Sportsmobile: Southeast Alaska; July, 2013

[haven]

Here's a Forest Service map "not for navigational purposes" that shows some of the attractions on Prince of Wales Island
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/viewing/pdfs/pow.pdf

Since the Forest Service likely built the roads for access to timber resources, I'd expect they would have the best maps of the area.

 

[t4rman]

Excellent report and top notch photography. Thanks for sharing!

 

[group1]

Awsome! Thanks for sharing.
What cameras camera lenses were you using? The detail was HD Plus!

 

[1leglance]

Great write up and really helps when work sucks to ready an amazing trip report like this....
thanks for adding something to the wish list

 

[matt s]

Fantastic. I've lived here 36 years but have never been south of yakutat. This is on my todo list.

 

[twolost]

Thanks Everyone!!

group1: Camera, for most of the shots was a 2004 Canon EOS-1d MKII (8mp). Lenses were either 16-35mm; 24x70mm; or 400mm. There were likely a few iPhone 4 shots in there as well.

 

[RubiChris]

Thanks for sharing your adventure. I recently moved "down south" after living in Ketchikan for almost 12 years. It is truly a magical place if you don't mind a little rain....well, okay, who am I fooling, A LOT OF RAIN!!

 

[grogie]

Beautiful write-up and photos. I enjoyed it very much, as Alaska is a long way from the Midwest.

Your Sportsmoblile is awesome... any inside pictures to share?

Thanks for posting!

 

[twolost]

Interior pics of Sportsmobile (tbd)



Many thanks. I will post some interior van shots here once I figure out what I did with them.

 

[twolost]

Previous work history in Petersburg, Alaska


Just to add some history... here are a few pics of me working and playing in Alaska (for those former co-workers that may have worked with me in the eighties).


I arrived in Petersburg, Alaska in June of 1983. I was 6.0 ft tall, weighed about 300lbs, had just graduated from HS, and was unemployed.

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That summer, I worked all of the lowest jobs in an on-shore fish processing plant. At the end of my first season (four months later), I weighed just under 240lbs. My diet consisted of coffee and cookies (because they were free).

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I returned for varying lenghths of time for the next six years. In that time, I worked about every non-office job there was.


End of a 19 hour shift

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Some years were busier than others. I dont think this pic came from a busy year.

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Ultimately, I worked myself into Retort Operator (responsible for steam cooking all of the canned salmon).

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I even tried my hand at crewing for a few 24 hour commercial Halibut openings (with varying degrees of success).

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And of course... I did a lot of sport fishing (when time allowed).

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In the end, I weighed just 178lbs.

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During the 7 years I worked in Alaska - I met many amazing people, had enough unbelievable experiences to fill a book, I made some great friends, and... I learned beyond the shadow of a doubt the type of work that I did not want to do for the rest of my life. Most of the transient workforce that I started with were college students trying to work their way through school. The workforce demographic changed as year after year, the college students that I started with had graduated or just stopped showing up. After seven amazing seasons/years, I decided that my time had come to make other opportunities as well. Since my last day in 1990, I returned once a handful of years later to show my youngest brother around (who also got a job with the same company that I had worked for) and then once again in 2006 while on the tail end of a family motorcycle adventure (posted on ADVRider, here).
For those people that I worked with... thanks so much for the memories. You gave a wandering 19 year old kid that showed up cold and wet on your doorstep the opportunity to thrive, develop, and move forward - with focus.

 

[grogie]

^That sounded like a great experience for a young guy.

 

[trackhead]

Bump........great report!

Moving to Ketchikan for the summer with wife/kid/truck camper.