Wild Alaskan Salmon

SATURDAY 6/25/2011
Just started my week LONG trip to head up to the mouth of the Yukon River in Emmonak, Alaska for this year's Keta Salmon run. Today was a long day with an early 6:00 am flight from Rochester to Chicago (the airport was the most packed I've ever seen) and then another 4 hour flight to Seattle. My traveling companion Carl and I took a 6 hour layover in Seattle, to go visit the world famous Pike's Place Farmer's Market, and I'm so glad we did!

We landed in Seattle at 11:00 am (we already had been up 10 hours with the 3 hour time difference). Seattle is everything I've heard it was, beautiful mountains and hills, fresh crisp air, lush green vistas and flowers everywhere you looked, But very cloudy with a threat of rain at any moment. We were picked up by our friend Jeff Lam and the drive to Pike Place Market was about 40 minutes which is in downtown Seattle (which reminds me of San Francisco with the steep city street hills and very old architecture mixed with strikingly modern buildings that all seem to fit together nicely). Many roads were closed today because of the Seattle Marathon taking place which actually routed right underneath the Market that sits on a hill with 3 levels overlooking the beautiful Puget Sound.


First impressions are everything, and this one certainly didn't disappoint! The market was packed, most likely from the passengers off the largest Norwegian Cruise Lines ship I've ever seen docked in the harbor (on their way to Alaska too). I've been to many farmer's markets around the globe, but nothing compares to the assortment, vibrancy, and especially the quality of seafood and flowers from what they have here!

The flowers were amazing and very affordable! The popular seasonal items were cala lillies and peonies, and 1 out of every 5 people walking around had a bunch or an arrangement. Prices started at $5 a bunch for something with 10+ stems! The fruit stands were just as numerous, with each booth having a personality out in front offering a slice of a perfectly ripe white peach or local Ranier Cherries to passers by.

But the most incredible presence was the spectacularly fresh seafood!
The fresh seafood markets actually put on shows for the customers and spectators. The famous Pike Place Fish market does up to 40% of their sales shipped out across the country just to the tourists! They even got spectators to participate in their famous Fish Catching activity! Now that Alaskan salmon is in season, it is everywhere with some of the largest and freshest king salmon I've ever seen along with mountains of fresh cooked dungeness crab!
We stopped by 1 booth and had a 4 oz plastic cup heaving with fresh ceviche for only $6, and another cup teaming with Dungeness Crab Cocktail for the same price (We'd already eaten lunch at Etta's which is just across the street from the market and was fabulous. I had Dungeness crab salad, a Pike Amber Ale and our table split some steamed mussels and Hood Canal Oysters.

I couldve stayed here for hours but had to get back to the airport to make our flight to Anchorage which was another 4 hours. I even had to pass up ordering a latte from the original Starbucks as the lines were too big. But i did get to go by the infamous "gum wall" which had as many tourists as the market it seems. We said good bye to Jeff and ended up in Alaska at 8:00 pm (12:00 am East Coast time) and went right to dinner after check in. Dinner was at the Millenium hotel, which is where the Iditarod Dog Sled race starts every year. It's right on a small lake called Otis Lake, which is small and circular, and around the entire shore circumference are parked over 100 sea planes. You couldn't fit another one on the shoreline!
Dinner for me was West Coast clams with reindeer sausage (sort of a hot kielbasa) and an Alaskan Amber Ale. Then off to bed to catch 2 more planes to the Yukon.

SUNDAY June 26, 2011
Woke up early, still on east coast time. It was as light out at 4:30 this morning as it was at 11:30 last night. Weird feeling. First flight was Alaskan Airlines to Bethel. Pretty normal until we got there. The airport in Bethel was the smallest I've ever been in. The terminal was about the size of the first floor of my house. Everyone in the terminal there knew each other. We switched to another airline (Grant Aviation ) which was in another "terminal" 1/2 mile away. This terminal was moe like a garage and was even smaller than the one we had just left! (My record for smallest terminal lasted 3 minutes)! Looking out at the runway, there were 4 planes about the size of SUVs. When we checked our luggage, we actually had to stand on the luggage scale and have ourselves weighed! The pilot needed to know the entire weight he would be carrying! Couldnt carry on any luggage they had to pre-load it on the plane. When we walked out to board, I thought we would be taking the largest SUVish plane there. I was wrong. Ours was a bit more Rav 4ish, and was painted like a shark (no joke, see the photo!)
I was the last one to board the full capacity 7 passenger plane, and sat in the last seat. Right next to my suitcase that had been preloaded.
As we flew to Emmonak some major clouds rolled in. The pilot had to fly through these doing a spiral upwards to increase altitude. Very bumpy but not too scary, and we did this at least 8 times before breaking through the clouds. The landscape was nothing like I was expecting, tall snow capped mountains, pristine clear streams, and lots of wild life.
The land was extremely flat, with no vegetation except grass for miles, but there was water everywhere in small pools and streams, like a big bog. Crossing the mighty Yukon river once, it was dark brown as far as you could see with silt running all through it coagulating into many sand bars in the middle.
When we landed in Emmonak, I know you won't believe me but the airport was even smaller! The terminal was the size of my kitchen and had a dirt floor! Luggage was unloaded by a payloader, and we picked our suitcases out of the bucket.
Emmonak is a fishing village of about 800 residents. It is so remote, there are no cell service or internet. There are no roads going in and out. You can only get ther by boat, or (very small) airplane. The residents are all indiginous Eskimoes and get around on 4 wheel ATVs as the roads are only dirt (mud) and full of ruts. There is probably only 5 miles of road at most and they all just end at a bush or tree.
We are staying in a Bunkhouse with about 15 teenagers that come in from other villages for the summer season (May - August) to work packing fish.
Tomorrow will be our first day on the river.


MONDAY June 27, 2011
Today we took a 120 mile boat ride up the Yukon River, (about 3.5 hours 1 way). The Yukon starts in Canada and flows north west, 1900 miles into the Bering Sea. We stopped in a couple of fishing villages on the way St. Mary's and Mountain Village, each that have about 250 villagers. Our boat captain is Herman Hootch, a nice Eskimo who has lived here all his life and knows the Yukon like the back of his hand. Good thing too as there are hundreds of tributaries that wind off it on both sides, and the silt that is throughout the strong current, keeps the sandbars in the middle expanding and shifting constantly. The villagers are all Yupik Eskimoes and have been here for centuries fishing and hunting off the land. It gets so cold up here that they still don't venture out much in the winter which lasts from December to mid April and can get to 30 degrees below zero and 30+ feet of snow for weeks at a time. The Yupiks all fish for salmon now, and smoke them and dry them in bark lined huts they hand built in their yards. The smoked salmon will keep for months and sustain them throughout the winter months.
These people work very hard. The kids that come here for summer season are 14 - 17 years old. Tonight, there was a salmon opening on the Yukon that started at 8:00 pm and ended at 2:00 am. All the kids from our bunkhouse got called to the packing house at 9:30 pm and didn't get back until 10:00 am. The fishing was a record, over 200,000 lbs of salmon caught that had to be packed and shipped out immediately. Keta salmon on the Yukon is having a record year. In 2010, there were 1.3 million pounds caught, and fishing didn't begin until June 28th. Now it's June 27th and there is already over 400,000 lbs in with another opening tonight from 6:00 - 10:00.
We are so remote out here that there are no cell phones that work or tv. Internet is only available in a business office that is in a trailer. Beer and wine are also illegal here, probably because there are so many kids, I'm not sure. I was reading a biography on Cleopatra tonight before the opening of fishing, and one of the teenage girls was very inquistive. She couldn't believe that I read every day. We looked at some of the maps that were in my book together and she had a million questions. She had never heard of Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, or the pyramids. She's 17. Like the rest of her peers, they work very hard here from May - August, and then return to their villages for the next 8 months with nothing. It's very sad. The boys all hunt and fish. I'm not sure what the girls do, but on our flight here to this remote village there were 7 passengers including Carl and I. Three were teenage girls, all with new babies (they all go to Anchorage to give birth and then return home) and no husbands. Not much of a future.

Tuesday June 28, 2011
Today everyone was still processing the catch from last night. Many fishermen went out 3 times because their little skiffs were so full of fish they had to off load them at the processing house and go out again to fish more. One of the village elders here passed away last week and today will be his funeral, followed by a traditional Eskimo dance in the community center. It rained all during the fishing last night, and the streets which are dirt, are now about 8 inches of mud. You can't step anywhere without sinking over your ankles.
Processing ended at about 12:00 and we took an airplane ride 100 miles up river to the Bering Sea to see where the salmon enter from the ocean and begin their swim upstream. There is a sonar device placed in the water there, where biologists measure how many fish swim upstream by the hour. This is the escapement number and what they go by to determine when they will allow fishing and for how long.
Our pilot today was Craig and he looked about 15 years old. I flew in the co pilot seat, as the plane only sat 4 including the pilot and co-pilot. Now the terrain was more as I expected as we flew up through the mountains after an hour out of Eammonak. Much more trees and foliage was in view, along with the pristine streams everyone thinks about when you think Alaska. We must have flown over 30 Moose at different locations, and many of them had calves behind them. On our first approach to the mountains, i even spotted a large brown bear that the pilot chased around for a bit. Even from 300 feet above he was still huge! We were supposed to go to the Traditional dance tonight to honor the elder but somehow that got postponed to this fall. Not sure why, but it gave me time to post this.
Tomorrow we're going back to Anchorage. Cell phones, internet, & wine!!!