Fun in Kayaks.

Here's a long one!
My lack of writing on this blog is all due to the fact that we have had a full house of guests every night the last three weeks- and I don't mind admitting that entertaining so many people is exhausting. But before we this string of people, I got to guide a group of ladies on a Kenai Fjords National Park tour, and then out to our company's Adventure Camp- a sea kayaking camp located on the edge of this great little cove.
Driving twelve ladies all together requires a pretty big vehicle, and so I was lucky enough to drive this enormous thing of beauty. It can be said that Taylor was more than nervous about me driving so many people so far (he was taking into consideration my high school vote as Worst Driver), but I performed admirably, all things considering- the bus did start puffing black smoke, and the steering wheel was all loosey goosey.:
Then we all hopped on a catamaran to see the glaciers and animals of the park. I was really hoping this piece of the glacier would calve when we were there, but no such luck:

I like AC so much, here are two different views of the place:
Kate, the manager of AC, is one of our best friends here. She's one of the most inventive people we know, and one of the only people I could see easily surviving in the wilderness. Here she is chopping up kindling with her knife, because the hatchet had broken:
When Kate and I took the ladies out sea kayaking, I played the role of sweeper in the back, making sure no one floated out to sea. I was paddling along, and all of a sudden I hear all this snorting and snuffling right behind my boat. I turned around and there was this really, really big sea lion! He, or she, dinked around my boat for a while, but moved away quite a bit by the time I retrieved my camera from the depths of my kayak:
And, finally, here's a picture of me, taken by me, with Resurrection Bay in the background:

More, Please.

I flew out to my company's Bear Camp to help out for a couple of days, and as usual great times were had by all. There are bears everywhere out there, like this one that strolled through camp:
Whenever we would see a bear, my coworker Caprice and I would instantly fall into these bonafide safety positions- 'The Arrow to My Happy Place' and 'Back to Momma's Belly':
Back here on the other side of the inlet, the water in our river still isn't rising fast enough, so we kayaked up today to see how deep it is (the water is still 2 inches deep, dangit). Moma crowned herself Queen for a Day, and took over our kayaks in true royal fashion:
And then, and this is what I am dying to tell you all... I found a (slightly) mysterious abandoned cabin right near our lodge! For years now our coworker Gary has been telling us that he has heard there is an old cabin out by our place, and he was right!
After we arrived at the lodge we run, I was tromping through the woods, and first I saw this, an old trapper's cabin. They make them small because when you are trapping in the middle of winter you are just going to stay the night there, and the smaller space to heat up, the better:
So as I was walking closer to it to peek inside... I saw the cabin! Joy of all joys! I ran back and got Taylor so we could both explore it together (because that's obviously more fun), and even though the roof has fallen in, it's awesome, and it's ours:
All my frustration over the river's water level slid away, and my day sprang up happy, and all because of our Found Cabin.
A cabin! And I found it!

Taylor's Solo Journey to the North Pole.

Our transportation of choice to get us up the river to the lodge we run is a flat-bottomed jon boat powered by the mighty Go-Devil engine. Our current Go-Devil is getting old and cries a lot, so Taylor made a daring journey to North Pole, the Christmas-year-round town near Fairbanks to buy a new boat and Go-Devil from the Go-Devil Jedi of the World, Stu.
Here is typical North Pole street scene:
Here is Taylor's room at the B&B he stayed in. Crossbows, Swedish songbooks, Christmas trees, and Lord Fauntleroy figurines all together as one- I think the theme was 'Christmas with the Scandinavian Robin Hood':

And here is our new beauty, a 24-foot government-issue-only Go-Devil. The orange bucket is covering up the prop. The loverly landscape behind is typical interior Alaska scenery:
You may all think that we are getting pretty excited about nerdy things like new swamp boats, and you would be right. So of course there are going to be many more pictures of the two boats, both with fresh coats of paint and new names (the old Go-Devil, which has been bequeathed to me, by Taylor, is now named George Washington Hayduke).