Henry and Haley Thomas got married surrounded by their friends at Kelgaya Point over the weekend. The couple met in 2022 while in South Carolina. He was a rafting guide, while she was a zip-line guide. They were engaged in Fiji, while adventuring and living in a steel container. They both work for Alaska Mountain Guides in Haines. Longtime friend Mads McNeil officiated the wedding. The cake, which had to travel via canoe to the wedding, was the bride’s favorite, a pineapple upside-down cake made by Megan Condon. Haley Thomas says the ladies in the wedding loaded up a canoe and picked wildflowers for the ceremony, as well as decorated the canoe with a beautiful array of Alaskan wildflowers. Following the picture-perfect ceremony, the evening progressed to the Pioneer Bar for karaoke and an amazing rendition of “Dreams” by the Cranberries. The couple is planning a 10-day rafting trip in Peru for their honeymoon.
Spencer (age 14) and Parker Baumgartner (age 11) traveled to Boise, Idaho, this month for the National Junior Pickleball Tournament. Spencer took fifth place in singles, first place in doubles and fourth place in teams. Parker took third in singles, fourth in doubles and first in teams. The event had more than 120 participants under age 18 competing from all over the nation.
The Victory Garden made it rain veggies last weekend. Garden coordinator Sarah Ammons said that three pounds of swiss chard, nine pounds of broccoli, 46 pounds of Napa cabbage, five pounds of rhubarb and five pounds of garlic scapes were harvested and shared by volunteers. The overflow was immediately separated and stored in the refrigerator, to be shared with the community this week. Big talk surrounded the cabbage and the perfect kimchi recipe, as the gardeners also took on the task of weeding clover out of the garden. Ryan Eckert said his rabbits will enjoy the clover buffet and turn it into the finest manure fertilizer in no time.
Trailbreaker Veterinary Services was in town for only six days, but Dr. Iacobucci, Charlene Woodward and Hannah Morton wasted no time. Saturday was a busy “Spay Day” at the clinic, being held at HARK. Monday also was fully booked for “Neuter Palooza,” according to Iacobucci. She said the team expects to treat approximately 100 pets during their stay and prefers to do the spay and neuters at the beginning of their visit to offer as much time as possible to treat any issues post-surgery. Hannah Morton is a veterinary student at UC Davis working with Trailbreakers to learn about rural medicine and veterinary practices, and will get plenty of quality time treating the pets of Haines.
Community Waste Solutions was back for a third year of bulk trash collection at the Four Winds Resource Center. Craig Franke said the 40-yard dumpster he brought for the event ran out of room just as the trash collection was running out of time. They started accepting items 9 a.m. Saturday and by the 12:30 surge, he was getting creative with loading as much as possible before the 1 p.m. cut-off. FWRC and CWS work together once a year on the event, a donation-based fundraiser for the community center. Julie Korsmeyer, president of Four Winds Resource Center board, says $450 was collected. The dumpster rolled away with tires, fencing, vacuum cleaners and a pingpong table with divots that told a story of some very aggressive pingpong.
Dust off your daubers. The early-bird pot at the weekly bingo game at the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood hall in Haines is up to $504, as it has been some time since someone won it. Deanna Strong said it can build up to a certain point before she has to play it out and that she expects this week to be busy as people angle to win the pile of cash. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the games, sponsored by the Haines Chamber of Commerce, begin at 6 p.m. You must be at least 19 years old to play.
Former Chilkat Valley News owner and current KHNS general manager Kyle Clayton graduated July 20 with his master’s degree in fiction writing from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash. Clayton, who walked in-person during his last 10-day residency of the program, was cheered on by father-in-law Richard Carlson. The program took Clayton three years to complete. He’s about three-quarters of the way through his first book, which partner Ramie Carlson said should be done by next year. Clayton also ran into some trouble on his way home and got stuck in Seattle for two days during the Alaska Airlines outage that grounded all of the company’s planes.
If you heard some strange sounds about 5 a.m. last Friday morning, it might be because that’s the time Joe Aultman-Moore and a another driver chose to move Aultman-Moore’s house into its permanent home on his acreage in Mud Bay. Aultman-Moore has been building the roughly 22-foot-by-8.5-foot cabin (plus loft) on a 21-foot trailer since spring 2022. But, he didn’t own any land when he started, so he’s had it parked on a friend’s property since then. Aultman-Moore called seeing it move for the first time “extremely nerve-wracking” as the house represents – essentially – all of his money and time for the last few years. When asked to list off some of his specific anxieties, he said: low-lying power lines along Mud Bay Road, a pothole-filled driveway to drive down and another steep one to back up, the nearly 90-degree turn onto Cemetery Hill, going over Mount Riley, the potholes in the road at the base of Riley, the winding road past the cannery, the trailer bouncing off of the ball hitch, the brakes on the truck hauling the house failing, and that the house might just fall off of the trailer and hit him as he followed behind. “I would get run over by my own house.” Fortunately, none of those things happened and now his cabin is firmly settled onto his land and he just has to get used to living in the same home but with a completely new view outside of his windows.
Kribu Valdre and her family are in town from Sweden visiting Deborah Marshall and Dennis Geason. Kribu spent her 16th year in Juneau as an exchange student with Megan and Deborah. Now, some 30-plus years later, she is back in Alaska with husband, Matts, and three grown children. They have jumped into the life — picking berries, smoking salmon and rowing for shrimp. They coaxed grandson Huxley to the top of Mount Riley and sailed a Minto sailing dinghy on a perfect day in Paradise Cove. The man at the wood chopper could barely keep up with Matts on the ax as close to a cord of wood was chopped and stacked in the woodshed in the sunshine. The Swedes!
Gabe Long is an expert in a few notable trades and crafts, but fishing guide is in his soul. When asked on July 22 when the Chilkoot weir would reach 12,000 sockeye, Long had a firm answer. He told anyone that would listen in the small boat harbor, that by Tuesday, July 29, 12,000 sockeye will pass the weir. He went on to explain how fish think and how the weather was a factor. In the end, Gabe Long was right and Chuck Jones does owe him one fish-shaped meatloaf.