Blog Entries for AK Chronicles

The Day of Days

AK Chronicles

6/14/07

There are two (silly, I admit) number goals that I set for myself each season. I'm not a numbers guy (anyone who has spent any time at all guiding cringes at that term) but I do like having quantifiable accomplishments that I can get excited about. I want to have a [...]

Hero Guiding

AK Chronicles

8/12/07

The fishing has been nothing short of spectacular lately. I dream about opening week, a season full of promise, a fresh perspective not tainted by previous weeks, previous clients, the consistent early mornings,...sockeye season. The first week is pure. The fish are active, relatively untouched, aggressive and hug [...]

Opening Day

AK Chronicles

6/8/07

Our first day of guiding clients on the river and, as might be expected, it began as an absolute cluster. Most of the luggage did not make the plane so people are scrambling to find waders, jackets, fleeces and equipment. Guides are bickering about who's going where, which boat is being [...]

Three Days from the Season

AK Chronicles

6/5/07 &n [...]

Sent to town

AK Chronicles

6/2/07

I've spent the past three days in town without shoes, pants, a change of underwear or a toothbrush and I can say with great assurance that I wish to spend no more time there. The sunset greeting my return atop fresh memories of "civilization" have fortified my confidence in ca [...]

I'm a fishing guide, not a carpenter.

AK Chronicles

5/22/07

This fact was excruciatingly obvious today.

The fifteen foot beam dropped like a sprung bear trap and roughly tapped me on the shoulder. I crumbled to the floor of the unfinished yurt, writhing and moaning in [...]

Stepping into the Season

AK Chronicles

5/22/07

After thirteen hours of traveling the dog and I landed in the booming metropolis that is King Salmon, Alaska. Recycled air and gritty street dust clung to oily fir, the dog was pretty dirty too. The scene: an unpaved parking lot outside a sagging airport sprinkled with gaunt commercial fishermen and scruffy, t [...]