A Weekend in Gustavus

 

10 June 2013, 10:45 pm - It’s always nice to be showered and clean and comfortable in bed after a stint of camping, even if the stint was only two nights. We woke up this morning in Scott’s blue North Face tent, which was set up on Dave and Nikki Love’s 2-acre property in Gustavus.

We were in Gustavus (gus-davis) for their wedding, our tent one among ten others. Guests were also staying in cabins or inns. It was a weekend of discovering Gustavus, its flat dry land covered in grass, dandelions, lupine, and wild strawberry patches. On Saturday morning, we took the LeConte ferry four hours from Juneau to Gustavus. Half the ride was spent tracking down Gustavus people to interview for a story, which was difficult to do since three-quarters of the ferry’s passengers were Juneau-ites going to Dave’s wedding.

Once we arrived I spent more of the day walking around doing more interviews and generally being awed by the small community’s beauty and friendliness. Like Wrangell, Gustavus is one of those towns where everybody waves, and they do so oftentimes with a smile. I forgot how much I missed small town friendliness. In many businesses I found a pile of the same 8x11 copied document – a phone number list of every Gustavus citizen. A phonebook on one sheet of paper, one side.

 

While I was doing that, Scott and other male wedding guests went to the golf course.

Saturday night was spent bbq-ing with lots of good meat, socializing with a lot of new people and feeling for the first time since we moved here an inkling of being part of a social circle again.

Scott and I woke up Sunday morning and jumped on bikes to take advantage of Gustavus’s flatness – a quality not found in most of Southeast Alaska. We rode for about 17 miles from the property to Bartlett Cove and back. Bartlett Cove is the jumping off point for Glacier Bay National Park. Scott keenly spotted a moose and calf on the way there.

  

The wedding later that afternoon was spectacular – a perfect combination of live bluegrass, good food, sun, and company. The short and sweet ceremony led into a reception that lasted about nine hours. Tram Wreck played three long sets, Scott ate five cupcakes, and I probably laughed a hundred times.

Unfortunately our Gustavus time had to come to an end. We hopped on a six-seater Sea Planes plane and had a quick 30-minute beautiful ride back to Juneau, where Scott and I had to rush immediately to our respective work places.

After work, Scott and I joined Phil on his boat as he trolled for salmon in North Douglas. It’s been almost four years since I last fished in Alaska (I technically didn’t fish since I don’t have a license) and I absolutely loved the waiting, the anticipation, the bent rods, and watching those poles for any sudden movements. In the less than two hours we spent on Phil’s fishing boat, one of the two rods hooked a nice size king salmon. The water was flat calm, the view of Mendenhall Glacier was clear, other troll boats shared the same area, and the sun was still casting warmth and light on us until 10 pm when it finally fell behind the mountains. The only nuisance were the swarming no-see-ums, everything else was perfect. I love this Southeast Alaska summer, its frenetic pace, our sun-kissed faces, a messy house.

June-au

Here are some photos from last Saturday's hike. We spent about an hour walking through suburbia before we could find the trail head, but it was worth it. What followed was six hours of sunshine and great views that kept getting better and better. We ate lunch overlooking Mendenhall Glacier. And even though it's Wednesday night and I'm still sore from the hike, it's worth it. It's turning out to be perhaps the best summer, weather-wise, I've spent in Southeast Alaska. I may miss fishing, but there's enough to do and plenty of land to explore.

 

On the Job

Heather Bryant, KTOO's website guru/photographer, captured these photos.

Interviewing NYTimes Crossword Editor/NPR  Puzzle Master Will Shortz at Dzantik'i Heeni Middle School. Shortz was on a table tennis tour through Alaska. 

Interviewing John Smith III at yesterday's subsistence rally  in downtown Juneau. John is wearing Tlingit regalia in honor of the rally.