Sitka: May 27, 2013

The past week has been filled with training 8:00-5:00, fishing in the evenings and just trying to enjoy the seemingly endless sunshine up here. The beautiful weather has made the days of training inside a bit difficult to bear but when its light out for about 20 hours a day there is plenty of time to spend outside. Fishing down on the docks has started picking up a bit with many people coming into Sitka this week for the king salmon fishing derby. I’ve been lucky enough to hook into some larger dolly varden, small cod, more rockfish, greenling and small coho salmon on the fly rod. The past few mornings have been extremely low tides revealing vast stretches of the ocean floor and all of its inhabitants. Lots of sea stars and anemones could be seen all over the rocks. It’s pretty cool to see the tide rise and fall 16 feet twice in a day. Halibut tacos last night for dinner with most of the Forest Service employees were great. Other than that, things have been pretty quiet and relaxing here and I’m just trying to enjoy every day while I can. The bald eagle sightings never get old here in Sitka, only 5 more weeks here then I’m off to Petersburg. I'd add more photos but the internet connection here at McDonalds is sub-par to i'll have to find a better connection for next time.

 Nice view of Mount Edgecumbe, a dormant volcano, across the the bay.

 Sunsets in Sitka like this have become standard...

 A view to the south of Sitka at the mountains.

 One of the many small coho salmon i've been hooking into.

 Some nice sea-run dolly varden for dinner with a few of the baby cohos that were hooked deep.

 A purple sunstar moving down the beach after being stranded at low tide.

 One of the many different colored sea stars around on the rocks at low tide.

Showing off a bit of a chaco sandal tan line.

Bald eagle at the tide line searching for food.