Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens

Jimmy Hendrix

Rode the 8:40 am flight to Dutch harbor, arriving 11 am.. beautiful flight over Lake Clark National Park, and on to here. The landing interesting as I looked out the window to see cliffs off the wing, and apparently pilot saw about 70 humpback whales just frolicking about the waters below.

We are on this little,excursion with friends Jim Winchester and Steve Dombrowski. Steve used to be our neighbor in Anchorage and both of them worked construction building roads. They were somewhat interested to see the work they had done here 10 years ago paving the runway and the roads. We were like little kids in our excitement to see it all. Steve had rented a big suv for cruising about and we began touring, eyes wide. Steve turns out to be an excellent guide showing us about, Winchester excited about it all and fascinated to see new birds.

Like any village in Alaska, Dutch Harbor and the town of Unalaska is very different than the city of Anchorage. Historically and pretty much still is a native village. But Dutch Harbor is the largest fishing seaport in the United States, and there is evidence of it all over. An industrial town with huge connexs almost all refrigerated, one I counted 5 high by 25 on a side and 5 deep. All for shipping seafood. And crb pots stored away for the season, which is in December and January. This is the place where the crabs boats depart for the Bering sea and king crab fishing. Think of the tv show “The deadliest catch”. The boats are in and the crab seem to have gone away, and we walked docks and looked.

A great lunch at the “Norwegian Rat bar”, with an awesome blue cheese bacon burger and fries with very reasonable prices, cheaper than Anchorage.

A drive up to review a gravel pit, with stored road work machinery, and on up into the hills. Why a road we were unsure, but as Steve noted probably a remnant of World War II and maintained since. The war was quite significant here in the Aleutians with some major bombing take place here by the Japanese and the occupation of Kiska and Attu islands. For some reason it was not widely known that the United States had some occupied territory during the war. There were some incredibly brutal land battles and flying done.

A good stay at the grand Aleutian hotel, and have extended our stay. Seems we were to depart at 5 pm today, Saturday, but alas a mechanical on the ferry, and it is delayed until 00:45 Sunday morning. Hence rather than have no where to hang out we extended 1 room for the evening.

Thus delightful hiking, good food, watching the weather and just enjoying the company and the vibes of a working industrial town. Tonite we board the ferry for 3 days and 3 nights of Bering sea and gulf of Alaska.