Open Season

N 60°29'04"
W 149°58'25"

I have been here now two weeks already which I find truly fanscinating. Time has quite literally flown by at break neck speed. And the funny thing about all of this is that that was the slow, boring part. Now things are getting interesting. Now the salmon have arrived.

Fishing season officially opened this past Thursday, the 11th. In the late evening of the 10th just before midnight, we had a nice little free-for-all on our hands brewing outside the gates of the campground. Impatient native Alaskans and foreigners alike geared up for the kick off to a hopefully a bountiful season of salmon fishing on the Russian River. People from all over the world coming to tiny slice of Alaska rugged terrain (to put in perspective, a tiny slice on the Alaska scale is enormous anywhere else, particularly in the lower 48).

The real everyday perk of this job is the hand-outs. When you are on-duty at the Contact Station, you get all kinds of gifts from visitors. Candy/ chocolate (mostly Europeans do this one), beer, food... just about anything. It really helps you get through the 8 hour shift. Work has actually turned into real work in the last couple of days. It's not the end of the world especially these days. The weather has been a little crummy, but when weather is good. It is really good.

Grizzly count has been pretty low so far, but now that the salmon are here, the bears are soon to follow.