Petersburg III

We awoke this morning to dense fog out on the bay – couldn’t see the barge and tug boats moored just a ¼ mile off shore. When it began to clear around 10, we headed into town. There it was a beautiful, blue-sky day.

A walk at Sandy Beach at low tide was in order to see the remains of 3000-year-old Tlingit fish traps. It takes a little imagination to see the traps which are now just some wooden pieces sticking out to the sand and rows of rocks (see photo). The idea was that fish would enter the funnel-shaped trap during high tide and remain there to be harvested with spears at low tide.

While on the beach, we watched a very funny rescue operation. A young woman and her son were on the beach screaming about her dog who it seemed had become tangled in a crab cage buoy. He was about 50 feet off shore with the buoy in his mouth paddling to hold himself up and whining. She had called her father who, just as we arrived on the scene, came running across the beach and waded out to the dog. Turns out the dog wasn’t caught at all — he was just trying to retrieve the buoy which of course wouldn’t come to shore with him. Soon the exhausted dog was on shore; also soon a policeman and ranger (who the girl had called in her panic) also appeared. They were told the dog was goofy.

We did some grocery shopping, took a walk in town, and then headed south on the island to scout out a place to spend the night. We stopped at Man-Made-Hole (a lovely swimming place) for a brief walk then headed out Woodpecker Cove road where we found a flat, level spot with a view of the mountains to spend the night – probably created as a camp space and staging area for logging operations.

For the first time there was plenty of dry wood for a fire. Dinner was grilled steak, grilled asparagus, and a salad.

-- Janet (text) and David (photos)