Andrew is not having such great luck with boats lately. Before I got here, he lost the propeller off the boat. So he got that replaced, but when we tried to take it out on Thursday there was a problem with the gas uptake. As in we shoved off from shore, and the boat had started okay, but then it just ran out of gas after about 20 seconds. The Kvichak River has a really strong current, so Andrew and I started going downriver, fast. Andrew restarted the boat, headed upstream, and then it died again. This went on a few more times, we had almost made it back to our landing, but this time when Andrew went to start the boat, the pull-cord came out, but it didn't go back in. The retracting mechanism had broke, too. So we paddled to a small island in the middle of the river, and some other fisherman came and gave us a ride to shore where Andrew got some help to fix the boat. That was Thursday.
Friday, a guy from the village came to the school and taught the kids how to tie fishing flies. All sorts of education is needed in the Alaskan wilderness. That afternoon Andrew and Katy's friend Karl was nice enough to lend me his sea kayak, so I got to go out on Lake Ilimna for a few hours. There's definitely some fantastic paddling opportunities out here. While I was off enjoying the view, Andrew made some repairs to the boat after some helpful suggestions/parts from Karl. A better day in the world of boats. We also squeezed in a bit of practice with a bow and arrow. I haven't done that in a long time, but it was a lot of fun. Friday there was also a contest in the village over berry picking, where everyone brings the biggest and the smallest berries they've picked, and the winner of each category gets $20. Not bad for berries. That was followed by movie night at the school.
So on Saturday, all three of us decided to take the newly repaired boat out and down to Kaskanak creek where we could fish and hunt for moose while floating down the creek. I remember Katy and I asking if the boat was really fixed before we started off down river. The response was, "It should be." Always comforting. The motor started up just fine, the pull cord retracted, and the squeeze ball on the gas line hardened, just like it's supposed to. So we start off down the river, and a good ways down the motor is still running, but there are some copious amounts of smoke coming out of it. Andrew tinkers with engine, none of us have any ideas that seem to work, and we make it partway up the creek we were aiming for, but not to the spot we really wanted (i.e. where we know there are lots of fish and some moose). We tried the fishing without much luck, Andrew went ashore even and tried the hunting without much luck, and after a while we decided to start to motor up and head back to the main river. But the engine keeps, well, skipping might be the best way to describe it. It'll go, but only about 6 miles an hour, and it skips the whole way. We made it out of the creek, and started against some of the gentler current of the river, but it took forever. And by forever I mean about 2 hours, but it only took us 20 minutes to get out there. At 2 hours, we are only about halfway back to the landing, and now the current is stronger so we're not getting anywhere. Luckily we had made it back to where there were other people and buildings every now and again, so we went to the Alaska Sportsmen Lodge to ask for help. Andrew knows a guy there who knows more about boats than any of us do. They were incredibly nice, invited us in for coffee, cooked us a delicious dinner, and took a look at our failed boat. Andrew's friend Matt said something about it benig an electrical problem with the coil, which he couldn't fix right then, but towed us back to Igiugig. Definitely an adventure. And I think I'm done boating with Andew for this trip.
Friday, a guy from the village came to the school and taught the kids how to tie fishing flies. All sorts of education is needed in the Alaskan wilderness. That afternoon Andrew and Katy's friend Karl was nice enough to lend me his sea kayak, so I got to go out on Lake Ilimna for a few hours. There's definitely some fantastic paddling opportunities out here. While I was off enjoying the view, Andrew made some repairs to the boat after some helpful suggestions/parts from Karl. A better day in the world of boats. We also squeezed in a bit of practice with a bow and arrow. I haven't done that in a long time, but it was a lot of fun. Friday there was also a contest in the village over berry picking, where everyone brings the biggest and the smallest berries they've picked, and the winner of each category gets $20. Not bad for berries. That was followed by movie night at the school.
So on Saturday, all three of us decided to take the newly repaired boat out and down to Kaskanak creek where we could fish and hunt for moose while floating down the creek. I remember Katy and I asking if the boat was really fixed before we started off down river. The response was, "It should be." Always comforting. The motor started up just fine, the pull cord retracted, and the squeeze ball on the gas line hardened, just like it's supposed to. So we start off down the river, and a good ways down the motor is still running, but there are some copious amounts of smoke coming out of it. Andrew tinkers with engine, none of us have any ideas that seem to work, and we make it partway up the creek we were aiming for, but not to the spot we really wanted (i.e. where we know there are lots of fish and some moose). We tried the fishing without much luck, Andrew went ashore even and tried the hunting without much luck, and after a while we decided to start to motor up and head back to the main river. But the engine keeps, well, skipping might be the best way to describe it. It'll go, but only about 6 miles an hour, and it skips the whole way. We made it out of the creek, and started against some of the gentler current of the river, but it took forever. And by forever I mean about 2 hours, but it only took us 20 minutes to get out there. At 2 hours, we are only about halfway back to the landing, and now the current is stronger so we're not getting anywhere. Luckily we had made it back to where there were other people and buildings every now and again, so we went to the Alaska Sportsmen Lodge to ask for help. Andrew knows a guy there who knows more about boats than any of us do. They were incredibly nice, invited us in for coffee, cooked us a delicious dinner, and took a look at our failed boat. Andrew's friend Matt said something about it benig an electrical problem with the coil, which he couldn't fix right then, but towed us back to Igiugig. Definitely an adventure. And I think I'm done boating with Andew for this trip.
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