Perk

Last week I took a jaunt up the river, or attempted to, with seven senior citizens and Eric Yancey, who owns and runs Breakaway Adventures. The jet boat couldn’t get too far into the wilderness due to the ice that still remains. It was certainly breaking up, and I’m sure at this point, a week later, the maneuverability on the river is vastly different. Here is an image of what the jet boat was up against:


What was amazing about that day, besides the sun shining, was the wilderness we glimpsed along the way. The truest indication of spring in these parts is evidence of hooligan. And, indeed, that’s what we saw in the bountiful presence of sea lions and seals who feed on the hooligan.

Here are the sea lions hanging out on Liesnoi Island. Notice the branded seal on the right in the first picture:



And here are some seals. That’s them, their heads bopping out of the water in front of Castle Mountain:


Here are some more hanging out on a piece of ice. They congregate in huge groups but disperse quickly as we approached:


Behind me is the island where those sea lions were. That’s them on that point:


We got off the boat a couple of times to explore:


I was giddy that day. It was a Wednesday and I had to cancel my dance classes as I wasn’t sure if I would get back to Wrangell on time. I think I was as excited to miss dance class as the teacher as I was to miss class as a dancer all those years ago. Eric had just called the paper the day before to invite one of us to join his senior citizen run up the river. It’s not everyday one gets offered a free jet boat ride on the Stikine.

When I initially took this job I knew there was no health insurance, no 401k plan, nothing like that. I figured my one perk would be the free subscription and maybe some free copies on the Xerox machine.

If getting on the river with Breakaway is a perk of my job, I think when I look back, my time spent in Wrangell will be a perk of my life.