June 23: The waiting may be over soon

We got news today that the escapement is building. Yesterday it was almost 13,000 up the Naknek. This morning that had increased to 48,000 and by this afternoon it has increased more to almost 75,000 sockeye. Today’s informational announcement said that if the passage rates continue to increase, we may open tomorrow at 10 AM. They’ll let us know tomorrow morning at 9. Jake sat by the bluff this evening, counting jumpers.

This is the time of the season that we all wait for, me with a mixture of excitement, hope, and anxiety.

So most of the day was spent working on projects. The old, disused outhouse was dismantled and some parts of it were repurposed to build a structure for our fourth composting toilet. They don’t smell bad, but it still seems right for them to be outside the cabins. The first step was to dismantle the old one - here are Jake, Rohan, and Roger seeing to that task.

The next task is to somehow detox the old hole. Without going into a lot of detail, let's just say that fire is a purifying force. The crew was standing by with ... well, they started to stand by with fire extinguishers, but it looks like we need to get them all recharged, so they had tubs of water. But there was no need. Jake absented himself from the actual lighting of the match, having had a bad experience with fire here his very first week. He did carefully tend the fire until it died down.

Then they built the new structure next to the bunkhouse, facing out to the lake. Here is the crew, raising the roof, Naknek beach style. Now each building has its own toilet.

It isn't completely finished yet. It needs to be painted and the venting may still need to be hooked up - oh! and it needs a door and a wall, but overall, it's looking pretty good. The next steps may need to wait till much later in the season because we have started fishing in earnest. But more on that in the next post.