AK/WA Adventure: Day 9

Wednesday, August 6th 

Sylvain left at 7am for a run further out North Douglas. He went to the boat launch and back, which he said was 12km.

We were supposed to meet Nate Soboleff at 9 to pick up four tram passes, but there was a scurfuffle which took a bit of time to figure out. Jenn gave us two comp tickets they had, but we didn't get to the Basin Road trailhead until after 10am. We found Mom and Rick at the trampoline building and Mom gave us girls whale's tail mood necklaces. We didn't catch up with everyone who left at 9:30 until we got to the cross. There were found Evan, Andrew, Lucas, Roy, Rachel, Colin and Eric. A nice lady took our group photo. (Unfortunately, both of the photos she took are blurry. I wish I had declined her offer and just used the timer as I'd originally planned.)

The girls used Jenn's two passes and trammed down with Roy and Rachel. Then they had lunch with their family at Twisted Fish. Laureva had a taste of halibut, bit says she didn't like it. Sylvain and I hiked down, but I won't say with Evan and the boys as I was soon left in the dust. Sylvain hung back to keep an eye on me. Other than the flies, it was a pleasant walk down with no knee pain, thanks to Angie's loaner hiking poles.

We got down about 2pm and met the Seattle Trombleites in the Foodland parking lot to pick up the girls. 

By this time, it was 2:15 and we were meeting Angie's family in Auke Bay at 4. We decided to go to Forbidden Peak Brewery for late lunch and another kind of beer. By the time we arrived, our meet time had been moved up to 3:30, so it was a very quick bite: rockfish tacos for me, fries for Sylvain and a smores sundae for the girls. Nicole and Rachel joined us, but Roy stayed inside the whole time chatting with his old classmate Skye, the co-owner. The food and Auke Bay IPA were both lovely. Overall, I like their beer better than Devil's Club.

Soon, it was time to meet Angie. We were a bit late as I forgot that DeHarts was not Fishermen's Bend, but it wasn't a big deal as there was a battery problem and Nate couldn't get the boat to start. We went to Plan B and took the girls to Auke Lake for paddle boarding for a bit as it was such a gorgeous day.

A few hours later, we went back to the boat. We headed out on the small motor and once we left the harbor, Nate was able to jump start the big one. We got to their place on the south side of Shelter Island about 8pm.

When we arrived, there was an injured eagle on the beach. Hayden, who had just caught a Coho with his aunt Sadie and who we'd picked up along the way, cleaned his fish and threw the guts, including a good size herring, to the eagle. Riley called the Sitka Raptor Center (the Juneau one has closed) and left a message about it.

Angie made burgers for dinner while Nate mowed the lawn, then he and Hayden headed back so they could deal with getting a new battery on Thursday morning. Hayden didn't want anything to jeopardize his weekend derby plans! The girls and Riley made blueberry muffins with the berries they'd picked the day before. 

After dinner, the girls played few rounds of Mastermind with Riley. There was a gorgeous large nearly full orange moon whose light reflected off the water. To close out the evening, we watched an episode of a baking show with a French pastry chef called School of Chocolate, though I fell asleep halfway through as I was still dealing with my head cold.