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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Me and Meghan |
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| Meghan, EJ, me and Richard |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Searra & I |
Success!
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| 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.
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| Top of the dam and the water rushing over the side |
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| Beautiful |
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.
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.
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. 
Glad you were able to find the dam!! Sounds like fun. Hope to see you when you're home next month!
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