Irises in bloom
Photo Album
Taku
2019 - 1: Opening
June 15-16
I didn't write this trip report
at
the time, as it was an
overnight and Mom and I stayed up late chatting and then crashed for
the night. I'd opened up Snetty earlier in the month and found myself
hoping to go up the Taku once before the wedding, just for an
overnight, as I had no time and little leave. Everything worked out
perfectly: I had the Saturday-Sunday I needed, Mom was surprisingly
able to make it without a fuss and with no requirement to take a bigger
boat, the tides were perfect, and the weather quite cooperative. It
really felt like everything fell into place, and we had a lovely time.
We left late in the morning on Saturday and made it up the river
without incident, deciding to take the known route along the grassy
shoreline south of the slough rather than risking the unknown passage
farther out that other boats were taking. The water was high enough
that we only touched bottom briefly and we anchored up without a
problem. My mom made us havarti and Italian bread sandwiches on the way
up, and the day was young when we arrived, so we walked upriver and
then behind the
cabin to pick up camera cards. That afternoon before dinner we tackled
the wood splitter,
one of our primary goals for the weekend. My mother had described
cleaning the rust off of...something, but I didn't really understand
what we would be doing. We
made room for ourselves to move around the splitter in Alder, started
the large generator for lights, and set about removing the engine cover
so we
could work on the big smooth wheel inside that has something to do with
a
magnet and running the engine. The goal was to clean the rust off. We
took turns with an emery cloth, lightly sanding away until we thought
we'd done about as much as we could. The wheel was considerably
smoother than it had been. Then we secured the case again, changed the
spark plug, added
some fresh fuel, and tried to start it, with no luck. I was dubious
about the whole thing. We looked for the fuel additive that rejuvenates
old fuel, all over the place, to no avail. Then we took off the spark
plug and poured some fuel in, and tried again. And it
started to catch! It was so dark I couldn't find the choke in time to
turn it off, but after a few tries we had the engine going. My mother
remarked on my utterly shocked expression. Amazing! I couldn't believe
it! We ran it for a few minutes, moved the wedge down and back a few
times, then broke for dinner. Cailey had surreptitiously eaten the corn
casserole my mother had generously made just behind us on the boat as
we pulled out of the harbor, so we ate cans of chili that had been
sitting in the cabin for a couple of years, and the wine that we'd
brought. It had been a good afternoon.
We
had similar luck the next day. My mom got the other generator started
and we decided to also try the water pump, which first required us to
hook it up in its little house. I was surprised and uncertain about the
fact that the house itself had to be moved a foot or two toward the
well, but we figured somehow it had gotten moved in the two years since
it had been set up. We found grease for the connection and pipe
wrenches and soon had it hooked up. Then we primed it and...it started
on the first pull or so. Amazing! There's a gap of about an hour and a
half before I took the next picture, so I'm not sure what happened, but
it may have involved trying to start the 4-wheeler, which is where we
failed. The battery was apparently dead and hooking it up to the
charger (while the generator ran) didn't work. We wanted to take it
out, but it is awkwardly tucked under the metal basket on the back and
we decided not to fight with it on this trip. Still, four of five
engines started on a short trip was pretty good.
So we rewarded ourselves with the trip I really wanted to take, a
canoe ride up the slough. It was mid-June and prime time to see singing
birds, including the common yellowthroats I'd discovered back there a
couple of years ago that had intriugued my mother. I was pretty
confident we'd find them, if only we spent some time back in the
slough, especially around the most upriver of the slough islands which
I'd thought about calling "Yellowthroat Island" for seeing them around
there. We headed downriver from the landing and turned into the lovely
slough, hearing savanna sparrows in the grasses and, soon enough,
yellowthroats! We heard them on both sides of the slough as we turned
upriver, but the bushes were separated from the water by low sedges
there and so we didn't take too much time to hunt them out. Instead we
continued upriver, seeing occasional Lincoln's sparrows and both
watching and seeing (for the first time for me) winnowing snipes. I've
heard them many times over the meadows, but this time we could seem
them diving in the sky to make their magical sounds. And eventually we
made our way to the island and came ashore, after being frustrated
several times by other illusive warblers. My mother had left her good
binoculars behind, so I'd traded her old pair for my new pair in my
desperation for her to see them. We had one there on the island with
us, and not far away, but it kept ducking into the grass and bushes.
Finally, across the water, a male yellowthroat sat on the branch of a
dead tree and sang and we both watched him, his yellow throat shining
in the sun. And another, duller but still beautiful bird flew along,
probably his mate. Yellowthroats! As we got back in the canoe and
paddled around the island, we realized how small it was, and decided it
was a good name if one regularly found a home there. I may have been
more satisfied than my mother, as I get overly attached to the idea of
other people seeing critters that I enjoy. We left the canoe in its
usual place, ate quesadillas for lunch (which I'd made that morning)
while my mother filled the water tank (which took longer than usual
because the valve to the ground that we use to drain the tank was still
open), and then closed up, sadly, and headed to town, leaving the
hummingbirds to their nectar. It was a very good quick trip. My mother
would return later that week with my dad and my brother's family and
Kyle, but I would not be able to make it, as I was heading to the
Kuskokwim for work the following Monday. But at least we knew that we
needed toilet paper! This report was written a month and a half after
the fact, so I'm sure that many details are missing.
