Well, after 15 hours and 20 minutes of flying and (mostly) waiting to fly, I arrived in Sitka yesterday.
Marcel was waiting for me at the airport and his wife Connie prepared dinner - delicious zuccini lasagne. Marcel was the head of maintenance at Sheldon Jackson College when I worked there, and he and I ate lunch in the school cafeteria together on many, many a day. He has built a gorgeous new cedar home, right on the shores of Swan Lake. Under his garage is a very nice one-room guest apartment, and that is where I will stay for the next two weeks.
I am really curious to see how this trip goes - how I react to this place which touched me so deeply when I lived here for two years. How will I feel now that time has passed and things have changed (in Sitka and in me)? Time will tell.
But.... any day that begins with a hike through steep, rocky trails in a temperate rainforest is a great day! Connie asked if I'd like to take a hike on the new trail that Sitka Trail Works has "installed" and I said "yes!" (The "installation" consisted of digging out large rocks and boulders and placing them as stairways all along the steep portions of the trail.) I was kind of wondering how I would fare - I'm not in the best of physical shape and have been experiencing dizziness and light-headedness and just not quite myself.
We drove out to the end of Sawmill Creek Road (Sitka has 14 miles of paved road), and then onto a gravel narrow road. As we wound deeper into the forest my heart began racing a bit. BEARS! Bears are everywhere on this island - even in town this year. (There's some statistic to the tune of 1,000 bears in all of the western states and 1,500 bears on tiny Baranof Island [or vice-versa: either way, there's a very dense bear population here.) The safest number is SIX - there's never been a documented bear attack on groups of six or more. But TWO? Well, two IS better than one, but not much. Connie, like her husband Marcel, is an avid hiker, spelunker and has climbed more of her share of mountains and she sounded confident. She told me that she is very knowledgable about watching for signs along the trail, that she can smell bears and that she had an air horn, which she called a "bear horn". The best thing we could do was to keep talking so that the bears know we're coming and they're not startled.
I kept my eyes open - NOT a difficult thing to do. Hiking in a temperate rainforest is an amazingly sensual experience. The trails were steep, steep, steep, and as we climbed we looked down into the depths below. And all around us we were surrounded by Sitka spruce and hemlock trees that towered to the heavens, and we were awash in a sea of green. Our objective was to hike to the lookout point at which we could observe a waterfall as it cascaded off a mountain, and the rushing water accompanied our trail all along our hike. As I stood among rotting stumps, skunk cabbage, devil's club and mossy stones and breathed the pristine air I remarked that it was difficult to believe that yesterday I had been at O'Hare airport - a world away! I'm happy to report that I made the hike - was just a little sweaty and winded (and tired) but that is all.
On our way back to town we stopped at the Theobroma chocolate factory and I bought a package of remainders for $8 - enough to last me for a few days!I'm looking forward to seeing folks - friends and acquaintances - that I haven't seen in 39 months. As I was walking along Lincoln Street, Tiffany (who works at the public library [and whose husband Chris worked with me at the college]) pulled up and rolled down her window. "Dee?" she asked, surprised, and we made plans for me to stop by to see her and Chris. A few feet later I saw bubbly, red-headed Holly who told me about her all-girl band, the Sugarshakers and said that I should "totally crash" at Kelly's on Saturday night where they're playing. I visited the Larkspur Cafe (in the KCAW building) - a lovely little place with good food and coffee that's been opened by Jeff Budd's daughter, Amelia. It's a perfect third hanging-out spot for me (in addition to the Back Door and the public library).
So, that's a report of my first six hours of my first day in Sitka. P.S. two tourists stopped me on the street and asked me for directions. I was so happy that they took me for a native AND that I was able to answer their question, pointing them to the spot where the first American flag was flown when Alaska was transferred from Russian to American hands.
And now it's off to the Old Harbor Bookstore and then the Back Door Coffee Shop for some mocha, knitting and more friend-spotting.
