On the Road

It’s off to Mesa Verde via Salt Lake City to pick up our Bambi Airstream trailer where we encounter a Wyoming Road Hazard–ranchers driving their cattle down from the high mountain valleys. Five hours later we arrive in Salt Lake City and stay with my old Jenny Lake Rescue Ranger friend Ted Wilson and his wife Holly. We are joined by Rangers Rick Reese, honorary 3rd mate on my tug Katahdin, and Bob Irvine who was my former boss and now a retired math professor. We camp six miles west of Lake Powell NRA boundary and enjoy burritos and a “propane” campfire.

And in the morning, we warm up with cafe latte and the New York Times as I explain the subtle nuances of the advantages of mechanized camping:

Martina and I hike the bottom of the canyon while the fearless Rangers climb above us, risking their lives at every moment. They will eventually rappel down these watercourses to the canyon floor where we now stand. After waiting at the bottom for them, we grow tired and retreat back to our Bambi trailer then proceed down the road towards Mesa Verde

We eventually reach Mesa Verde National Park–our goal is to produce a centennial poster (2006) of Square Tower–the tallest structure built by the Anasazi’s. We are camped in our aluminum bubble (with heaters running) under steel gray clouds that reach thousands of feet above us with sun lighting the green mountains directly south of us…Mesa Verde or green mesa. Stay tuned for our tour of this park…..

Our first stop is Mt. Rainier National Park–my favorite Park. I’ve climbed Mt. Rainier at least 4 times and spent two summers working on Camp Schurman in the early 1960s. Here we’re hiking with our friends Rog and Pam–this is Martina on the Pebble Creek trail. We stayed in the Paradise Inn that night which was the last night of operation before they close the building for two years for a remodel. Our Ranger Doug foundation donates to such projects–keeping the old lodge look in the Parks. That ugly round visitors center will be removed but I don’t think the new one is much better. Another of my projects would be to redesign Camp Muir at 10,000′ and remove most of the structures there except the historic buildings.

Here Martina is basking in the sun at Amphitheater Lake in the Tetons where I used to be a climbing ranger. This is at about 10,000′ on the route to the North Face of the Grand Teton–considered one of the finest alpine climbs in the world. We’re “back at the ranch” which is now the A Lazy D
after discovering the original branding iron of my uncle, David Abercrombie. Here’s what the branding iron looks like:

and here’s David Abercrombie posing for the Union Pacific Railway in 1936. His father was the founder of Abercrombie and Fitch, the great sporting good store, that is, not the teeniebopper one of today.

After a few more days rest, we’re off to Mesa Verde…..

Another Alaskan commute–this time around Point Gardner on our way to Kake–you’re looking west with Baranof Island in the distance. We’ve just finished an 11 day clinic in Angoon and have stopped for a couple of days in Baranof Hotsprings to warm up. Here Martina and I relax with our friends Clive and Barbara Evans–we fished with Clive in Antarctica. They are visiting us on their return from Brazil to Auckland where they live–it’s a small world:

Baranof Hotsprings are located right on the edge of a waterfall and what a place to relax after a rigorous 11 day clinic in Angoon. We worked long days and found lots of dental problems so we need this break. Below we’re walking the Angoon Harbor shoreline–our tug Katahdin is at anchor in the distance:

Kake is a similar sized town of about 450 with similar dental needs. The candy stores supply all the nourishment needed to keep a dentist busy full-time however we visit only about every other month. It is not uncommon to see shopping carts heaped full of hundreds of candy bars and soft drinks. Diabetes is on the rise here as expected.

Here Dall Porpoises play off our bow wave as we enter Frederick Sound near Kake. Where Stephens Passage joins Frederick Sound, whales and porpoises are abundant.

Here’s a scene of the Kake Harbor as we drive to work and below of our dock-space at the workfloat in the fog–you can barely see the Katahdin in the fog. Fall is approaching fast here at the 57th parallel. We are moored right next to a logging barge where the chef gives us fresh baked bread on occasion:

Finally we’re back in Petersburg where we install our new boat cover and ready the tug for winter–

This is the final scene right out of our pilot house of Petersburg on the day we left. We’re off to Seattle and Mesa Verde National Park for business. While Martina visits family in Munich, I will return to Prince of Wales Island south of Petersburg for a pre-Christmas clinic. After the holidays, we both will travel to Barrow, our northernmost town and Kaktovik near the the Yukon Territories–stay tuned for the Northern Lights!!