Three Lakes Out Mitkof Highway a little beyond Man-Made Hole the Three Lakes Loop Road branches off. The three lakes (actually; five) listed north to south are Sand, Hill and Crane. Get it? Sand Hill cranes are an auspicious and ominous sign to Petersburgers. With their flocks in long “V”...
Snake Ridge The first time I went to Snake Ridge Road, I scouted out a helicopter sling job. Back then the Mitkof Highway ran asphalt-free from the hatchery to Banana Point on the southern end of the island. So after a long drive on the slick, rutted, often muddy road...
Banana Point It is eleven minutes between Wrangell and Petersburg by jet. But Wrangell Island and the South End of Mitkof Island are much closer by boat from Banana Point. A while after I first came to Southeast Alaska, myself and the future Alaskan Seafood Guys headed south on Mitkof...
When the coastal glaciers retreated, the Tlingit followed the great rivers from the interior and laid claim to the salmon runs on the Inside Passage. Across Frederick Sound from banner-hung Petersburg lays Thomas Bay. Long ago a Tlingit clan settled at Point Agassi, a long wide peninsula separating Thomas Bay ...
That’s a Herring Ball! When I was new to Southeast Alaska, I saw a black spot on the surface of Sumner Straits, just beyond the mouth of the Stikine River. It was like a thunder storm pelting the water’s surface with hail. I shouted out a warning to my...
It Takes a Village… I walked into the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department (PVFD) rain-soaked, tired, hungry and unbeknownst to me hypothermic. The retired firefighters called-in to refill the air tanks recognized symptoms in this newbie. They told me to get dry, turnout gear, and go up the break room to...
In Ten Minutes In ten minutes the 4th of July fireworks display would start! Back in the day, the Petersburg volunteer fire department shot them across the Narrows from Sasby Island. The tide edged towards low. The dark waters of the Narrows filled with open boats and skiffs full of...
Out the Road Petersburg, AK on Mitkof Island, Alaska is about 3,000 people, forever it seems. It is one town in Southeast Alaska with enough flat land to be laid out in a proper grid. The foot print doesn’t change. In old black and white photographs the harbor, Sons...
Raising Kids In Petersburg A little kid is selling garnets at the ferry terminal. A tourist amazed at the down pour says to the kid,“Does it always rain like this?” “I don’t know, Mister I’m only six years old.” First let me say this has been a great place to...
High Island Inbound My first day in the helicopter we had customers to pick up in Wrangell, Alaska. My pilot and a coworker quizzed me out the local landmarked for flight following purposes. “What is that high island over there?” “Kadin” I replied promptly having studied the map for...
The Smell of Money The first thing people notice when they move here is the smell of money. It smells like a minus four foot low tide, or the four canneries processing fish or on a rare occasion herring spawning in the harbor. When I first moved here “Herring was...
A Smoldering Little Heater My buddy and I went trolling for King salmon off Hungry Point. We had lead weights, flashers, herring we had jigged for bait and 130 fathoms of fishing line on each pole. Jonny ( future founder of Alaska Seafood Guys) had a light-weight trout pole...
Sixty-Four Days of Rain When I first moved to Petersburg, Alaska it rained everyday (at least part of it) for sixty-four days straight. The first week, my dog spent the day in the truck because she wasn’t use to the house yet. So, after work I took her for...
I Don’t Jog Anymore Back in the day my helicopter pilot and I worked all over Southeast Alaska. I jogged then. We worked long days but in the land of the midnight sun there was still plenty of daylight to go for a run after work. The first day we...
The Logistics of Travel in Alaska Logistics are a little challenging in Southeast Alaska. The facts that it rains thirteen feet a year, we are all on islands and that no roads connect might be a big part of the problem. But, one rare nice day my friends helped...
A Brown Bear was Charging Me We parked on an amazing sand bar beneath a massive waterfall on the Bradfield River, south of Ketchikan Alaska. The pilot, myself and two crew members just finished lunch and started wandering around the noisy rapids watching salmon on their way up river...
