Seattle & Highway
North to Alaska
Good friend KJ Herman of Kodiak and Seattle had a 1982 Toyota
Tercel he wanted delivered to Anchorage -- would I be interested in
driving it up the Alcan (Alaska-Canada Hwy)? Yah sure you betcha --
I like driving the Alcan, and it would give me an opportunity to do
another Alcan Series painting.
KJ
overhauled the Tercel in south Seattle while I prepped painting panels.
On May 4th, 2010 away I went, straight north.
Up
the Cassiar
At Kitwanga, British Columbia, good mechanic Eric Doll tightened gasket screws
on a leaky oil gasket. I continued north up the Cassiar Highway hoping the
Tercel wouldn't bust a gut as I fed 'er oil, steering and brake fluids at nearly
every stop.
Alcan
Highway
At the intersection of Cassiar and Alcan highways, I overruled my cautionary
rule of 'no hitchhikers' and picked up Luc Manoeuvrier, a 23-year old French
lad with a huge backpack hitchhiking across Canada. Luc was bound for Whitehorse,
Dawson and on to Alaska.
In
return for the ride to Whitehorse, Luc agreed to send a postcard
to my oldest granddaughter advising her to visit France. (We need
our young people to see and experience the world -- unfiltered.)
In October, Luc advised via email that, yes, he had sent the postcard
-- hooray! -- and he had gone on to Alaska, eventually down west
USA coast, into Mexico, thence across the US to NYC and back to France.
Luc has a Masters in coastal engineering and may be working in the
future to help save us from ourselves.
Luc
disembarked in Whitehorse and I headed on to Haines Junction and
westward.
Kluane
On May 9th I reached Kluane Lake in Yukon Territory and spent the next six
chilly days there working on "Kluane Lake Spring Thaw #3." The
view is from the front seat of the Tercel, where I could work protected
from the howling gusts of cold wind that swept over my worksite.
From
log book, May 11: "Quit working in twilight. Got a lot of work
done on ptg #1. It is very cold. Feet cold. Now to eat something & get
in the warm sleeping bag."
Painting
#1 is all that there would be on this Alcan trip.
Log
book, May 12: "Dinner: Another in a series of very fine dinners
..." [Menu consisted of sardines, spinach, cheese, crackers,
Mike's Limeade and cookies] "Dinner is served in the back of
the car, sitting cross-legged on sleeping pad. Following divine dinner,
I brush my teeth, spit it out in the trash bag, take a final pee
outside in the cold wind, and then crawl into the super duper warm
sleeping bag."
With
binoculars, I watched Dall sheep on the mountainside, some with lambs.
Scanning the slopes, I found a sheep lying on a small ledge above
a cliff -- a skinny little ledge, hard to get to -- only a mountain
sheep could get there. After a time, the sheep stood up, and lo!
there was a new lamb. Half hour later, momma sheep and newborn lamb
slowly maneuvered off the precarious perch and on up the mountain
slope.
A
pair of ravens visited me frequently -- somebody must have been feeding
them, maybe during road construction here -- the highway is now moved
up the slope away from the water's edge. I did not feed the ravens.
After
a few days, I went on up the highway to Destruction Bay about 17
miles away, got a good hot meal, washed up a bit, and discovered
my calling card would not work.
I
went back to the worksite and resumed, anxious to finish and get
moving west -- I had wanted to be in Naknek by this time, get squared
away there before the influx of people made things more difficult.
Log
book, May 14: "...Need just one more 1/2 day here. Need to git
gone, but, a year from now, I'll be glad I stayed to finish what
needs to be done on this painting. Did a lot of work today, trying
to finish, but really need more time on it... If I work in A.M. here,
then I can be in Tok tomorrow night -- and talk with Cammie."
Cammie
(my wife) hadn't heard from me since I left Whitehorse, or since
I sent email to her from Village Bakery at Haines Jct. courtesy of
Reid C's computer. Reid is a young hockey player who wants to go
to school in Massachusetts or Wisconsin, he said, where they have
hockey teams.
On
May 15th I finished the painting. This is the third Kluane Lake painting
done during a spring thaw over the years (see painting top left this
page). Currently, there are about 14 paintings in the Alcan Series
-- all small "traveling size" paintings, and I add to the
series slowly, time permitting.
I
hurried on west to Anchorage, anxious to get to Naknek.
+++++++++
Bristol
Bay & Naknek, Alaska
Much
to my delight in the Spring of 2010, a client commissioned me to
do some paintings in Naknek, Alaska. I had for years wanted to get
to Naknek. This would be my first journey to Naknek.
Naknek
is a small town on Bristol Bay, at the mouth of Naknek River, and
is home to about 700 people year 'round.
Bristol
Bay, on the west side of the Alaska Peninsula about 300 air miles
southwest of Anchorage, is the home of the world's biggest Sockeye
salmon fishery.
Sockeye
Salmon
Also called "red" salmon, the Sockeye is a premier wild Alaska salmon, Oncorhynchus
nerka -- one of five species of wild salmon in Alaska. In midsummer, about
44 million sockeye salmon head for the spawning streams and rivers of Alaska.
The allowable catch around the state may be around 30 million -- most of that
is in Bristol Bay.
The
duration of the Sockeye run is about six intensive weeks. Naknek
jumps to a short term workforce population of... thousands. The activity
here reverberates around the world -- and puts salmon on your plate.
Russell,
Pete and Jack
My cousin Russell Midgett of the North Carolina coast and mountains has fished
Bristol Bay for thirty years. He arranged for me to stay on Pete Balch's boat
during my six-day reconnaissance trip in Naknek.
Over
breakfast in Anchorage, Bristol Bay veteran and long-time friend
Jack Keane drew me a map of Naknek and told me what to expect. I'd
fly in to King Salmon and take a $20 taxi ride to Naknek to find
Pete.
The
PenAir flight to King Salmon passes right by Mt. Redoubt. Wikipedia: "Active
for millennia, Mount Redoubt has erupted five times since 1900: in
1902, 1922, 1966, 1989 and 2009."
Pete
arrives early in the spring to get his act together. The taxi driver
knew exactly where to find Pete in Leader Creek. So Pete helped me
get situated, and properly introduced to cheeseburgers at the D&D
and omelets at the Red Dog, to members of the informal Red Dog Morning
Coffee Club, Rogelio at the gas station ($4.50/gal), the grocery
store,
hardware store and Napa auto parts. We went to Eddie's Restaurant
in King Salmon for a hamburger and fries (about $14), and driving
back the 18 miles to Naknek about 11 p.m., we saw a brown bear galloping
over the rolling tundra.
Looking
for Work Space
I knocked on doors in Naknek, looking for a base camp for my painting gear
-- hard to find when Naknek is bursting at the seams with the annual influx
of fishermen, fish processing workers, mechanics and others. Even every bed & breakfast
was booked. Basically, no room for a visiting, budget-minded artist!
Maritime
Ed
I was about to call the whole thing off when Jodie McDonnell steered me to
Maritime Ed, a.k.a. Ed Oczkewicz, who has a boat yard and marine fabrications
business in the Leader Creek area not far from Pete's boat place -- and about
4 miles from downtown.
Naknek
might not have happened, if it hadn't been for Ed. He said I could
stay at his fabrications yard, and, in return, I agreed to do portraits
of his sons.
Ted
and Pat's B&B
I went back to Anchorage and camped out again at Ted Gardeline and Pat Shelton's
-- hoping I wouldn't wear out my welcome there -- and gathered my gear and
food supplies and mailed them to Naknek. Many good meals at their table, with
their offspring, the irrepressible and keenly irreverent Austin! Short on time,
I was able to see just a few old friends in Anchorage, including Joe and Catherine
Senungetuk, then flew back to Naknek.
Back
to Naknek
I checked in at Ed's boatyard and moved into my upstairs quarters, in a converted
steel shipping container -- they called it The Hilton -- and soon got to work,
readying painting panels. The space was pretty good for a fundamental workshop
studio.
I
had determined that one large painting was not going to be practical
this time around, so I set out to do five small paintings -- something
I could finish, given the circumstances.
The
first of the five Naknek paintings was done at Ed's boatyard -- a
view of the yard from the top of the stairs of my work place. The
fishermen were readying their boats, nets and gear for the coming
sockeye salmon run.
I
was to spend four months in Naknek working on five paintings.
A
Truck Named Margaret
Old friend KJ fishes Bristol Bay and keeps an aging Ford pickup truck in Naknek,
for hauling nets and whatever. Thank goodness for KJ! I could use his truck,
affectionately named "Margaret, The Lady with Character." This allowed
me to get around town, from one worksite to another, to the grocery store --
and, early on, to Rogelio's garage with some frequency, to keep ol' Margaret
up and running!
It
was a vibrant atmosphere with work going on all over Naknek into
the long twilight midnight hours. By late June, a lot of boats were
in the water, some practicing with crew members that may have never
been on a boat before. By mid-August, most everybody would be on
their way home.
Cammie
and the Katmai Bears
In July -- hooray! -- My wife, Cammie, came up for a week and we house-sat
Ed's main building while everybody was out fishing, and took a must-do day-trip
to Katmai to see the bears.
Observing
the Katmai bears is a life-time experience and attracts an international
audience. Watching those mighty animals casually walk the trail right
near you is a deep-seated thrill. We saw a mama bear cautiously lead
her three cubs through the high grass, careful to keep them from
becoming dinner for other nearby bears. Young juvenile bears splashed
after pooling salmon like kids in a swimming hole. Wiser senior bears,
by contrast, expended little energy to catch THEIR salmon. Big bears
threatened smaller bears away from the best spots at the falls.
Our
National Park Service rangers at Katmai National Park do a great
job keeping the bears and people safe from each other.
Al
and Lou
Cammie and I stayed one night at Al-Lou Bed & Breakfast, and got in a cherished
visit with Al and Mary Lou. Their history goes way back. They are Alaska treasures.
'Canneries,
Cabins and Caches...'
Al & Mary Lou introduced us to a great book "The Canneries, Cabins
and Caches of Bristol Bay, Alaska," written by John B. Branson, which
appears to be the definitive commercial fishing history written about this
region. ISBN 978-0-9796432-1-7. This hard-to-find book is available from Bristol
Bay Economic Development Corp. 1-800-478-4370 or 907-842-4370.
The
Wettest and Coldest Summer
From May into early September, it rained almost daily with gusting winds. Local
folks said it was the wettest, coldest summer they could remember.
Beach
Painting
I started the beach painting at flood tide near the mouth of the river on a
warm sunshiny day. Set netters were launching their boats, heading for their
set net sites -- personal subsistence and commercial sites. Tough work, going
two high tides a day, around the clock work, picking fish, moving fish, cleaning
fish, short nap and then it's time to go again, up and down the beach -- for
about six weeks or so.
I
worked as fast as I could, wanting to get the fabulous dynamic storm
cloud over the mouth of the river. Cammie roamed around, taking photos.
By dusk the wind was cold. At low tide late in the evening we were
about the only ones still on the beach. It would be at least two
weeks before another sunny day and I'd return to the beach painting.
By
mid-July I had four of the five paintings going at the same time,
and I shifted from one to another depending on weather, rain, wind
and tide -- there's a 20-ft. tide on Bristol Bay.
Both
of the Leader Creek paintings were done primarily from the spacious
front seat of Margaret, enabling me to work out of the wind and rain
(as the truck rocked in the wind).
Ocean
Beauty Seafoods
John Breigenzer and Ron Nebert, managers of Ocean Beauty Seafoods processing
plant in Naknek, made it possible for me to do a painting there. Dock foreman
Dale assigned me a great viewpoint above the action, where I could see the
fish tenders tie up at the dock and get efficiently unloaded by huge pumps
and hoses, instead of the baskets and cranes of yesteryear.
Working
on the Ocean Beauty dock painting and getting to know the guys on
the dock was a treat and a privilege. I stayed out of their way,
of course, so I wouldn't interfere. John told me as we finished up
in September: "You had a small footprint here."
Trident
and Peter Pan
I should add that I had permission to work around Trident and Peter Pan, too,
but I simply ran out of time. Maybe next time!
The
five Naknek-Bristol Bay paintings are at top.
+++++++++
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