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Thursday, August 11, 2011
The long goodbye
I came to Skagway with two goals:
- Conquer Alaska
- Punch a bear in the face
Lamentably, I was only able to accomplish one of these goals.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
The perfect Skagday
Went to bed at 2 a.m. Woke up at 6:12 a.m. to one of my sources calling me. Conducted a phone interview wearing nothing but Carolina gym shorts, shivering. Fell back asleep despite the broadest of daylights.
Woke up for real at 12:30 p.m. Took a shower. Hot water lasted 30 seconds longer than usual. Conditioned my facial hair. Ate leftover salmon salad. Read about proverbs. Considered my future.
Readjusted the rubber jar gripper in the cushion of my destroyed hiking boot. Walked to Pullen Pond to watch salmon fight the current. Learned the difference between king and pink salmon. Admired the beauty of spawning season.
Woke up for real at 12:30 p.m. Took a shower. Hot water lasted 30 seconds longer than usual. Conditioned my facial hair. Ate leftover salmon salad. Read about proverbs. Considered my future.
Readjusted the rubber jar gripper in the cushion of my destroyed hiking boot. Walked to Pullen Pond to watch salmon fight the current. Learned the difference between king and pink salmon. Admired the beauty of spawning season.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
How to fix the most unusable of hiking boots
What you'll need:
- Determination
- A positive outlook
- A rubber jar opener acquired at the Southeast Alaska State Fair
- A hiking boot whose inner padding has ruptured after three months of use such that your fingers are millimeters away from poking through the sole
Instructions:
- Fold rubber jar opener twice into quarter-circle
- Fish through war zone of padding, rubber and metal that constitutes bottom three inches of shoe
- Wedge rubber jar opener into hole
- Cover hole with any remaining padding that has not disappeared into the abyss
- Ignore the hole emerging on side of shoe
- Invest more than $20 in hiking boots next time
Friday, July 29, 2011
A trip down the Klondike Highway
Working at a small-town newspaper comes with a few logistical inconveniences. For one, the newsroom is located above an Alaska-themed bookstore affiliated with the same company, making it confusing for some people trying to differentiate the two. (That the bookstore is called Skaguay News Depot doesn't help.)
A much larger-scale issue is the newsroom's lack of a newspaper printer. There would be no reason to expect a newspaper with a circulation of just less than 1,500 to have its own printer, and like many other small newspapers, The Skagway News gets printed in another town. In Skagway's case, the nearest land-accessible town with a printer is the Yukon capital of Whitehorse.
So for 30-something years, every two weeks, Skagway News editor Jeff Brady has made the 109-mile drive to the Whitehorse Star's newsroom, walks out with bundles of newspapers a few hours later and drives 109 miles back to Alaska. You can imagine what this is like in the winter.
Whitehorse has a population of about 26,000 and feels like downtown Manhattan compared to Skagway. It has movie theaters, Chinese food and a diversified economy, all things Skagway lacks. Everyone is excruciatingly nice. Drivers will let pedestrians cross at all costs. One time while waiting at a street corner, my coworker Katie pressed the traffic light button and the crossing signal instantly turned on. Coincidence, maybe, but I wouldn't be surprised if pedestrians had power over the traffic lights.
Yesterday I made the last of four trips to Whitehorse this summer, and as usual, the drive over was even more spectacular than the destination itself.
A much larger-scale issue is the newsroom's lack of a newspaper printer. There would be no reason to expect a newspaper with a circulation of just less than 1,500 to have its own printer, and like many other small newspapers, The Skagway News gets printed in another town. In Skagway's case, the nearest land-accessible town with a printer is the Yukon capital of Whitehorse.
So for 30-something years, every two weeks, Skagway News editor Jeff Brady has made the 109-mile drive to the Whitehorse Star's newsroom, walks out with bundles of newspapers a few hours later and drives 109 miles back to Alaska. You can imagine what this is like in the winter.
Whitehorse has a population of about 26,000 and feels like downtown Manhattan compared to Skagway. It has movie theaters, Chinese food and a diversified economy, all things Skagway lacks. Everyone is excruciatingly nice. Drivers will let pedestrians cross at all costs. One time while waiting at a street corner, my coworker Katie pressed the traffic light button and the crossing signal instantly turned on. Coincidence, maybe, but I wouldn't be surprised if pedestrians had power over the traffic lights.
Yesterday I made the last of four trips to Whitehorse this summer, and as usual, the drive over was even more spectacular than the destination itself.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Little shop of mangos
When I was in Buenos Aires, one of my favorite pastimes was getting mistaken for an Argentine. Each time it happened felt like a small victory in every tourist's fight to not feel like a tourist.
Here in Skagway, there is one place where I can curiously experience the same feeling.
The place is Ports of Call, a quaint market and Internet cafe stocked with all sorts of international foods. I would estimate 95 percent of the patrons are foreign cruise passengers. The shelves are loaded with exotic foodstuffs like cassava chips, guava juice, instant chana masala and, weirdly, Ovalteen. Every culture is represented in a room the size of a living room, with heavy emphasis on Indian, Filipino and whichever culture eats prawn crackers.
Here in Skagway, there is one place where I can curiously experience the same feeling.
The place is Ports of Call, a quaint market and Internet cafe stocked with all sorts of international foods. I would estimate 95 percent of the patrons are foreign cruise passengers. The shelves are loaded with exotic foodstuffs like cassava chips, guava juice, instant chana masala and, weirdly, Ovalteen. Every culture is represented in a room the size of a living room, with heavy emphasis on Indian, Filipino and whichever culture eats prawn crackers.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Skagway's borderline mythical egg toss
The energy was electric. People buzzed in anticipation as the starting time of 1 p.m. drew closer. But it wasn't until Buckwheat walked to the middle of Broadway with a cart holding several hundred eggs that I recognized the magnitude of what was about to happen.
The date was July 4, and I was about to take part in the annual highlight of Skagway's Independence Day celebration: the egg toss.
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