Lapacaca Life Adventure

We've got no pictures (yet), but a hearty thank you to our fellow Bethelonians who so kindly threw Genevieve and Tom a surprise combo Baby Shower/House Warming party. Tom thought he was arranging a surprise baby shower for Genevieve, and Genevieve thought she was arranging a surprise housewarming party for Tom, so they were both quite surprised when they both realized they were in on the planning of their own surprise parties. But really, we owe a large thankyou to Aileen, Hoppy, MB, Steve and Will for really putting it together and surprising all of us. (And probably others)

We remain in awe of the kindness of the folks up here. It's really amazing. Thank you, all!

Today, Genevieve is off to Missoula, to settle in for Revel's big move. She will be just like a cool spring tulip opening up here in the next couple of weeks. At least, that's what the hypnotherapy exercises say. Tom and I are off to Tununak, where we'll hike to Toksook Bay along the coast, about 20 miles. If we're lucky, we might see some muskox.

Last summer, we learned some new terminology from our friend Kirby Senden, who for a while was the youngest person to have reached the summit of Denali. He’s guided a bunch of missions up there. He's one of the most positive people you'll ever meet and has a great way of looking at adventures. Fun #1 is the kind of fun you enjoy at the moment. Fun #2 is the kind of fun you enjoy only when thinking back on it. For Kirby, the time he got weathered in on Denali and had to stay inside his tent for 7 straight days was an example of Fun #2.

Today we had a lot of Fun #2 on our mission to reach the precise confluence of 61 degrees north and 162 degrees west. There’s this new hobby, introduced to us by local attorney Mr. Jamgochian and found at www.confluence.org, that involves going to all the whole number confluences of latitude and longitude on the planet and documenting them. All the confluences in the lower 48 have been visited, but surprisingly few have been visited here in Alaska. Mr. J himself visited this one near Nome.

With Mr. J we went to the nearest one, a mere 16 miles north-northwest of town. To our great joy, we will forever be the first to have been there, at least as far as the official website is concerned. Even with the likely fame, we’re not too sure how pumped we are about placing this hobby real high on our hobby list. But then again, they tore out the bowling alley and replaced it with a rippie gambling den, so we mustn't be too hasty in culling our hobby list. Here’s Tom's description for the confluence web page:

'Fun Number One'- (n.) A source of enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure both as the event is happening and in retrospect.

'Fun Number Two'- (n.) A source of enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure only in retrospect.
On the morning our team decided to visit the nearest confluence to Bethel, the rural Alaskan town that we call home, the temperature was an inauspicious 28 degrees below zero. Counting the wind-chill that is created when traveling at 30 miles an hour on a snowmachine, the temperature is hovering somewhere in the negative sixties. But, despite the cold, it was a sunny, beautiful day, so we went for it hoping for a day of Fun #1.

To start the day off, before we left town, Tom's snowmachine collided into Genevieve's, resulting in a chunk of Tom's undercarriage breaking off. And Dawson had a stomachache. These two events raised the nasty specter of Fun #2. We weren’t even sure we’d make it when five minutes out of town, Tom’s snowmachine (with its mind of its own) got embedded in the only steep snow bank within 100 miles.

Our Fun #2 concerns were confirmed when we hit the trail sweating after digging out the Indy Lite. We use the terms “trail” and “Lite” quite lightly. All three members of our team are rookies to rural Alaska, and we made a Big Mistake of heading towards the confluence after it had been windy, snow-less, and damn cold for weeks. What formerly were fluffy berms of snow had cemented into rock-hard piles of ice. So it was rocky and slow going to the confluence, resulting in sore backs and legs and the occasionally ejected snowmachine rider. But we made it intact, celebrated appropriately with a small black Russian, and headed back to Bethel as quickly as we could.

We're glad we did it, but it's no longer a mystery why there are so many available confluences in the area. It's flat, freezing, and while the scenery changes from frozen lakes to frozen tundra, there's nothing to look at.

Alternate ending:

We’re glad we did it. The view from the confluence was absolutely spectacular and well worth the tough trek to get there. The scenery is really something, and from the confluence you can see a unique vista unlike any other for miles around. If you are thinking about visiting this confluence, by all means do whatever it takes to get here. You won’t regret it. We can’t wait to return on foot through the swamps this summer.

From the very beginning, the trip exceeded all expectations. We went into it prepared to deal with the forecasted weather – accumulations of up to one inch of snow, changing to sleet by the evening, with rain forecast for the following several days. But once airborne, we saw partly cloudy skies. Our pilot first stopped in Newtok to drop off a passenger before heading over to Tununak. The flight out there was amazing in and of itself. We flew low and slow, close to the ground, enjoying the scenery. Our awesome pilot Andrew was a crop-duster in Georgia before moving up here. We told him of our plan and he kindly went out of his way to fly us along our proposed route – the coastline from Tununak to Toksook. In the process, he spotted some Muskox, so we knew where to keep our eyes open if we wanted to see them. He dropped us off in Tununak and the adventure began.

Looking back towards Tununak:

We started with a brief tour of the Tununak public safety building. The holding cells are top of the line. One has no door. The other has a hole in it the size of your head so you can reach out through it, unlock the door and let yourself out. To make up for the insecure nature of the operation, there’s a metal bar nailed to one of the walls. If you get in trouble, you are hand-cuffed to that. It’s usually an effective escape prevention measure. (Although he did show us two pairs of broken handcuffs that didn't quite do the job.)

Tununak really is quite a lovely little town right there on the coast, exposed to the mighty Bering Sea. They sometimes get 30 foot seas, so that’s exciting. They were about 1-2 foot seas while we were there. And yes, I’ll admit, as we hiked I was secretly keeping an eye out for potential surf breaks. I did see one rideable wave. And I’m sure there are times when surfing would be a realistic option. With the hills and the waves, Tununak could be a little extreme sports paradise in the YK Delta! The sky’s the limit, really.

What we did see while hiking the shore were lots of animal remnants. Here’s Tom with the first cool looking bone we saw.

Additionally, we saw 5-6 decapitated walruses. Apparently their tusks fetch a tidy sum, so people always have an eye out for them. It struck us as kind of wasteful, but we weren’t sure if the walruses had been hunted and wasted, or if they had washed up on the beach and then just salvaged.

We hiked along the beach until the shoreline was too bouldery to be joyous to walk along, then headed up the 900 feet to the top of the bluff.

At times we could see Nunivak island off on the horizon, another dream destination for another day.

We didn’t have to hike long on the bluff before we saw large furry clumps, commonly known as muskox. There were many of them. Tom and I, knowing next to nothing about muskox, were a bit nervous as we walked amongst them. But as we got closer, they tromped off in their graceful way.

The highlight of the highlands was finding the sunbleached remains of a muskox that had apparently died quite some time ago. Excited, we strapped some of the cooler looking bones to our backpacks. I myself thought of my dad, who has a fine appreciation for animal skulls.

We wound up descending to the beach on the other side of the peninsula to camp. The latter part of the hike never seemed to end, but we finally tromped through the tundra and brambles to make it to the shore. Hiking downhill is rarely that challenging. At our campsite, Tom said, "Does something smell like dead?" Then we noticed dead walrus #2. Despite our big dead stinky friend, it was a nice campsite. And we got there just in time to see a great sunset over Nunivak island.

The next day’s walk was great, easy cruising along a firm sandy beach. Lots of interesting cliffs and little waterfalls. We walked by Umkumiut, a cool fish camp, and finally made it into Toksook.

Tom at Umkumiut:

As we got there, the weather finally turned sour and we arrived with snowflakes and 35 mph winds. Because we had been beelining it to Tooksook by aiming for the windmills from the point where the seashore turned to impassable cliffs, our first encounter with Toksook Bay was the town dump.

Our first stop in town was the local store. We powered up with one dollar cans of Royal Crown Cola, after deciding that $4.95 was a little too steep for Starbucks in a bottle.

We were feeling a nice sense of accomplishment about our mission. Then we met one of the least friendly people in the YK Delta, who sternly admonished us for hiking without permission. “Who knows what you guys were doing out there.” Hiking, we responded, but he wasn’t buying it. He demanded our names, with which we gladly supplied him, but interestingly, he refused to tell us his. Just John. At any rate, lest there be any hard feelings, we left the bones we had packed for 20 miles behind. Fortunately, John’s unpleasant welcome was counter-balanced by the friendly vibes we got from everybody else. Grant Air wasn’t flying in on account of the weather, but Hageland was already on its way, so the Grant Air agent kindly gave us a ride to Charlie’s place. He entertained us with coffee and walrus, halibut and muskox stories until the plane landed. Here’s one of his rugrats, and his puppy in the background, as we are towed to the airport.

And now, now I’m beat. Whew. Good fun, but exhausting fun. Tundra hiking is a workout. But the good memories will long outlast the temporary soreness!

The temperatures this weekend hovered around -20 degrees. Today was about -22 with a windchill down to -42. Yesterday we went out for a snowmachine ride. Our faithful friend Tom joined us for a planned trip down to Napakiak, a hike and then a snowmachine back to Bethel. We figured with the windchill of going 30 mph on the snowmachine, our temp was about -52 or so. I did think my fingers and toes might fall off and we will have more gear for next time (fancy grip warmers, bunny boots, etc.). Thanks, Mom and Dad for the new mittens (they were nice and warm except for when we were flying through the air). Unfortunately, Tom's snowmachine is less than reliable and ended up dying about 2 miles out of Napakiak. After replacing the spark plulgs, we tried going to the Napakiak store and getting some oil, but apparently that wasn't the problem either. So, Tom's snowmachine spent yet another cold and lonely night on the tundra. Amazingly, it was still there this morning when our other friend Josh helped him rescue it. Today's trip was cancelled secondary to being just a bit too cold.

The sticks mark ice fishing holes. If you look closely, you can see a bunch in the background. Sometimes people just stand and ice-fish with a line and a stick, and sometimes they have an entire net set out under the ice. Shee fish, pike, and some kind of white fish are the preferred catch.

Here's a nice picture from our friend Lori's MySpace. For other uplifting statues of Jesus teaching white kids how to play sports, you may want to visit this website.

As for the downlifting news, our friend Tom forwarded us this picture. We don't know what the heck happened, but it has been described as a "minor flotation issue". Tom, we feel your pain...

:

We're going to rename this blog the blog of hearty gratitude.

Thank you Super Jodasm (Jonathan Daniel Smith) and Renee for sending us the massive Trader Joe's infusion of goodies. All of the items are looking mighty tasty, especially the chocolate covered peanut-butter filled pretzels. Genevieve is pumped about the spiced chai. And thank you for the reading material infusion. Lots of humor, some promising magazines, and great classical books. I do think you were reading my mind, because I've been meaning to read some Mark Twain, and you sent up both Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. Thank you very much!

I always love reading Tom Tomorrow, which definitely isn't printed in either of our local papers. Surfer's Journal, nice! "George Bush, Dark Prince of Love" looks especially promising.

Thanks for the excellent line up! I'm looking forwar to it, right after I finish my latest dose of The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power.

We've been less than reliable at regular blogging these days, so here's a catch up blog for the past week or so...

This could be one of those "cute kid" stories that are funny at the time and boring once related, but I also thought it was an interesting cultural observation so I'll risk potential reader boredom in re-telling it to you. The other day I had the opportunity to hang out in the pediatrics waiting room at the hospital for a couple of hours, waiting for a child in our program to be seen by the doctor. In the waiting section is a big mural of a rainbow leading to a pot of gold and a couple of little leprachauns wearing eskimo fur coats. I was thinking it is kind of an odd image for kids in the Delta to relate to, given how entirely unfamiliar they probably are with Irish story tales... but I didn't give it too much thought. Then a 4-year old boy walked in with his father and younger brother. He looked at the mural for a long time with a slightly confused look on his face. Then he lit up and proudly exclaimed, "Dog Food! They're cooking dog food!". His father looked back at him and verified his finding and the little boy just kept repeating, "Dog Food! They're cooking Dog Food". He was so excited that he figured it out. I was laughing, as a child in the lower 48 probably wouldn't see that image and think of dog food, let alone ever think that one would even cook dog food. But up here, people cook dog food every day in big black cauldrons. After a while, the family left and a new family arrived. The new youngster looked up at the mural with another confused look on his face and said, "Daddy...what's that??". His dad took one look at the mural and said, "Look, they're cooking fry bread." The boy's face lit up with understanding and he said, "Oh, Fry Bread! They're cooking fry bread!". Once again pleased at his revelation, the child spent the next 30 minutes repeating, "Fry bread...they're cooking fry bread." Unfortunately, I had to leave, but I do think it would be an interesting cultural experiment to hang out under the rainbow for a day and observe the various reactions!

I spent the next 3 days at a conference in a village called St. Mary's. It is up on the Yukon River and often a site for conferences as it is the only village with any significant lodging or dining possibilities. It has a big old Catholic mission and as an interesting side note, it was the location where fellow Missoulian Mary Kay Kriley spent time as a Jesuit Volunteer about 30 years ago. Anyway, the conference was on infant mental health and wasn't anything too exciting, but here's some pictures of the area. This one is a long range view of the village from a little hill by the mission.



Here's a view of the Andreafsky River below the mission.













My co-worker Minnie brought her 5 month old baby to the conference and he was a big hit!



























Here's the mission building and the dorm lodging...men on the left and ladies on the right....
















In other exciting news, Regan is here from Anchorage for a week. He's helping out at the DA office and getting a nice tour of Bethel. Our first official visitor to Bethel!!! (that's a congratulations to Regan and a guilt trip for all you others!!). Just kidding, Bethel is a tough place to get to, so it will be pretty cool that the state will pay for Regan to come out here every now and then. I think he's enjoying his visit and getting a good taste of life in the Delta! Yesterday we went out on Tom's boat and visited a couple of villages. It was also Saturday market day and a new one for even Dawson and I...the Bethel Fair. Not exactly what you might imagine, but here's a few pictures of the event....



Tom walking past the "Live animals raised in Bethel" exhibit.










One of Bethel's infamous chickens!









Prize winning strawberries and tomatoes (they make up in beauty what they make lack in quantity)









And Hoppy's prize winning cauliflower! (She gave us one that is even bigger than this one, but just not as perfectly round!).






And lest you should think this post will never end.....My favorite exhibit at the Bethel Fair (and one of my favorite things about Bethel in general....funny signs!)





























And....

A HUGE thank you to Rani for sending Regan up with a boat load of babies supplies! I also purchased a crib from another attorney in town, so we went from having zero baby stuff, to a crib with bedding, clothes to fit him from birth until he's a year old, a halloween costume and one of those fancy wipe warmers so that his little bottom won't have to deal with a frigid winter wipe... Thanks Rani and Family!!!

posted by Team Wilco @ 9:09 PM  0 comments