Honeymoon

This past weekend in Wrangell was phenomenal if only for the reason that the weather was sunny and clear, enabling everyone in town to play outside. Dan Trail (who is known around town as Organic Dan because every Tuesday he sells organic vegetables in town from his silver truck. He just taught me to eat dandelion heads) invited Adam, Phil, and I out on his boat for its rechristening. Last fall, Dan had messed his boat up pretty badly and it’s been in the shop for a long time until only recently.

Dan wanted to go biking up a logging road to reach a place to view Mt. Bessy. As I was a late bloomer when it came to riding a two-wheeler (I didn’t learn until I was 9 or 10), I’ve never fully developed the competence or confidence. Therefore, I haven’t ridden a bike in a long time, let alone own one here. So it was a mad scramble to find me a bike to ride even though I had the sneaking suspicion I would not want use it anyway.

We ended up borrowing an old huffy with a squeak horn, no gears, and no breaks from the garage of some friends who are currently away. Knowing my concerns with bike riding, Phil said I could use his bike, a spiffy black one with gears and brakes, and he’d take the huffy.

We loaded four bikes into Dan’s boat and left from Shoemaker Harbor. The water was like glass, smooth and still, making the ride over to Honeymoon on Etolin Island even shorter than it was.

I was right in my suspicions. The logging road was quite steep. After attempting to walk it up a ways, I gave Phil’s bike back to him and abandoned the huffy on the side only after much debate about whether I would regret it later when the rest of them were gliding swiftly down the road on the way back to the boat. I made it clear that I would not regret it.

There’s no other way to express it other than writing it was just one of those perfect days, in regards to weather, company and conversation, sights and sounds. We ate the heads off of devil’s club plants and dug our fingers into a ridge that was pure clay.

The three of them were nice about riding ahead and then lagging behind so I could be with them. When we figured out we didn’t have that much time before having to head back to the boat, they took off full speed so they could reach the Mt. Bessy view, which they claimed just opened up right in front of them. That was regrettable, not being able to see that, or the black bear they spotted. I have yet to see my first bear.

Part of the way down the hill, I rode on the back of Dan’s bike which was scary enough for me. It was a bit daunting to realize that I have a legitimate fear of bikes. I’ve always prided myself on my lack of fear when it comes to doing daring things – skydiving, bungee jumping, moving to Wrangell – but bike riding has seized me.

We hung out on the water for a bit and then went to a beach, which we ended up naming Big Log Beach. Dan and I took off our shoes to feel the sand between our toes. I haven’t felt that in a while, and it felt excellent. We took some sand back with us and I sprinkled some on my bed to stimulate the feeling of living the life of a beachgoer, which I once had in Australia.

We also, as you can see, built an adult seesaw.










We got back to town around 5:30 which meant I had thirty minutes to run around town before everything closed at 6 not to reopen again until Monday morning. I had to buy groceries from both Bobs’ and City Market and had to get my fishing license, king salmon stamp, and Salmon Derby ticket as I was going fishing for the first time the following day. I will write about that in my next entry when I get a hold of some pictures.