Silver Bay and more on the Boat

I'll warn you up front that Martha has delegated the creation of this post to me, Michael, her husband.
Today was a bright, sunny, cold day. We took our boat, the "Belley Ache" out to see some of the southern shoreline of Sitka Sound. We headed out for Silver Bay first. As we approached the Medvejie hatchery we came into a wind that was steering the boat for me. Since we had other more protected places on the agenda today we came about and headed back to the sound. A quick detour to us to Camp Coogan Bay to see the float houses. We next pulled into Samsing Cove to check out the Forest Service cabin there. We tied up to the moaring buoy at the cabin and enjoyed a nice lunch. We will make a weekend trip to this cabin once we acquire an inflatable dinghy to get to shore. After lunch and some casting practice (sounds better than no fish), we set off for Deep Inlet. At the back of the inlet we saw another hatchery. On the way back out we stopped to see how close we could get to some deer on shore. We also passed some otters that could care less when we passed 20 feet from them at 25 knots, but dove and hid when we approached them at idle! It was a great day on the water.

We thought we would take our snow with us!

Silver Bay

Fish processor

This cave is at the entrance to the bay. Martha asked if a bear lived in there. Only if he has SCUBA gear.

Silver Bay

This is where the old pulp mill was. The city thinks they are going to attract manufacturing here.

Camp Coogan Bay float houses

I got tired of the snow, so it had to go!

Mt. Edgecumb

Samsing Cove cabin

Nice spot for lunch

This scenery never gets old

Deer

More deer

They could care less that we were there

Heading home

Home sweet home

Snowy Day

So I was sitting here last night, watching the Olympics and doing chores. I had closed the curtains when it got dark as usual because I don't like feeling like I'm in a fish bowl, as my mother would say. I came out of our bedroom and looked over out the window in our second bedroom. That's funny, I thought, that tree looks really white. I walked over to look out and to my surprise it was snowing, really hard! haha It had just been raining earlier in the day and we had gone and cleaned all of the snow off the boat the day before and welcomed the rain to finish the job. Needless to say we again went down today to clean about 6-8 inches of snow off the boat. My inner child came out today also. With all this snow, what could I do but build a snowman! Michael scooped up the pile of snow for me to start with the body and rolled my middle body and head. There is always a little bit of child in all of us!What a place we live in!

Surprise, it's snowing!

Tree I noticed was white out the window

Front yard

Our driveway

If you walk up our street you are at Gavan Trail

If you walk down the street you end up at the marina and town

Me and Virgil, he just looked like a Virgil  Haha

Michael and Virgil

Frozen Warerfall Beauties

Our local newspaper, The Sitka Sentinel, put a photo on the front page yesterday of a frozen waterfall. I just love this thing that happens when water meets really cold weather. haha
We drove down Sawmill Creek road to all the way to the end. 6 miles. Hiked up Beaver Lake trail to see what the falls were doing. What we found was amazing! The ice formations were amazing as water still raced through the crystals and walls of ice.

This is our cute dog next door. Her name is Lady and she loves us. haha

These ice shale's reminded me of shark fins

There is a wall of ice in front of the water

This is a cube of ice that formed from water coming out of a piece of wood. It was solid.

Jack Frost was here!

Ice cycles hanging off the side of a Cliff

This is on the side of the road

Big icicles! That is ice frozen on the ground but looked like foam, like at the beach.

These were about 5 feet long

Swan Lake Ice Skating

So it's Friday night in Sitka, humm, what to do, what to do............ It is 28 degrees but was nice and sunny today. 28 is still cold though. Down the street from us we have Swan Lake that houses lots of ducks, and swans and an occasional Eagle looking for a free meal. During the summer people fish and on occasion pull out their kayaks and take a spin around the lake.  But when it is winter and stays cold consistently for a few days, the lake freezes over and people here break out their ice skates and hockey sticks. There doesn't seem to be a designated person or organization that tests the lake to make sure it is safe to go on. If someone goes out on it and doesn't fall in, must be safe!  I did hear the Fire Dept does go out, if to many people are out on it, to drill and measure to assure it is thick enough to play on. I myself have not been out on it. I don't ice skate, and I'm not a very brave person. haha There is a large set of lights that were set up so if you want to skate at night you can. Looks like a fun time is had by all ! 

Swan Lake in the summer

Looks like a beach in the distance

Then you get closer

and realize

they are ice skating!

The swim step is funny

Nice light for night skating

Some were good, some not so much  haha

This dog was a bit confused

He got into it though