I'm listening to a hermit sing and
gazing out at a mat of slightly greening vegetation and patches of
snow. It is late May, and early spring on the Taku. Following a
frenetic week (or weeks in the case of my mother) of activity, we
managed to pull out of the harbor just after 11:00 am, right on time,
and met up in the channel to open our drinks and ceremoniously get
underway. Both the Ronquil and the Kathy M were loaded down and we
were all relieved to be underway at last. The sky was mercifully sunny,
the wind and seas as forecast, variable and 1', respectively. The Kathy
M occupants didn't feel a thing, but Cailey and I got kicked around
every which way by the little waves until we were well into the river
(the northwesterly coming down the channel manifested into wind off the
glacier). That said, Cailey did spend most of the trip curled on her
blanket in the sun, so it couldn't have been that bad. I, followed the
route from two points past Scow Cove to the bottom of the Taku Point
rocks, though wound up father downstream than intended. We took the
sandbar against the meadow slowly, the Kathy M
only touching bottom briefly twice. As I puttered I saw a male Barrow's
goldeneye and two females (the first male of many goldeneyes I've
seen up here?) and a couple of beautiful male mallards. The meadows
were brown with a hint of green shining where the vegetation was just
coming up. Willows were budding.
We arrived at the property at 1:30 and decided on using the original
landing site. There was a slight beach upriver, but no easy way to
get up and down the bank there. I briefly anchored the Ronquil and tied
a line to the Kathy M and we offloaded her in no time, me on the boat,
Mom in the middle, Jia Jia on the bank while the dogs looked on. Then
my Mom went out to anchor while Jia Jia and I unloaded the Ronquil.
Again, the sun was extremely welcome with all our various gear and a
lot of lumber. Then we both set anchor, staggered a little, along the
shore, Mom picked me up, and Jia Jia drug us in. We hauled one load of
gear up to the cabin, opened the shutters, started the pilots on the
stove, and collapsed for a snack lunch of giant scones I'd made the day
before, havarti, chips, chocolate chip cookies, and sparkling drinks at
3:00. It was safe to say we were exhausted (at least Mom and I), but
pleased and relieved to be here.
After a brief rest, we set to work bringing our gear up to the cabin.
Jia Jia hauled all the 8' lumber by hand while my mom and I tried and
failed to start the 4-wheeler. Both batteries had been charged just a
week prior, but neither would even turn the lights on let alone start
the engine. We found a third in Alder that had similar results. We met
up with Jia Jia carrying her last piece of lumber; she and I made two
or three trips with the two-wheel cart, bringing up everything but the
rest of the lumber, the gas, and the propane tank, while my mother
heroically
cleaned the inside of the refrigerator which had suffered from an
exploded diet root beer a few years ago. As dinner warmed in the oven,
we unpacked our perishables into the sparkling fridge and then tried to
start it. It lit well enough with a match, but instead of lighting the
little pilot, it made a halo of flame all around it, and would not stay
lit when we let go of the pilot button. Jia Jia and I filled tubs of
snow from the bank outside and placed them among the food, then buried
the drinks in the same snow bank while my mother first searched for the
manual and then, failing that, did her best to clean out the pilot area
from accumulated soot and dust. When I joined the project, she had
removed quite a lot of debris but was looking for a way to blow into
the secreted pilot. I rolled up a piece of paper from one of the
surveys I'd printed and blew into it until debris stopped falling. To
all our surprise, the pilot immediately lit, if somewhat dimmer than we
expected (though none of us could remember exactly what it looked like
before)
and the fridge was off and running. Having actually brought quite a few
perishable items, it was a relief, and always good to get long-dormant
systems going.
We ate delicious scalloped potatoes my mom made with asparagus, then
opened a beautiful gift of dried fruit my aunt had given her for
her birthday. Beneath it was a wooden tray that turned into an adorable
hanging basket that we filled with mandarins and which is sitting in
the
window in front of me. Later in the evening, we watched several
episodes of Taskmaster series 2 and went to bed. I slept restlessly
with both legs bothering me until I got up to go to the outhouse at
2:00, then felt better once I got back to sleep. Up at 7:45, I'm about
to go check on the boats before some breakfast and perhaps special
coffee.
------------------------
We lingered over the morning. My mom opened her birthday presents and
birthday cards and we were enjoying a little well-deserved leisure.
When we did get going, sharp at 11:00, we were at the landing and ready
to try to put floats in the water. My mom cut Jia Jia and I short
pieces of rope to help pull the floats, then cut longer pieces to
secure them once in the water. We carried down both long aluminum poles
which were designed to haul the riverboat and other things out of the
water (but had only been used once) and placed them to help guide the
floats over the roots and stumps and into the river. Only after they
were in did we realize/remember that they were in two sections and
nothing was holding them together. It wasn't a problem for the moment,
but was likely to be as we pulled them out. Jia Jia and I found that
the 3x5 sections of float were really easy to pull across the ground to
the poles. Lifting them up onto the ends of the poles was reasonable
with Jia Jia and I on either end of the front and my mom on the back,
and it worked fairly well except that all three sections got hung up on
one of the trees sticking out over the bank on the way down. But
surprisingly fast, the three main sections were floating and tied to
shore. We carried WD-40 and the special tool down to the closest dock
section and my mom threw down the pins that hold them all together.
After a bit
of confusion, we figured out how they all fit together by looking at
the key on the corner of each float--one, two, three, or four dots
which denote the order from top to bottom of the corners that fit
together. This dictated which side of the floats adjoined. Most of the
confusion was because one of the corners had come loose and I'd
refastened it in the wrong order. My mom lubricated each pin and,
amazingly, we had all three floats joined and happily floating in an
hour and 40 minutes. It was much easier and less stressful than using
the 4-wheeler.
In an effort to avoid getting our eating schedule too far off, we broke
at 12:40 and had a lunch of quesadillas, then headed out on a walk of
the loop. We were surprised to
find that much of the trail was covered in snow drifts up to five feet
tall, so we spent a lot of time tromping up and down the
thankfully-hard-packed mounds. Lowlands were swamped with water, pools
forming between drifts and flooding trails. Higher ground looking
pleasantly like park land with a sheen of green where the vegetation
was just coming up. We didn't see many birds, but heard orange-crowned
warblers, yellow warblers, robins, and fox sparrows. When we got back
there was time for a little more work before dinner and, partly at my
urging, we decided to
continue work on the floats with the idea of finishing its assembly
that day. Jia Jia and pulled down one 2x4 section of floats to connect
the main assembly to shore and Mom tied on a line to secure it. We
lifted it up as we had the others and down it went. As it slid my mom
let out a cry, flipped to the side, and crashed to the ground, groaning
in pain. Somehow the short line had caught her leg, twisted it and
thrown her down painfully. Her right leg was bent at the knee awkwardly
beneath her, so I made a quick decision and straightened it in the hope
that it would feel better, but she was in agony. There was little we
could do and, once she recovered enough to talk, she couldn't move from
the spot. I got her some Aleve, water, and a little later some
chocolate and a cold can of bubbly to either drink or place against the
leg (she chose the latter). Unable to help her more, Jia Jia
and I worked a little more, which first required us to rescue the
floats we'd just slid to the river. Amazingly, its line doubled back on
itself, creating a sturdy
hook, which had caught on the Kathy M's stern line as the floats glided
it. Otherwise, they'd have been half way out of the river by
then. I loosened the upriver line on the floats and Jia Jia pulled
herself out until she could reach them. She guided them around
the outside of the main float and we soon had them secured as a walkway
to
shore. By then it was time to quit and figure out how to get my mom
back to the cabin. She was in excruciating pain whenever she moved,
especially standing up, and supporting her between us for the walk back
was not a possibility. I helped hold her up while Jia Jia fetched the
two wheel cart. My mom gingerly sat on the edge of it and then worked
her way in and we pushed her up to the cabin, wincing with her at all
the roots. Thankfully, the patches of snow between us and the cabin had
greatly diminished since the day before both by melting and our steps
and wheels through it. She was smiling and in good spirits despite the
pain. When we got to the cabin we had no choice but to help her inside
upright and to the chair. She was very chilled and soon shaking. I was
concerned about shock, but I read my little first aid guide I keep in
my adventure pack and she had none of the symptoms, so managed to
convince me that she
didn't need an immediate medivac. Jia Jia lit a fire and filled a bag
of snow to put on the knee, then fetched the drill and her phone from
the landing in case it rained while I changed the propane tank, as the
pilots had gone out. Once lit, we added a hot water bottle to the
blankets over my mom and she eventually warmed up. Not up for cooking,
and still missing the hamburger spices I'd brought up, I heated up
Mom's lasagna for dinner and we ate late. Jia Jia and I helped my mom
to the bathroom and later to bed, none of which was very comfortable
for her.
----------------------------
It was a hard night for sleeping. I was, admittedly, angry about the
injury and the implications for this trip and possibly for the summer.
We had no way of knowing what had happened to the knee other than that
there didn't appear to be a break. Most of the pain was concentrated at
the top of the shin and most of the discomfort occurred while it hung
or when she tried to extend it. I got up at 12:30 to use the outhouse
and take some ibuprofen for my aching leg, then slept better until
about 8:30. My mom was feeling a little better and, over the next day,
Jia Jia and I progressed from "hopping" with her, supporting her on
either side a
short distance at a time, to simply carrying her between us, which was
more comfortable for everyone, and she was able to scoot across the
floor reasonably as well when needed. We had another long morning
inside before getting to work, during which I made (pretty delicious)
pancakes
for everyone and washed the dishes. The sun peered in and out of fluffy
clouds and the day was a fine one for working. Jia Jia and I set up my
mom in a camp chair on the porch (which I'd bought for my dad for the
same reason, but had never been used), bundled up, to oversee Jia Jia
and I as we
built the water tower. My mom had precut all the lumber for it in town,
so the hard part was done. I went through drawings of it with her to
figure out how it would be put together and we came up with a plan. By
12:30 we had an absolutely beautiful and fully-constructed water tower
standing in front of the porch. I made chicken havarti sandwiches for
lunch which we feasted on them with cherries, chips, and champagne, the
lunch I'd intended for her birthday picnic in the meadow.
After lunch we helped my mom back inside, then Jia Jia and I set to
work digging holes to secure the water tower in the same area the water
barrel had been before, on the ground and subject to naughty bears. In
fact, we used the two holes where the stakes had been driven to
stabilize it.
Except we wanted holes 18" deep, so we utilized my mom's amazing little
auger drill bit which somehow a cordless drill can power! We did have
to cut through a layer of roots on the back two holes before we could
use it, but then it drilled down easily, loosening the sand which we
then pulled up with spade and hand. Jia Jia set the tape at 18" and,
when they were all about the right depth, we gently lowered it in. It
was already almost perfectly level, and a tiny nudge got it perfect.
We'd
carefully made sure the whole structure was square when we screwed in
the frame, so the legs were nice and plumb. We hastily filled in around
them and cheered the beautiful tower. After giving my mom an update,
and a diet root beer for me, we installed the barrel at the top and set
about securing it up there, starting with the two 2x4 stakes that it
had been wrapped with on the ground (which had created two of the holes
we'd
used). They fit flush against the upright posts between the gaps in the
decking, which was perfect, but there wasn't room for the olive barrel
between them if I put them on opposite corners, which was my first
inclination. Instead, we put them both on the back of the tower,
turning the stakes upright which we both agreed was aesthetically
pleasing. Then I tied the line around them over an indentation in the
top of the barrel and soon had it snugly secured. Then all we had to do
was fix up the catchment. Unfortunately, nothing we did could get the
filter to fit back into the center of it where it is meant to trickle
through to keep out needles and other debris, so my mom directed me to
some mosquito screen that we were able to put between the catchment and
the lid section it screws into just below, which I think will do the
trick. We screwed the catchment to the lid, then, after awkwardly
carrying it up the ladder (using the no-stop top step), screwed the lid
to the barrel. Because of bear damage, the catchment flops around like
that, so Jia Jia provided firewood to support it upright until we found
the right combination of large chunks of alder. And we had a fully
functional and great looking water tower!
Meanwhile, we were surrounded by spring birds including a lot of
ruby-crowned kinglets, varied thrushes, hermit
thrushes (especially in the evening), Townsend's
warblers, and probably yellow warblers. I saw
the
outline of a flycatcher at the top of a spruce tree, there are
sandpipers on the river, and robins in the meadow. Oh, and there was
the Eurasian collared dove that flew onto the porch railing just
outside the window, giving us a magnificent look at her before she flew
away.
After a break, Jia Jia and I went to unload the
soil and
peat moss from the Kathy M and discovered a nightmare of logs and
debris piled against both boats. The Ronquil had snagged a large log on
its stern line, which in turn grabbed more logs and debris, and pulled
the boat close to shore not far above the floats. The Kathy M had
apparently pulled anchor from the debris and was downriver of the
floats, having reached the end of its stern line and apparently
reanchored on the way, close to shore and broadside to the current. I
was able to loosen the upriver line on the floats and pull it up close
enough to reach the mass of logs and debris on the Ronquil but not
quite close enough
for Jia Jia to free the stern line from the largest log's branch, which
was holding it taut. She was
very close to pushing it free with the handle of the large hoe we had
on hand from putting the floats together, but there was a side branch
that prevented it. I tied off the line and hopped down, my extra few
inches of size enabling me to finish the job. With that we could push
all the logs out, but just as I was about to jump aboard to rescue the
Kathy M I realized that I had neither boat key, so I fetched them and
updated my mom. Back at the landing, the Ronquil was back in the
current away from shore and it took a lot of pulling on its stern line
to bring it close enough to a log on shore I could use to access it
(mostly
because it kept getting its prop stuck in a spruce tree just
downriver). Once aboard, I pulled anchor with great effort. I could
make no progress by hand, and it took several minutes pulling with
force from the engine in various directions before it finally came free
of the river bottom. I floated down beyond the Kathy M, tied the
Ronquil to it, and hopped aboard. I tried to pull up to the anchor
without freeing the stern line, but it was already at the end of it and
I couldn't maneuver without stretching it dangerously (especially with
Jia Jia on the floats) so I took the tension off and untied it, having
Jia Jia pull it in from her side. I also had to use the engine to free
that anchor, but with much less effort. Then I anchored the Kathy M
back
upriver and drifted down to the docks where Jia Jia threw me the stern
line. I temporarily tied up the Kathy M there and Jia Jia and I easily
unloaded and stacked all the soil and peat moss, six bags of each. It
was the easiest part of the whole operation! I then loosened the stern
line and drifted back into the current, anchored the Ronquil, and tied
its stern line to the stern of the Kathy M, hopping from there to the
float. In the end, the two boats were at anchor side by side adjacent
to the floats. We'd arrived to unload the soil around 4:30 and headed
back up around 6:30. Jia Jia and I decided that we were now at a
positive 2, having started with the boats at negative 3 (losing
ground), then not only correcting the problem but making some progress
by unloading the bags and generally improving on the locations of the
boats. I'd hoped to end the evening a little earlier and was pretty
well exhausted by then, but managed to season and bake coho salmon,
boil fresh green beans, and mix up some stove top stuffing, all of
which turned out exceptionally well and was relished.
---------------------
This time I slept well until 4:30 when I finally succumbed to my
bladder and the roaring of the wind that had awakened me. It sounded
ferocious and I thought I'd better check on the boats after using the
outhouse. On the way, I ominously saw no sign of the Kathy M yet again,
but on closer inspection found both boats pushed against shore by the
strong southeasterly coming up the river, bow to stern just upriver
from the floats. They were rocking comfortably in deep enough water
just off shore, but a little too close and I watched as the bow of the
Kathy M clanged against the Roquil's prop. There was not much I could
do at that moment in the wind, so I let the boats be, only hopping down
to the floats to tighten the stern line of the Kathy M (which it was
pulling taught) to try to keep it downriver of the Ronquil and avoid
contact if possible. The strong wind highly suggested an imminent rain
storm, but it was only barely sprinkling at the time. I managed to fall
back asleep eventually, but Jenny was up at 8:00 woofing to be let out,
so I got up to do so and that was the end of sleep.
Leaving my mother with a fire going in the cabin and both dogs, Jia
Jia and I headed down to the floats where we found the boats in the
same location. Both had tangled their lines in the bushes at the
water's edge and easily floated back into place when we pulled them
loose. While there (or possibly another time!) I was able to use the
grappling hook to retrieve the bottoms of the aluminum poles from the
river after one of them had detached in the middle and disappeared.
With that accomplished, our next tasks were to work on two
engines: the generator and the water pump. We added fresh gas to the
genset, turned it on, and pulled and pulled and pulled. To my surprise,
we found the 4-wheeler in neutral, though I was certain it had been in
1st gear last year when I'd hooked up the barely-charged battery. Jia
Jia and I easily pushed it back a foot or two until we could both stand
by the generator and try pulling. I explained that normally it starts
at just a pull or two, but this wasn't even trying to catch. A little
disappointed, we moved on to the water pump, pulling back the heavy
tarp, taking off the roof, adding gas, getting all the settings in
place, filling the lower priming tank with a brand new special
emergency foam plug my mom had found (the original plastic one no
longer held water). We filled the tank and found that nothing was
seeping out. The pump itself started without a hitch and we soon had
water spitting at the hose junction on the hill and trickling into the
tank. I kept touching the pump to make sure it wasn't getting hot. All
of this was a good sign, but soon enough there was evidence that
perhaps it was not moving water anymore, and indeed the trickling in
the tank on deck had stopped. I shut off the motor and talked with my
mom about trouble shooting. We eventually tried again, this time with
the outlet hose off to see exactly what was exiting the tank. I took a
video of it dripping out foamy water. We'd taken a tote and water jug
down in the hopes of filling that directly from the pump, but we only
got a couple of cups out before we stopped. From the video, my mom
strongly suspects it is sucking air along the pipe from the well, and
we made plans to take the pipe apart and regrease it before anything
else. Unfortunately, that was one job we didn't wind up trying, so it
remains to be seen if that will fix the problem.
But we did fix the generator. My mom remembered that we probably needed
to turn the valve to the fuel on to get it started. When I got back
down there I realized that the switch I'd turned on WAS the fuel valve,
but that I hadn't turned the actual ON switch on. It started without a
hitch and I ran it for a little while. That afternoon we started work
on the garden box. Again we moved my mom onto the porch all bundled up,
but she was very uncomfortable. We managed to build one of the long
walls, quickly running through two drill batteries. I started the
generator again and began charging the dead batteries using both our
chargers (we have the same drill) directly from the genset, as I
couldn't quickly find the extension cord to plug in that connects to
the cabin, and continued with one of my batteries. Once again I'd hoped
to end the evening at a more reasonable hour, and once again failed as
we tried to do more work. On the second wall, we discovered that one of
the two horizontal 2x4s that tie the corner posts together had been
marked but not cut, so we opened up Fox Hole and happily found the
skilsaw there. We carried the 2x4 to the generator and I cut the end of
the board off with an extremely reluctant skilsaw. I think the brake
release button for the thumb might be really stiff, and I felt lucky to
get the saw going long enough to make the cut. We got both horizontals
tacked in and called it a night.
My stress levels had returned as my
mom's pain did not diminish and her foot was wanting to stick out a
little to the right. I make bison burgers for dinner, the first time in
years I think, and they turned out extraordinarily delicious and all
two
pounds were devoured. For dessert I made a Krusteaz crumb cake with
tart cherries and we ate 3/4s of it. After dinner we discussed in
detail the possible ways to return to town. Eventually everyone was
convinced that getting my mom to the landing (a large and painful
expedition), then down the vertical slope, then onto the floats, then
onto the boat, then driving for two hours in who-knows-what kind of
seas was not a good option if there were other choices. We decided I
would return to town on the tide on Saturday and come back with a
helicopter Sunday morning, sending my mom home and coming back with the
Kathy M that afternoon. At 8:10 I checked on the boats and found them
riding well in the river, if rocked about by the intense southeastly
once again roaring up the river. This time there were white caps on the
river and big seas that might have been over a foot (a lot for a
river). I don't use the term lightly, but I described the conditions to
my mom and Jia Jia as N-A-S-T-Y nasty. I hoped it would improve
overnight, as there was no way I would go out in seas like that. I came
back to find my mom, Jia Jia, and Cailey all snuggled on the couch. I
joined them and we watched the rest of Taskmaster series 2 and went to
bed a little later than usual.
---------------------------
I made it until 7:00 before I had to get out of bed, checking on the
boats after using the outhouse. I went back to bed after that, not
seeing any reason to start the day early and extremely exhausted. I
dozed a little, then got up around 9:00. As I warmed scones in the oven
for breakfast and got my mom a cup of coffee, I broached again the
topic of getting my mom out. I'd laid in bed the night before
increasingly uneasy about the amount of time we'd waited since the
injury had happened and not wanting to wait another day. Although none
of us really wanted to end the trip, I suggested that perhaps we should
send a SPOT message and get a helicopter there that day, then I could
tow the Ronquil in that afternoon with the Kathy M. To my surprise,
everyone was on board with that plan. The only trick was that we didn't
have a SPOT message specifically about needing a chopper. My messages,
which I'd taken photos of to be sure, asked for a plane or said we
needed help and to look where we were. Though I'd meant to, I hadn't
checked my mom's SPOT messages to see what they said, which I kicked
myself for endlessly. In the end, we decided I'd walk back into the
meadow near the slough and send the help message there, trusting Ezra
to look at the location and send a helicopter instead of a float plane.
We'd had a conversation before I left about which companies to use and
I knew from two years ago how well he can interpret the messages I
send. I reached the slough and
sent the message, watching until the message
sent light
went on. Then I left it for a full ten minutes to make sure it got
sent, rewarded with a look at a pair of yellow warblers following each
other through a willow clump and a Lincoln's sparrow that alighted in a
nearby willow only to be chased off by its resident. It was a mild,
overcast day, and apparently calm, which was a great relief over the
storm from the night before.
At 11:00 I walked back to the cabin and cheked in. Jia Jia found a dark
orange sheet my mother remembered to put on the front lawn to alert the
helicopter and I found a reddish pillowcase to wave on top of my staff.
We hoped the helicopter, if that's what Ezra sent, would come by the
cabin before going back to the meadow, and we wanted there to be no
mistake. After starting the generator to charge Jia Jia's phone a
little, we put the sheet on the meadow, got the pole ready, then Jia
Jia and I carried the peat moss and soil up the bank by hand and
wrapped all but two bags in the tarps I'd brought along, carrying the
other two to the front porch. My mom said the generator had quit, maybe
out of gas, so I put more in and started it again, sweet talking it
while it chugged awkwardly for a long time and threatened to quit, then
turned a corner and began humming as usual, to our relief. Jia Jia had
a 23% charge, so we left it at that. We were about to carry all the
other gear we'd left there from the floats project back to Alder when I
heard an engine noise from downriver. We ran back to the cabin, I
alerted my mom, then we ran to the riverfront to watch. It didn't take
long to realize it was a boat as it got closer, and we saw it in the
channel across the river. I told my mom it was a false alarm, but
moments later I heard a definite airborne engine from downriver and
soon confirmed it was a helicopter, flying so low I could not see it
through the trees. Jia Jia and I could track it from its sounds, and it
went straight to where I'd sent the message and seemed to linger there
a bit. Then it flew upriver and toward the river, still so low that we
couldn't see it beyond the tree tops. I didn't see it until it was over
the river and in view through the gap in the trees at the point. I
could see the pilot looking, waved him in, and indicating he should
land there. Jia Jia was behind waving the pole. When I knew he'd seen
us, I ran back toward the cabin, picking up the sheet on the way,
feeling a moment of intense relief that choked me up for a split
second. Jia Jia went to help my mom pack a few things and get ready
while I waited outside, picking another 20 or more small spruces in the
blueberry bushes while the helicopter wound down. (I'd picked over 50
already from there, and dozens from other parts of the meadow.) I was
delighted to see Brendan step down, the same pilot who had brought us
up and back this winter, putting our dogs in and out of the helicopter
and helping carry our gear through the snow. I thanked him for coming,
relieved at his nonchalantness, and briefed him about the situation. At
the same time I cheerily asked if he was up to picking up a human this
time, he said something about how I knew he was up for picking things
up. While he called his boss (who briefed Ezra in town), Jia Jia and I
helped my mom to the porch and put her jacket on, then Brendan and I
carried her to the chopper, with two breaks, while Jia Jia followed
with her bag. Brendan took the door off and lifted her up from the
inside while Jia Jia and I pushed from below and soon my mom was in the
helicopter and they were off. Watching it lift from the ground, my mom
waving cheerily from inside, I felt an immense sense of relief, a huge
burden off my shoulders. The chopper had landed less than an hour and a
half from the time I'd sent the help message, thanks to the
attentiveness and decisions of Ezra and the helpfulness of Tempsco. In
town, Ezra met the helicopter and took my mom to the hospital where
x-rays revealed that the top right corner of her tibia had broken off.
By then it was about 12:40 and we spent the rest of the afternoon
closing up, starting with tying a harness across the back of the
Kathy M, cleat to cleat, that a tow line could attach to, keeping the
pull centered on the Kathy M. We used the long green line conveniently
left on the float. While the boat was tied to the
dock, we also unloaded the canoe motor and I carried it to Alder and
tied it to the wall next to the riverboat engine while Jia Jia finished
carrying the rest of the gear from putting the floats in to Alder. We
then tried and failed to push the 4-wheeler back into its shelter,
apparently no longer in neutral, and screwed in its plywood walls. Then
we recovered the water pump thoroughly and headed inside to clean the
cabin. While I did a pile of dishes, Jia Jia packed up all my mom's
gear, tidied up, and swept the carpet. We took most of our gear down to
the landing and onto the floats with one 2-wheel cart load, dropped it
off in Alder, and screwed the door shut with new screws, as the others
were nowhere to be found. All day I'd really wanted a cup of Russian
tea and a moment of relaxation. It was after 3:00 by then and I wanted
to be departing by 4:00 (after the awkwardness of anchoring the dock
and tying the boats together), but I'd noted that the tide had not
really begun to rise when we were there, so I decided we had time. In
the clean cabin, we sipped tea and ate some cherry crumb cake and read
some of my mom's log entry. Then we closed and locked the cabin up and
walked with the rest of the gear and the dogs to the docks, first
loading
everything and the dogs on board. To our relief, Jenny came easily,
needing no help or encouragement to get down the slope and into the
boat. First I pulled the Kathy M's anchor, then tied it securely to the
dock. The idea was to use its anchor for the floats and, to that end,
we'd pulled the floats upriver a little from their intended resting
place earlier that morning. However, they'd settled back to where we
wanted them and we left it there, as it would have taken a lot of work
to shift it out of its slot and we were running out of time. Instead,
after failing to get the anchor far enough upriver to catch with a
thrown off the bow, I puttered upriver a ways in the Kathy M and threw
it from there,
then tied it to the outside corner of the dock. Also attached with
three lines from shore, I hope the docks will be secure.
But then it got complicated. We pulled away from the dock and headed to
the Ronquil. I'd had to detach its stern line from the Kathy M in order
to pull anchor, so its stern line was dragging in the water. However,
this turned out to be convenient for tying off the Kathy M while I
pulled the Ronquil's anchor. While I pulled close toward its stern, Jia
Jia was able to fetch the line with a 2x2 and we tied it to the rail.
Then I hopped onto the Ronquil, motored up to and pulled the anchor,
then had Jia Jia untie the line from the bow while I drifted toward the
Kathy M. Uncertain how to hook up, I was pleased to find that the
Ronquil drifted on its own to snuggle and drift alongside the Kathy M,
so close that I was able to tie the 50' bow line to our harness
without even needing to hold the boats together. I raised the engine,
made sure everything was ship shape, then hopped back aboard the Kathy
M. Our first attempt to start the tow didn't go very well, as the boats
were not in the right position, but on the second try, Jia Jia threw
the harness over the engines and I put a bit of tension on the line and
off we went. It towed just beautifully. By then we'd drifted to the
mouth of the slough and continued at a leisurely pace all the way down
the meadow, never touching bottom. I got up to speed by the cliffs and
everything was going very smoothly. We hit one hidden log and Jia Jia
leapt to the back to make sure the Ronquil didn't hit the Kathy M as I
slowed briefly, but that was the only time we slowed down at all. I
followed my imaginary path from Taku Point to Scow and never touched
bottom, to my great relief, as I never slowed down, and we took a light
following sea to Point Bishop. I tried to vary the speed, but the boat
really wanted to hover around 3900 rpms; slower than that and we were
barely on step, faster and the Ronquil skidded from side to side in the
wake, pulling awkwardly. The skies were dry, and the whole thing went
extremely smoothly, both dogs curled up, everything ship shape. I felt
very optimistic. At the end of the channel I talked with Ezra and my
mom, who was about to eat pizza with Mike and Amelia. Ezra met us at
the entrance to the harbor where conveniently empty floats allowed us
to pull in slowly and detach the tow line. He drove the Ronquil into
the slip in front of us and we were soon tied. Jia Jia tied on some of
the Kathy M's lines while I finished with the Ronquil, then instructed
me on the final spring line. Ezra offloaded our gear into a couple of
carts and off we went for home, Jenny jumping eagerly into my car. We
chatted with my mom for a while and looked at her x-rays, then headed
off for showers. What a trip!
Addendum: It turned out that the top of my mother's tibia was crushed
by the bottom of her femur, resuling in a "very serious injury" as her
doctor said several times. There were several other fractures and
damage to ligaments, but it was the crushed bone that required surgery.
Two weeks after the fall, Dr. Garcia raised the top of the tibia back
into position, filling the cavity below with manufactured bone, and
screwed a metal plate along the side of it with six screws through the
tibia. It was a full two months before any weight could be put on the
leg, after which a slow process of rehabilitation would begin.
Spirits were
high in the beginning!
