After a several-season hiatus, the return of the Alaska item,
detailing (among other things) my adventures (or lack thereof)
in Alaska.

122 responses total.

 I walked home from work this afternoon in time to take some
 pictures in the late afternoon sunshine.  If you'd like to
 see what I see on my two mile walk home from work on a good
 day, check out:  http://www.dfred.net/~mcnally/DeerMt.html .

 It's a shame I didn't have time to linger for photography on
 my way *in* to work this morning (as opposed to my way home..)
 We had three or four inches of snow in town last night followed
 by clear skies, bright sunshine, and calm winds this morning.
 It was dazzling.  This afternoon was pretty; this morning,
 however, was spectacular.  Nevertheless, the afternoon pictures
 are what I have to offer; I hope those of you who like my
 pictures will enjoy them anyway.

Very nice. 

Mike, when I look at your pictures, I always want to move to Alaska.

Are you sure you don't miss Ann Arbor, Mike? ;-)

Gorgeous.  Simply gorgeous.

> Are you sure you don't miss Ann Arbor, Mike?

I was surprised to find, when I returned for a brief visit after New Years'
this year, that I don't miss the town as much as I thought I would.  Certain
people who still live there, yes, but the town -- not so much..  

That said, if I had the option, there are more than a few things in Ann Arbor
I wouldn't mind seeing Ketchikan equivalents of (mostly some restaurants,
music, and shopping opportunities in roughly that order) but I think 13 1/2
years in Ann Arbor was probably enough for me.

And though I remember some awfully pretty bicycle rides to work when the
apple and cherry trees were in blossom, or rides along Huron River Drive
when the fall colors were changing, A^2 is unquestionably at a serious
disadvantage in the scenery portion of the competition.  

Bottom line, both are nice places with plenty of things to love.  Ann Arbor,
I'm sure, has a broader appeal.  Ketchikan's is a little more specific. 

hey ... i like the reports and the photos ... specific has adbantages

 Last week's local advertising supplement had an item in it that 
 I thought was funny.

 It was an announcement that a travelling piano tuner would be
 coming to town for a period of a week and that people who had a
 piano in need of tuning should contact the hotel where he would
 be staying to arrange an appointment.  There were several things
 about it that tickled my fancy, but mostly that there's actually
 a person (or people) out there employed as an itinerant piano tuner
 -- have pitchforks, will travel.  That's got to be one of the most
 obscure and unlikely jobs I've ever run into.  Now I can't help
 but picture a bad nighttime television drama series where a wandering
 piano tuner visits a different town each week, intervening at a
 critical moment in the lives of one of the town's inhabitants.
 Perhaps he can also be a tragic figure haunted by his mysterious
 past.  I'm thinking maybe a prestigious career as a young prodigy,
 then a tragic recital accident, followed by disgrace and a
 disappearance, and now he roams the earth seeking to atone, pursued
 by an embittered cellist who will never let him rest..

Instead of Highway to Heaven it's the Highway to Ragtime? (Starring 
one John Remmers, of course...)

..but then who could we cast as the vengeful cellist?

Doesnt Mary Remmers play the cello? ;)

Sure.  Hire the itinerant piano tuner and then where will he be when you've
discovered that he tuned your piano to B440?

Playing like you were 39, again?

(me bad)

I'm only 37! ;)

Yet again, your work with the camera makes for great shots. I could
see making a couple of those into jigsaw puzzles.

The radio geek in me wonders what the tower is used for, in the
last pic of the set.  :)

 re #14:  Based on the fact that it's located right behind the offices
 for KTKN and KTGW, I'd presume it has something to do with one or the
 other or both.  But I should find out, I guess..  I wonder if it might
 also have cell service and possibly the transmitters for other local
 radio stations (such as KRBD, the public radio show where I do an
 occasional show.)

re #15
Do you have your shows on mp3?

  
re #11 ....     B-440  !!
  
        laughes
        till
        i
        cried!!!   
  
        thank you!
  

 Cool!  The hummingbirds are back!

 I haven't seen one yet, but I heard them, through an open window,
 flitting about on the hillside behind the room where I was stuck
 in a meeting.

 Well, I'm back in Alaska, after having spent a couple of weeks of the
 spring back in Michigan, following my father's death.

 During my absence, spring has progressed quite a bit around here.  
 The salmonberry bushes, for example, are in bloom (they weren't when I
 left, but the huckleberries were getting started) and hummingbirds are
 fairly common in my neighborhood, though not as common as cruise-ship
 tourists, who are back in early-season swarms.

 This is the week one of the more interesting Ketchikan school traditions
 I know of takes place.  The entire 8th-grade class at Schoenbar Middle
 School, who have been receiving instruction on native flora and sea life
 as part of a five-week wilderness survival unit in their science classes,
 are asked to put their recent lessons into practice.  Each student is
 allowed a sleeping bag, tools to construct a sleeping shelter, the clothes
 they are wearing, and whatever other items they can fit into a 1 lb coffee
 can and transported in groups of about 20 to small uninhabited nearby
 islands (i.e. not on Revillagigedo Island, but within 5 miles) to survive
 from Wednesday until their pickup on Friday on whatever they have with them
 plus whatever edible plants and ocean life they can scavenge.  They're 
 accompanied by adult chaperones to prevent things from getting out of hand
 but the idea is to teach them what's necessary to survive for a few days
 until rescuers can find them, should they become shipwrecked and stranded.

While I imagine those kids will learn some really valuable skills, I
cant say that I would ever want to go out into the wilderness with so
little. But then again, I am not a middle school aged kid. I might have
thought it was fun when I was that age

That sounds like an awesome program, or the beginning of Lord of the Flies.
I'm not sure which.

Practicals are an important part of any type of survival training. It
basically teaches you that, "Yeah, this stuff WORKS", because up until
then a lot of what you're taught doesn't exactly seem right or usable.

 Each student is
  allowed a sleeping bag, tools to construct a sleeping shelter, the clothes
  they are wearing, and whatever other items they can fit into a 1 lb coffee
  can and transported in groups of about 20 to small uninhabited nearby
  islands (i.e. not on Revillagigedo Island, but within 5 miles) to survive
  from Wednesday until their pickup on Friday 

I went through a similar program at MUCC.  Our training was only 2 weeks long
but it included flora, basic water safety, first aid, hunting, fishing,
navigation, and survival skills.  They drove us out to the wilderness (about
15 miles away from camp) and we had to make it over night and a whole day with
what we had on us (including a sleeping bag.)  We foraged for food and built
fires and pretty much had a great time.  My grandfather sent me to MUCC for
several years as my birthday present starting at age 13.

alaska is strange.  They also offer Community College courses in how to 
harvest Road kill Moose and elk.

Another gem the PNW is good for are the origami courses.  Everyone should
learn how to make animals out of bathtowels or sombreros out of table napkins.

I'd like to see examples of what they pick for the 1lb coffee can. I
imagine you could fit quite a few interesting things in there.

A roll of toilet paper and M&Ms.

 Toilet paper would definitely be one to ignore at your own peril,
 especially if you're experimenting with unfamiliar foodstuffs.

Or experimenting in general...all those horomones and fellow students in the
woods could get kinda crazy.

Camp stove (portable).  Oatmeal, raisins, powdered milk, noodles.  Are they
supplied with water, or is the local water potable untreated?  How cold are
the nights?  Bees manage by huddling and changing positions so the outermost
do not freeze.

When I was in MUCC, the scariest part of the whole thing was the overbearing
sound of the mosquitoes after dark.  Everyone hid inside their sleeping bags
with no air holes (except for the one counselor who brought his own net and
let 2 or 3 pixies in there.)

 re #29:  The groups are segregated by sex, so there're groups of boys
 and groups of girls, but they're at different locations.  

 re #30:  A campstove would probably take up a pretty large part of the
 coffee can all by itself, even without cookware and fuel.

 As far as water goes, finding water is generally not a problem in SE
 Alaska, though in most places I wouldn't drink surface water untreated
 for fear of Giardia.  On some of the small islands surface water is
 probably fairly safe - assuming one can find it it's probably very
 recent rainfall..
 
 Nighttime temperatures this time of year get down into the low 40s
 or high 30s.  Our forecast for tonight is a low of 40 degrees F.

Are the kids allowed to collaborate and bring different things, such as one
campstove for a group, a thin tarp, etc.? It is supposed to freeze here
tonight.  Did you say sleeping bags were allowed?

 Sleeping bags are allowed.  I don't know if the kids are allowed to
 collaborate.  It's a good strategy but if the idea is to teach them
 what they'll need to know if they're stranded by themselves it might
 not be permitted.

My guess is they build a leanto out of sticks and twigs and don't need a tarp.
As for fire, they probably know how to do that with a stick and string and
then they can heat up water in the coffee can itself.

Okay, if you were going to be stuck on an Alaskan island for however
many days, and could only bring your clothes, a sleeping bag, and
whatever you could fit into a one pound coffee can....

What would you bring?

Half pound of coffee, k-bar, and sewing needle.

Powerbars (or SOLAS rations, but Powerbars are tastier)
Water purification tablets
Sierra cup
Firestarter (probably flint and magnesium -- the string approach is not
  reliable)
Small parafoil kite (to increase conspicuity for rescue, or for use as
  shelter, or just for fun)
BC bud (to barter for any other needed supplies and help pass the time)

 re #36: 
 
 > Okay, if you were going to be stuck on an Alaskan island for however
 > many days, and could only bring your clothes, a sleeping bag, and
 > whatever you could fit into a one pound coffee can....
 >    
 > What would you bring?
 
 +  fire-starting supplies (matches + some of those wax/sawdust
    fire-lighter things, because given the rain around here much
    of the fuel will be damp.)
 +  zip-loc freezer bags (to carry water and scavenged food items.)
 +  very lightweight tarp or several heavy-duty garbage bags for
    waterproofing overhead shelter and for insulating my sleeping
    bag from the wet ground.
 +  a decent quantity of toilet paper, stored in a waterproof zip-loc.
 +  a paperback for entertainment (and, if stranded long enough, backup tp.)
 +  some high-energy no-cook food, probably chocolate. 
 +  heavy-duty twine or monofilament fishing line.
 +  a short pencil stub with duct-tape wrapped around it.
 +  fish hooks.
 +  a multi-tool or knife with cutting blade and needle-nose pliers.
 +  a luxury item (e.g. small transistor radio or my teeny-tiny iPod shuffle)

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