April 15, 2007

I spent a few days ‘off the grid’. I traveled to King Cove, a small fishing town near the end of the Alaska Peninsula. The town is centered around the fish processing plant that I was there to inspect. The town is truly off the grid. It does have its own electrical grid, actually two of them - one for the town and one for the plant. Unlike the rest of the country, this place is not connected by road or wire. It is 50 miles from any other town, even though none of the towns have any size. I contemplated the best way to describe the remoteness and came up with the fact that it is about 500 miles from the nearest McDonalds.

I was scheduled to go out on Monday, but was delayed a day for mechanical problems with the plane. I flew from Anchorage to Cold Bay on a turbo prop plane that handles about 20 passengers. It was about a two and a half hour flight. It was a bit of a problem since the plane did not have a restroom and that second cup of coffee started to bother me about an hour into the flight.

Cold Bay is a major airport with a runway that can handle a 747. It was built by the military and is now just a big airstrip in a town of about 80 people. I stopped at the grocery store which was relatively well stocked and surprisingly not painfully expensive. I had a Coke, a candy bar, and some Fritos for about $3.

From Cold Bay, I hopped on a tiny plane and headed to King Cove, about 50 miles away. The pilot was having fun. He flew low over the water and waved the wings at the hovercraft that was cruising on the water. The hovercraft is an $8 million piece of pork from our senator that is still getting the bugs worked out. The pilot continued enjoying his flight as we approached the runway. We flew over the runway and I knew we were going to turn to land. The pilot could have taken a wider line, but he made this tight u-turn that had me looking practically straight down the wing to the ground below. We landed with a loud clack as gravel kicked up off the runway and hit the back of the plane.

I spent three nights in King Cove. It is a larger town than Cold Bay. The actual residences are probably only 150, but the plant brings in hundreds of people from all over the world to work seasonal processing assignments for about minimum wage. The plant has housing for the employees. The mess hall was simple and the food was fine. They served very little seafood. I am sure the employees have little desire to eat seafood. The mess hall was always somewhat busy and filled with the noise of numerous languages. The people were all very friendly. Regardless of language, they all smiled or said “hi”. I am sure I looked like I didn’t belong.

Since I only work a 7.5 hour day, it was in a way a mini vacation. I had plenty of time to walk around, take pictures, and just relax. It was a beautiful location and an interesting lifestyle to contemplate. I enjoyed my stay in King Cove.

The birds were truly mesmerizing. I stood on the docks for hours and watched the birds. Various bright and colorful sea ducks swam in the water. Of course a seafood processing plant attracts large quantities of sea gulls, but the ravens frequently pushed them out to the water. The ravens didn’t hold the best perches for long as eagles would swoop in and chase them away. The eagles seemed to keep some distance from the people. While this whirlwind of birds swirled, they did not seem particularly pesky because of the pecking order.

The people I interacted with were interesting. I met a diesel mechanic who lives in South Carolina and works a month on/ a month off. He primarily works on boats but he was there to support the testing of the diesel engines used to generate electricity that I was there to observe. I met a power plant operator who works about 5000 hours a year. During peak seasons, he works 20 hour days routinely. Alaska provides opportunities for alternative work lifestyles unlike anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, most of them sound rather unappealing.

I did get to visit an island on the trip. My return flight included a brief stop in Sand Point. The airport in Sand Point was surprisingly modern looking with waiting areas that looked like a mini version of a real airport. Cold Bay’s airport was a steel building with a few old couches and a couple rows of interconnected plastic seats.

I do enjoy flying in Alaska. I used to try to figure out where I was on business trips in the lower 48. I would try to identify freeways and cities, but it wasn’t always easy. In Alaska, I usually can look out a window and know almost exactly where I am. Maybe I have studied maps of Alaska too closely, but it is usually easy. It isn’t hard to look out the window and see a large island and figure out that it is Kodiak. It is really easy to look down at a steaming island volcano and know that it is Mount Augustine. The Homer Spit is an easy landmark. I am even starting to be able to identify individual oil platforms in Cook Inlet.

We didn’t ski yesterday. We decided to take the first real hike of the year. We hiked about six miles on the Turnagain Arm trail. It is at a relatively low elevation and in a location that clears out pretty early. There was a little snow on the trail in places, but it was mostly clear. It was an uneventful hike, but a pleasant day to get outdoors.

Today we had a late start, but got to the ski resort for a few hours in the afternoon. It was relatively good spring conditions. The lower half of the mountain was soft and creamy. The upper half was a little colder and had some fresh snow. The snow was soft, but underneath was highly variable. We took a run down North Face and found some lightly tracked stretches. The problem was sometimes the snow seemed bottomless and other times I hit hard ice bumps hidden beneath the snow. It was one surprise after another. I would brace for impact and sink deeply in soft snow. I would take a relaxed turn and end up hammering my knees into my chest. We only took one run on North Face and spent the rest of the day enjoying the bottom half of the mountain.