Hello!! Okay first it’s been far too long and I hate how often I say that but here we are. Between 2 jobs, school, training for some races, and trying to keep a social life, I’ve been busyyy. Could I have made time to write more? Yeahhhh. But I probably grabbed a pint of ice cream and watched a show, went on a date or did something fun with some friends instead. Balance baby:) there’s a limit to how long I can sit on my butt and write essays (or blog posts), as much as I love to write.
A miracle??
Also, this is totally irrelevant but I just thought I should let you know I’ve been driving my car around with NO OIL for the past 3 weeks. Unintentionally of course. I checked the oil like 3 months ago and it was full and clean, so I don’t know what the heck happened. But like 3 weeks ago my car started making rattling noises, so I was going to take it in but before I could the oil light popped up yesterday. So I pulled out the stick and it was BONE DRY. Not a drop of oil. I bought 5 quarts and my car took all of it before the oil level got to the right line on the stick. CRAZY. the noise went away immediately which means my engine was knocking which is so cute:)
I’m just mind blown that my engine didn’t seize. Or explode. I have a 30 minute commute to work every day so it’s not like I wasn’t driving my car. I went to salt lake TWICE. Boy oh boy I’m calling it a Christmas miracle. God is so good. I’m chalking it up to paying tithing and God feeling like sending a blessing my way. Anyways, there’s the life catch up. I’m alive and my car works great.
Back to Alaska and heathens. I met some a couple of months ago when my family visited Alaska and I think it made it one of my favorite trips ever. Which is saying a lot. This was the first time I was there over summer solstice, and the local community turned up for a party. They are the heathens (self proclaimed), and I think they’re pretty cool. More on them later, first here’s a rundown of the trip.
Getting there
Port Protection is in the middle of nowhere. Usually we’ll fly into a small airport and drive for a million years to get to the cabin, but this trip we took a 9 passenger float plane. This is my favorite way to get there because the views are crazy. We flew so close to the mountains it felt like I could reach out and touch them. Both of the days we flew it was sunny out, so the ocean was all sparkly and you could see for miles. Alaska views give me butterflies.
After the float plane landed we jumped into a truck and started a 3 hour drive over a super bumpy, washed out dirt road. This road winds through the prettiest forest, and it feels kinda like you’re the main character in one of those movies where the kid gets shipped off to live with the weird relatives to find themselves. Which is a really specific image but I know you know what I mean.
We parked the car along the side of the road when we got to the beach, and then we took a small skiff on a 20-minute ride down the coastline to get to our dock and cabin. Basically the longest and prettiest travel day of your life.
Okay enough of that, we got to the cabin. Lets talk about what we caught:)
Jackpot on the shrimp
We put down shrimp pots for the first time since I was like ten (when we caught 8 shrimp total) and we must have found the sweet spot because we hauled up tons. I added raw shrimp to the list of weird food I’ve eaten–shucked it right on the boat straight out of the ocean. It was SUPER slimy and I couldn’t figure out why until my dad pointed out that I was wearing the same gloves I’d just barely used to pull 2-days-rotting-in-the-ocean fish guts out of the bait chamber. Gross. Realllly gross. I spit it out fast.
So. Much. Halibut.
The set line served up DINNER this week. We pulled 7, maybe 8 halibut off of the same line and not one of them weighed less than 60 lbs. The biggest of them weighed 120lbs. We also pulled a big ling cod off the same line. Guys it’s THE most exciting feeling to get a fish off the line, start pulling the rest of it up and feel that there’s something else hooked down there.
We usually line up our catch and take pictures but it was the solstice and pretty much the whole neighborhood was starting to show up on the beach for a potluck. Grandpa was a little sheepish about our catch since his license isn’t commercial, just for sustenance, and he didn’t want to showcase how much halibut we’d caught so we just pulled them out of the boat one at a time to fillet them. I still wish I’d gotten a picture though 🙂
A giant starfish?
I’m not sure what to say about this except that it was rather humbling.
A fishing line?
Well this one’s crazy. To keep it short, we were fishing at a depth of 400 feet and the drift was fast. Not a great idea to begin with. I had a big 8oz lure on my swivel, and pretty quickly I got it hooked on the ocean floor (I am so good at this game). The boat was drifting way too fast and the line was so angled that we couldn’t pull it off of the bottom. We were letting out line so we wouldn’t lose the pole, and before we could get unhooked the line ran out. It was such an annoying situation that it was almost comical. I think I would have laughed except grandpa wasn’t laughing so I kept a straight face for the purposes of solidarity. Also it was my fault. We said adiose to some brand new fishing line, cut our losses and went home.
Two weeks later I got a picture from my grandpa. Two weeks later. They fished in the same area on a calm day, snagged the line that was floating around, and pulled it all the way up WITH the lure on the end. What are the odds? I laughed.
The sinking shack
Topic shift because this has nothing to do with fishing but there’s a shack in the haul out cove that I’ve always wanted to explore. It’s been abandoned for a couple of years now, but my grandpa knows the guy who used to live there. Anyways, it’s abandoned but the thing is, it’s built on a dock. Just floating in the middle of the water. It just is kind of eerie and has always peaked my interest, so this trip I convinced my dad to take me over on the skiff and let me explore. I seriously only had like two minutes to peek in because we were packing out to go home, but I could have looked around for ages, it was so interesting inside. Old clothes piled up high on the bed, dishes on the counter and pots and pans that were rusting, empty whiskey bottles everywhere, old tools, and plants growing through the walls. It felt like a storybook setting, but not the cute kind. I’m not sure why it was so interesting to me but I wanted to do some Hardy boys style exploring. I only grabbed a picture of the front door and what the outside looked like from the boat, so here’s your sneak peek.
Alaska solstice with the heathens
Alright, about those heathens. Port protection is generally a pretty quiet place. The residents are friendly but they mind their own business. I’ve met a few of them previously, but there aren’t many to begin with. There’s a national geographic TV show that follows around a few of the people who live here to showcase the rugged lifestyle, if that tells you anything.
But on the solstice everyone comes out of the woodwork for a party. Some of the guys brought out a drum set and a couple guitars and started singing folk songs. Everyone brought food. A couple people brought silver salmon and a king salmon that they caught that day, someone else brought a bunch of crab, there was popcorn, homemade fudge, ginger ale and real ale, hot dogs, and pie. It felt like thanksgiving with hobos except I’ve never met a hobo who lived on king salmon.
I got talking to one of the guys there. He and his wife were some of the youngest residents on port protection, and they were carrying around the cutest baby girl. I’m not kidding that baby was the most content, chill little kid. Anyways this guy was the one who brought the king salmon. While he cooked it over the fire next to the crab, he said, “we may be dirty, dirty heathens, but we sure as hell eat good.” And that’s a fact.
It was the best way to end a great day of fishing. People in port protection have cool stories to tell and It was fun to sit and listen to everyone’s conversations while the band played the same four chords over and over again in the background.
One of the lady’s there was born with only one hand. She got tipsy pretty quickly but she was a sweetheart and so happy to share her story. She didn’t move to Port Protection until she was like 40. I asked her why and she said, “I was looking for a change.” Which was such a casual statement for how very drastic of a change she decided to go for. She misses her kids and grandkids, but aside from that she loves her little Alaska life.
As a side note, I’ve never seen so many Gandalf beards in one place. Seriously, so many guys walking around with these crazy long beards, and I kept wondering how they filleted their fish without getting them covered in fish guts.
After a few hours of socializing the sun was starting to set, so they ended the night with fireworks on the beach. It was kind of magical.
Love, Alaska
I’m a super nostalgic person. Alaska feels like home and I’m more than a little bit obsessed with how peaceful it is up there. I always joke that Alaska is my version of a trust fund but it’s kinda true. I’m not inheriting money but I sure get a lot of cool experiences because of the opportunities my grandparents and parents have created, and I think it’s the coolest thing ever. Alaska has a special relationship pace in my heart always. If it’s anywhere on your bucket list of places to visit, scoot it to the top of the list. If it’s not anywhere on your bucket list of places to visit…add it. At the top.
Til’ next year, Alaska.
If you want to travel but feel like it’s out of the budget, I compiled my favorite hacks for getting cheap plane tickets to all over the darn place. Just click here!
Also, thanks for reading!
I’m glad you’re here:)
-El
