beautiful!  There were several waterfalls on the road to the top and there were mountains everywhere you looked, just stunning.

At one, we looked up and could see a moving blue dot high up next to a waterfall.  There was a man climbing up the side of the mountain in a blue raincoat!  The mountains are imposing, but it is difficult to realize their scale when you are looking up at them, but see that little blue jacket moving up and up definitely puts things into perspective. 

We continued on our epic journey to see the dam, keeping to the left when the road forked, as instructed by Charles, and tried to keep our awe in check.  Finally, passing the last fork, a small chained off road, we reached Blue Lake.  We parked, because there was no way my car could get back up the road to the lake it is extremely steep.  Steeper then the roads in downtown Juneau and those, I thought, were extremely steep.  Amanda and I got out and walked down to the lake, it was beautiful.  Like something out of a fairytale that is not quite real.  However, we could not see the dam.  Interesting.  There definitely was a distinct rushing sound that had to be the dam.

So, we climbed back up the ridiculously steep road and looked for another way to see the dam.  Up closer to my car the sound was definitely louder, but still we could not actually see the dam.  We went through some trees and could sort of see it through the veil of tree, but closer inspection was impossible because the trees fell away into nothingness.
We returned to my car determined to find the dam.  As we drove back we stopped and looked at the small chained off road, but continued onwards thinking that perhaps we should have gone right and into the campgrounds after all if we wanted to see the dam.  However, there was an additional problem at this point we were losing daylight quickly and if we wanted to be able to even see the dam, it had to be soon.

When we go to the turn for the campgrounds, we drove down to the end and hit a little walking bridge.  We got out and went to look past the bridge, but all you could see was river and a huge giant pipe thing that I’m assuming had something to do with the dam that was invisible, apparently.  By now it was almost fully dark and we had to turn around and go home.  Leaving proved difficult because, as I was surprised to learn, giant potholes don’t go away in the dark and are in fact even harder to see.  I did, however, get to use my brights, which was fun.  Not a whole lot of cause to use those in the city.  Amanda and I returned without success. 

Me and Meghan

Meghan, EJ, me and Richard

The ladies! From left: Kristin, Searra, Amanda, Me and Meghan

The night was not a total waste though, it was a local friend of ours birthday and we all went out to celebrate him being old at Pbar.

Bear Booty

The next day, when I got up Amanda was dying Searra’s hair and we discovered our error in trying to locate the dam.  The stupid small chained off road is the way up to the dam.  Of course.  So, after her hair was dyed to her satisfaction, we left once again to see the dam.  We stopped again to overlook the Fortress of the Bear and this time there were some bears out.  I won’t say they were cute, because I have a difficult time attributing innocent cuteness to something that could kill you so quickly, but they definitely were frolicking about in their play areas and the seeing the bears from up high and while they are in a cage thing is much less intense then seeing that bear in Yakutat at the dump with virtually nothing in between us.  I’m a fan of that.

Searra & I

Success!

Amanda & I

It was beautiful!  The water was rushing over the top of the dam and it looked a lot like a waterfall.  I’m so glad we finally made it up there!  We posed for several photos and took a lot of the dam.  The water rushing over the top of the dam made it difficult to hear each other, but it was so much fun.  Also, I felt vindicated!  We found it!  Thank goodness, it would have rankled to not find it at all. 

Top of the dam and the water rushing over the side

Beautiful

Alaska Day (aka the third best day ever!)

Beginning of the parade in front of the Russian Orthodox Church that is in the middle of Lincoln Street

It is Alaska Day!!!  This is a fantastic holiday celebrating the day of the transfer of power from Russia to a US territory.  I had to work until 1pm.  Which was lame.  But classes only went until 1 so it really wasn't that bad.  I was a little worried that we were going to have to work during the parade- watching kids or something.  However, the principal told us to have fun and if we see students, just make sure that they are being polite.  YAY!  What a good boss!  So, Jonathan and I left at 1pm to go to the parade.  We drove over the bridge, but the students walked.  It was cool to drive on the bridge and see so many people going the same way at once.  

Once back on the main island, we parked and set off in search of a good spot.  I went down the main street towards the end of the parade route where two of my roommates, Kristin and Amanda, as well as Meghan, another AmeriCorps, her boyfriend Branden and EJ, who are people we know from town, were standing.  The parade was so much fun! 
There were two groups from MEHS in the parade, a group of Yupik and Inupiaq dancers.  They were wearing their kuspuks and they danced down the street.  It really interesting to see and to experience that type of culture in between fire trucks.  The different schools had people in the parade also.  Sitka High had a marching band and everyone in the parade wore their Xtratufs. 
The fire trucks and ambulances all had little kids in them who were wearing tiny firefighter outfits and emt outfits.  It was pretty cute. 

Xtratufs

Heck yeah!!

Every year the Alaska Day committee pays to have the Seattle Pipes and Drums bag piping group come up to Sitka.  They were in the parade and they were awesome!  They all wore kilts and were pretty intense about their whole bagpipe and drums deal.  There was also a huge whale that was made out of pvc pipe and covered in a black plastic.  There were people walking under in and people on the sides lifting the flippers up and down and then more people in the back lifting the tail up in the air and then down again.  The whale was for whalefest which is coming up.  There were also several floats with the Coast Guard and the state troopers.  We know a few of the Coast Guards, so it was fun to see people we knew in the parade!  There were little girl scouts and boy scouts.  A group of girls from the middle school did the entire dance to Thriller.  It was awesome.  They were pretty intense about it- there was costuming and makeup involved.  Thriller is serious stuff after all.  I had so much fun at the parade!

Bag pipers!!!!!!

After the parade, there was a reenactment of the transfer of power on Castle Hill, a historic site, and I wanted to go to it.  I asked my friends if they wanted to go, but they were all lame and didn't want to go.  I thought that was crazy because who knows if we'll ever be in Sitka again for Alaska Day?  I wanted to do everything! 
So, I went to the reenactment and stood with some of the MEHS kids who were a touch grumpy about it because they were required to go for their Alaska history class.  It was interesting I thought.  They had a military band and the coast guard was there. 
They read off the statements of the Russians and Americans as they transferred power.  There was an old Russian flag flying and after the transfer it was lowered and an American flag raised.  Seward's folly!  Then they read off all of the states and the date that they were admitted to the union as a state.  After every state, the Coast Guard fired a shot. 

Oops! (second guy on the right)

There was a line of them at the edge of Castle Hill after the first round of shots, the second guy in the line's gun stopped working.  It was pretty funny because every time that his turn to shoot came up you could see him mini-panic.  He would sort of waver and then lift the guy to try and fire it and then the next person would fire it for him, but he would look down at his weapon.  He was definitely not as serious as the other guys.

Basket rescue

Then, there was a Coast Guard demonstration in front of O'Connell Bridge.  They did a mock rescue in the water.  There was a guy in the water pretending to be in distress, he was wearing the red safety suit or gumby suit.  Then the CG helicopter flew by and lowered a man (also in a safety suit) and he started swimming towards the distressed swimmer.  There was a CG guy on the shore with a bullhorn explaining what they were doing.  He said that it is extremely difficult to swim under the force of the helicopter because the winds are stronger than even hurricane force winds.  I can believe that, we were on the shore and were getting battered by the wind and the swimmer, you could see him struggling against the force of the wind and the water was spraying like crazy all around him.  The helicopter left, circling around and the swimmer, when he reached the distressed person he waited for the helicopter to come closer and then set off a flare. 

Hugging rescue

The shore guy said that was because it is extremely difficult to spot two small heads in the water, even when you knew they were around and that it is even more difficult when their are waves crashing against them.  The flare was red smoke, a lot of it.  Then the helicopter lowered a rescue basket and the person in distress got in it and then it was lowered again for the swimmer.  After the rescue, they did another rescue, showing a different technique.  They dumped the person in distress first and then the rescue swimmer.  I felt bad for them because it was seriously chilly out and the Alaskan ocean it pretty freaking cold.  This time, instead of a basket, they lowered a tie thing and the swimmer and the person in distress went up together.  It was really interesting to see the different ways that the CG operates.

That was it for the planned events of the day.  After the events, people go to the bars.  There are three main ones, Victoria's Pour House, Ernies and Pioneer Bar or Pbar.  My friends were already at Pbar, so I went over there and met up with them.  It was a lot of fun.  We were there maybe an hour when the bag pipers came into the bar!  They came in the back entrance and played a couple of songs in the bar!  It was awesome.  Apparently, they do this at all the bars every year.  People went crazy when they came in.  People were standing on top of booths and chairs trying to see.  People also would poor in from outside.  It was a really fun day!  I texted Daniel after a little while that Alaska Day was great, and then later on that Alaska was the best state ever.  His response was hilarious, he said, Well, lets not say things we can't take back.  That is clearly reserved for Missouri.  Well played brother, dear. 

Also, this week, our dormant (hopefully!) volcano got some snow on it!  The mountains started getting snow on them.  It is so beautiful.  It was already gorgeous, but now, with snow dusting the tops of the mountains it is amazing. 

Last week, we had a ridiculously powerful storm on Tuesday.  It blew over 70mph at one point.  A tree got knocked down between Blue Lake and Heart Lake and knocked out power to the whole town.  The entire city and borough of Sitka was dark.  About two hours after the power went out, it came back on.  I thought that this meant that the power was back on. 
Oh, no.  That is not what that meant.  They apparently have a diesel generator that can power the  whole town.  They got the generator up and in order to save diesel they had rolling blackouts.  Most people either, depending on their location, had power on even hours or odd hours.  My house, because we are right next to the hospital, had power all the time!  HA!  You know what they say, location, location, location.
I find it a little amazing that not only is there a generator that can power the whole town, and that this happens so often that it was necessary to have a generator that can power the whole town.  We finally got normal power back on Friday around noon. 


Sitka is in the October 18th edition of Newsweek!  Read the article- The New Oil. 

Bear!

On Thursday night at 5:30pm, I got a call from the dorm principal wanting to know if I could go to Yakutat as a chaperon for the cross country team.  I definitely wanted to do that!  I had to rearrange my schedule for the next day and Jonathan and Jeremy helped me out with that.  We were leaving the next day at 6am so we had to be at the airport at 4:30am.  That is ridiculously early and pretty much not ok with me.  YUCK.  We left from Sitka and flew to Juneau where we flew to Anchorage for a 6 hour layover then on to Cordova and then finally arriving in Yakutat around 6:30pm Friday night.

Mt. Fairweather

Outside of school building

There is no cell coverage at all in the town of Yakutat or perhaps village might be a better definition.  We are staying in the school here, the girls in one classroom and the boys in another.  That is how all the schools are working it.  I was unaware of the accommodations, so I was woefully unprepared.  I assumed that we were staying in a hotel because that is what they usually do, but not this time.  It was pretty funny.  I was not sure what to do I had no pillow, not sleeping bag, no blanket, no shampoo, no towel (because I thought I would use the hotels.  Oops).  It reminded me of dad's story of arriving at Notre Dame and unprepared- I'm here.  Yeah, that's me.  I'm here!  One of the girls noticed my lack of stuff and offered me one of her blankets so I wasn't freezing to death last night.  That was not the most pleasant night I have ever sent trying to sleep, but it wasn't terrible either.  I used my backpack as a pillow (it is cushioned on the back) and my sweatshirt as a pillowcase.  It was pretty funny.  The whole time I just kept thinking, of course this would happen to me!  It definitely seems like something I would accidentally do.

Friday night, we got in around 6:30ish and they said that they weren't making dinner that night, but would make breakfast and dinner today as well as brunch on Sunday.  So the coach went to the store and got a big thing of spaghetti and sauce and we made spaghetti in the home ec room.  Saturday was the cross country race.  That was way more fun than I thought it would be.  In the morning, after breakfast, we went to the course and they talked about it, ran some of it and plotted strategies.  Afterwards, we came back before the girls race, which was a 2pm and the guys’ race was at 2:45, and most of the girls napped.

 I read some of the book, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer about that man who died in Alaska, gave up his money and left.  I just finished that book, it was really good.  I don't usually like biographies, but I may be forced to change my tune, it was an extremely interesting book with an intriguing approach to the subject of Chris McCandless.

Date on the tank reads 1945

Random tank on the beach.  Totally normal

Anyway, the race was pretty fun, more fun than I had anticipated.  We cheered them on and took pictures.  It was really beautiful out today, blue skies and no rain.  After the race, we drove around a little bit and took team photos in different locations with the ridiculous scenery in the background.  Alaska is so beautiful; I can see why it draws people.  There is a beach in town that is frequented by surfers, so we went to that also for a little bit.  It was a sandy beach, which, apparently, is unusual for Alaska.  There were pieces of drift wood on the beach that were bigger than some trees from back home.  It was amazing!  There was also this old rusty tank by the beach, it had an open back so I guess it was for hauling people, dad would probably know.  There was also this old canon right on the beach.  Pretty cool.  So, we got back from the beach and the team went to take showers before dinner.  After dinner, I went to wash my hair (with borrowed shampoo that is supposed to bring out my blonde highlights) and I noticed that my face was a little red.  Who gets sunburned in Alaska?   I mean, I know that it was sunny out, but come on.  I'm in Alaska.  I should not be getting sunburned in Alaska.  Ridiculous.  Seriously.  There has to be a limit to my whiteness.  So, now I have a sunburn which is stupid.  I didn't even consider sunscreen.  I'm not sure if I have any in Sitka and I think the only store in Yakutat doesn't cater to people who suffer from and extremely European heritage.  I'll be the only sunburned person in Sitka on Monday.  I just know that Laura and Jonathan are going to give me trouble.

Yakutat beach and driftwood longer than my car

 Nevertheless, I am having a great time, the girls are all really sweet, there are 7 of them, and this town is so beautiful.  Yakutat has not had a cross country meet here before, so this was history in the making and this was perhaps the first MEHS team to ever compete in Yakutat.  There are two planes a day, one going north in the morning and one going south in the evening, so our flight leaves at 6 pm Sunday.  I know that sounds like Sitka, but it isn't.  Sitka has more going on at that little airport than Yakutat ever dreamed of.  We disembarked on a flight of stairs, which I was quite please about because I hadn't done that before and it was interesting.  Tomorrow we'll leave from the one small, and I do mean small, airport building and walk up another flight of stairs to return to Sitka.

 On Sunday, we had brunch at the school.  They have been so nice and accommodating to us and all the other schools.  Friday night, there were several schools staying there- Craig, Skagway, Sitka High and Mt. Edgecumbe (go Braves!).  Also, on Saturday morning several teams flew in for the race- two schools from Juneau and one other one I think.  However, most of the students left on the Saturday night flight so on Saturday night and Sunday there was only MEHS and Sitka High left at the school in Yakutat.  After brunch, we decided to go back to the beach because it was yet another beautiful day in Southeast Alaska!

 On our way there the coach drove through the village dump, because when he was in Yakutat 15 years earlier they would come to the dump to see bears.  So, we turned into the dump, which really seems to be a largish area that has been cleared of trees and there are several different sections of pits with trash in them.  We turned slowly and alas, no bears.  But then, one of the students spotted the head of a bear!  So, what did we do?  We parked and the coach told all of us to get out of the van.  Now, here we are outside the van, at the dump in Yakutat taking pictures of a bear.  A really, really big bear.  It was a brown bear.  The coach said that if they are on the coast they are called brown bears, but if they are inland then they are called grizzly bears- but they are the same.  Bears are large.  It was pretty amazing to see this bear just hanging out in Yakutat.  Now I’ve seen a brown bear, a sea lion, some killer whales, a seal and several bald eagles- so cool!

Run away!

 At the beach, a lot of the kids got in the water and some of the Sitka High students had bought little boogie boards and they were playing with those and let some of the MEHS kids use them.  I rolled up my pants and walked in the water, but there was no way you were getting me in it.  It was cold.  Which, of course it is in Alaska, but still quite chilly.  It was a blast though!  I walked down the beach a little bit trying to get the mountains in a picture.  It was such a beautiful sight, there was this long rolling beach and then snow covered mountains in the backdrop.  Really extraordinary.  We spent a few hours at the beach and then went back to the school so the kids could pack and shower before the plane.

Dang! It got me

The coach and I decided to take turns driving one group of the kids to the airport because there was no way we were all going to fit in there with all the luggage that these kids (wisely) brought.  He took the first group, the girls, (because my ladies were ready before the boys- HA!) while the gentlemen and I reheated the spaghetti dinner from the other night so that we could eat before the plane.  Really the boys did everything, the coach said that I should make them do it and so they made it all.  They did a really good job, they did, however, manage to get spaghetti sauce on just about every surface of the room with the exception of the ceiling.  After wee had eaten, the ladies arrived back from checking their luggage and I took the gentlemen to the airport to check their bags.  They are a funny group.  Finally, we were all together at the airport and going through security.  Once through security you sit in a little room that is part of the larger room, only it is walled off in glass.  A tiny glass room.

View (through chain-link) from outside the Yakutat airport.  That's the runway and then wilderness. Ah, Alaska

We had to stop in Juneau and then we were finally back arriving around 11pm.  That was such an amazing trip!

Sea Lion!!

The students aren't in school yet, the first day of school is August 23.  So, for lunch I've been eating on the rocks in front of the channel that is between Japonski Island and Baranof Island.  The other day, I was eating lunch and a freaking sea lion popped out of the water.  I thought it was a seal at first, but nope.  Definitely, a sea lion.  They are big.  Animals sometimes come into the channel because the fish processing plants dump scraps into the water and sea gulls and apparently sea lions come for a free lunch.

Today, I was standing in the parking lot with Laura while this lady was throwing a ball into the water for her dog to jump in and catch.  They did this a few times, until a sea lion came up and tried to eat the dog.  It was awesome!  The sea lion came out of nowhere and was circling the dog, the dog, being stupid, was barking furiously at the sea lion and the lady was screaming from the shore.  The woman was trying to get the dog to get on shore and the dog continued barking while the sea lion circled closer and closer.  The dog, finally wising up went for the shore.  It got to the shore and the sea lion made a last minute charge, but didn't get the dog.  That was really cool!!  Sea lions are HUGE!

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