Alaska Scrap Book

The scenery:

Seward Boat Harbor.

Big fish:

Me with a salmon I caught.

Blue waters:

Either Snake Lake, or Lake Aleknagik.

 Baby bears:

Baby Bear on the shore of Lake Aleknagik.

 Caribou ribs:

Brother Todd eating a caribou rib.

Look at the size of that rib! It is like something out of the Flintstones!

[Originally posted on I'm Nacho Steppinstone, Jan. 4, 2004]

Salmon Days

Also in Dillingham - so much salmon!

You could catch a lot just by fishing for them normally, but members of the native population were able to apply for set net permits, which would really bring in a bounty. Set netting involves anchoring and setting out a net on the beach at low tide. The net fills with fish at high tide, then you return again at the next low tide to gather your catch.

This method made for an abundant catch, but it also involved a lot of work cleaning all the fish before they went bad. It also required a lot of freezer space, but it only took setting the net two or three times to be supplied with salmon for the rest of the year.

After a day of fishing.

Checking the set net at low tide.

After unloading the set net, we'd make a processing line in the yard then haul all the guts & bones to the dump so they wouldn't attract bears.

Fillet-master Mike.

Look at those fillets.

DP & me.

 We would catch so many, our freezers would fill up, so we would smoke the fish for preservation.  I really miss having all that smoked salmon around.

Gill Bros. checking the smoker.

Smoked deliciousness.

[Originally posted on I'm Nacho Steppinstone, Dec. 16 2004]

Remembering 4th Ave.

At the Gaslight w/ Dale.

I don't spend much (actually, any) time in bars these days, but I used to when I lived in Anchorage. I wish I had half the money I've pissed away in Anchorage bars.

My favorite spot was the downtown 4th Avenue district; they had a great selection of working-class dive bars there, never mind the occasional shooting. If you got kicked out of one, or if you were just bored, you could walk down the street and hang out at a different one.

In my mind at the time, 4th Avenue was a magical place where anything could happen. I used to have a ton of 4th Avenue bar stories, but I've forgotten most of them. They were never all that great anyway, once sobriety set in.

When there was music at all, it wasn't too loud, so you could better eavesdrop on people talking shit to each other, which I appreciated.

I'd always tell people how great the 4th Avenue bars were, then they'd join me and nothing interesting would happen. That's about when I realized my ton of 4th Avenue bar stories was more the result of my hanging out there constantly, rather than anything to do with the character of the bars themselves. If you hang out anywhere day and night, you're bound to witness a few interesting occurrences.

Anyway, the 4th Avenue dive bars were a lot of fun at one time, and they gave me something to do in Anchorage, but I probably did persist with it past its prime. Oh well.