June 7, 2016: Travel!

June 7th brought expected and unexpected travel. It was the day Jean was scheduled to leave. None of us liked that one little bit. Matt later remarked what good care she took of us. We were all very sad to see her go, me especially. And besides that, with her departure, our lives became less nutritious, less hygienic, and just less fun!

I didn't get much of a chance to mope, though, because it turned out that I needed to take a quick trip to Anchorage to take care of some family things, leaving the evening of the same day. And David needed to take a trip to Port Heiden to talk to them about using solar power.

Even though the new crew, especially with Trevor's support, could have handled the net, we needed to pull it because no one with a permit would have been here and we didn't want to start the season off with illegal fishing. I was glad Trevor was here. He stayed in my cabin to take care of the dogs. I maintain that Trevor is the reason Ollie can be so skittish. They had a sort of big-brother/little-brother relationship in Ollie's formative months that involved a lot of jumping out and startling, followed by chasing (but never hurting). Sort of that thrill where you think the monster might actually eat you this time... and yet you survived again! Trevor had some level of intention to heal his relationship with Ollie, but that big-brother mischief monster still lurks inside that very sweet being.

The tides have been very high, so we just took all the equipment up to the high ground of the Beach Access Road. It was nice to know that everything was safe and sound. This photo shows the crane truck, our biggest truck, with both rangers loaded up, right next to the Carry, the smallest truck. They are parked at the wide spot of the Beach Access Road, just out of reach of the highest tides we get. We usually refer to this spot at the turnaround.

Here is the crane truck and rangers with the sunset on them.

Oksanna asked me for a list of things I'd like the crew to work on while I was gone. I scratched my head and managed to remember many of the things we need to do... and this crew of brand new, smart, hard-working people did them all! I was so encouraged by that.

As it turned out, David returned the same day he left - meaning they could have fished his permit. And my travel took one day longer than expected, but that's a story for tomorrow. I'll just say: Poor David Levitt. But he came through just fine!