Josie Allen celebrated her 40th birthday camping on the Katzehin and hiking the ridge towards Santa Claus Mountain with friends Alissa Henry, Gen Bell, Knikki Cinocco, Leslie Ross and Rio Ross-Hirsch. “Great group of ladies,” Allen said. “I look forward to trying again later in the season.” They hit snow line about halfway up their hike, and enjoyed a fabulous view in the sun of town and the islands south of the Chilkat Peninsula.
Michael Mackowiak flew friend Seth Waldo and son Nik Mackowiak in his private Cessna SkyWagon 185 plane to fish for steelhead at the Situk River near Yakutat. They were able to fly straight to a Forest Service Cabin, avoiding interstate travel between Alaskan cities. Waldo reported cold and clear water and said that although Steelhead like the water a little higher, he was still able to hook a couple fish. “They were the craziest fighting fish in my young life,” Waldo said. “Really really pretty fish.”
The Haines Borough Library and Haines Friends of Recycling organized a recycled art competition for Earth Day. Winners included Finn Crowe, with a welded arachnid, Finn McMahan with a civil war union boat, Lila Tarleton with a maraca, Patience Nelson with a chicken feeder, Konner and Kyler with a rocket city, Bugg Hunter with a rocket pack, Violet Crowe with a welded sea robot, and Rellian Forster with a rocket.
Sabine Churchill’s plant sale drew approximately 450 people this year. “I sell all kinds of food bearing plants, from ground cover to berry bushes to trees,” Churchill said. She sourced her plants from the lower 48 and Canada and was pleased with the quality of the plants that were trucked in from British Columbia. “They came in 2 ½ days, and the plants were in really good shape,” she said. “I don’t think anyone came within 6 ft of each other which I appreciated. People were really patient.”
Nathanael Motes reports that spring breakup is officially over at Chilkat Lake. During breakup, which took a total of 17 days this spring, Motes is unable to leave his remote home on the “Little Lake” at the southern end of Chilkat Lake, where he keeps more than one hundred chickens. Now that waters are again navigable, Motes is delivering chicken eggs from his flock.
Friends and family of the late Guy Hoffman celebrated his May 10th birthday without the large gathering of years past. “We celebrated Mother’s Day instead this year,” Renee Ann Hoffman said. “Our annual tribute now is an ice skate at Chilkoot Lake on the anniversary of the day he died, January 17th.”
Vanessa Salmon just graduated with a Masters in Social Work after presenting and defending her thesis on the impacts of mandated maternal transport on rural Alaskans. She was admitted with advanced standing and completed the program in one year with a 4.0 cumulative GPA. Salmon looks forward to working as a clinician in community health.
Holly Davis successfully pulled off her first virtual library story hour by Zoom, and is now doing a weekly story hour session. She said that although she prefers to sing with the kids in person, Zoom is a good second best. “I do just think it is magic,” Davis said. “I’m out in my yard, I put my cell phone on my truck, and all of a sudden I’m talking to children at 33 mile or out Lutak. I never even heard of a Zoom before all this happened, but now I’m hosting them and inviting people.” To join Story Hour, participants can click the link on the library web page.