Abundance

— Arlo

    As I write this, it’s wet and cold outside, but it’s hot and steamy below, and the pressure cooker emits quick bursts of steam, finishing the canning process for eight little jars of salmon. After just over two idyllic weeks in Prince William Sound, we come to the middle of our second season in Alaska, and we continue to be amazed by the abundance of natural resources in this part of the world. Consuming these resources has been one long highlight of my summer. 

  • Abundant wildflowers.
  • Abundant ice.
  • Abundant salmon.
  • Abundant beaches. (Abundant patterns).
  • Abundant, um, whale vertebrae.

    Alaska has a variety of tasty fish, and we continually try, with mixed results, to make a dent in the local fish populations. Earlier this summer, we had enough good luck to catch a large King Salmon and some assorted Lingcod and Rockfish. More recently, on my birthday, we happened to be in a cove where there were plentiful Salmon running. As my dad rowed our little dinghy along the edges of the river at the head of the cove, I stood in the stern looking out across the water for the telltale signs of a school of Sockeye or Humpie Salmon: fins breaking the surface, little ripples in the water, or the forms of quick moving fish beneath the surface. I cast, and then as I retrieved my lure through the fish, my line came tight and the rod doubled over. Thirty seconds later we hauled aboard a beautiful, gleaming, flapping Sockeye Salmon, eventually catching four of these magnificent fish.

Abundant salmon.

Because of this abundance of (mostly) easily caught fish, Alaska supports a huge commercial fishing fleet; Alaska’s commercial fishers alone produce over half of the nation’s seafood.  

Abundant salmon.

    Beyond fish, there are plenty of other sources of food that you don’t have to go out of your way to get. When we go hiking through the ever present scrubby forests, scraggly spruces, marshy, grassy meadows, and craggy ridges, there are many plants and fruits that you can grab as you go. Some of these we already knew what to do with, like blueberries, salmonberries, wild mushrooms, rockweed, and dandelion greens. The rockweed and dandelion greens in particular have seen a lot of usage on our boat, making appearances in everything from pasta salad to a vegetable stir-fry. Other plants that we had never tried before, like fiddleheads, the curled heads of ferns, are plentiful, and, as we found, are good in soup. 

Abundant rockweed.

Abundant wild greens.

    Alaska’s abundant resources also include minerals and trees, which support mining and logging industries. While tourism is relatively new to Alaska, Alaska’s abundant trees and minerals have been extracted for over a century. Often, the bays that we anchor in have old ruins of mines, mining camps, logging roads, sawmills, and ships that remain from industries of the first half on the 20th century. These forgotten ruins are slowly being overcome by vegetation and rust. I particularly find it fun to explore these old ruins, stripping anything that might be of value to me, mostly in the form of the precious resources of rusty bolts, nails, and other assorted metal parts.

  • Abundant rusty artifacts.
  • Abundant mosquitos (with old miner’s cabin).

        With all of these tantalizing food sources (and rusty bolt sources) it is extremely tempting to stay in Prince William Sound longer. However, we are planning on moving along across the Gulf of Alaska. We may depart day after tomorrow after a nasty low pressure weather system passes. We’ll be bound for the Alaskan panhandle, and I’m pretty sure that there will be plenty of fish, dandelion greens, and rusty bolts on the other side of this passage as well. 

Abundant beauty.

Editor’s note: In addition to the pleasure we get indulging ourselves in the richness of Alaskan nature, we’ve marveled at the interconnected web of this abundance. The same day Arlo caught the salmon from the dinghy, we observed two brown bears fishing for salmon on the same river, and bald eagles tussling over salmon scraps the bears left behind. As Arlo explains, Alaska’s natural abundance is impressive. As we sail Prince William Sound 31 years after the tragic Exxon Valdez oil spill in these waters, we all continue to be concerned about the impacts of mining, logging and fishing, and the ability of this beautiful abundant ecosystem to survive. (Jason)

25 thoughts on “Abundance”

  1. Bravo! My life is more abundant having read this and observed the photos.
    Cary on safely. We love you!

  2. Arlo, me lad, you are abundantly nifty, as are the rest of you. Thanks for all the salmon, which is about 1/4 of my average daily intake (a pound or so every four days). Continue being well, all of you, and once about 80% of us are full of antibodies to SARS-Cov-2, we should roll the old scow along again together.

  3. How lucky you are to not be in the midst of this pandemic. But the black Lives Matter movement is inspiring. Weird times.

  4. Dear friends – I think of you all so often, and so fondly, and love to picture you among such lush nature. We had our own bear sighting last week – a small black one as opposed to yours, but still…! xox Katharine

    1. Thanks for that, we think of you guys too, sounds like bears all around! (Arlo)

  5. Loving the updates. It brings Alaska alive again for me and just makes me miss it that much more. This is the time of year I would be headed that way for two weeks. Some day I’ll make it back there again. It’s just to beautiful not to go and see again.

    The photos are awesome. Be careful when picking berries. They have one there called Baneberries and they are very poisonous so if it’s one you don’t recognize steer clear. It’s a stalk with a cluster of hard red or white berries. Google them if you think you’ve run into it.

    I’m sure you’ve sailed past a million of their state flower, which is called “Fireweed”. It looks kind of like phlox that we have at home. It grows wild everywhere 🙂

    Keep the wonderful updates coming.

    Love from Kansas,
    Lou Anne

    1. Thanks for the thoughts Lou Anne! As we’ve moved south we’ve started to get cloud berries and wild strawberries too! And, yes, lots of Fireweed.

    2. thanks for the comments, and we have seen a ton of fireweed, among other things! Love from Alaska! (Arlo)

  6. Arlo you are an amazing writer. I can almost be there with you when you describe all that you are doing and experiencing. The photos are a bonus also. I truly enjoy all your and your family’s stories of your travels. Please keep sharing when you can. Enjoy all that comes your way.

    1. Thank you for this — we’re working our way south fairly quickly now–we’ll post more in a week or so!

  8. Beautiful post! I want to go to Alaska after reading this. Hugs from NZ.

    1. Thank you! I think you’d really like Alaska, but New Zealand doesn’t sound so bad either! Thinking of you guys! (Arlo)

  9. So good to hear from you, we think of all of you often!
    Arlo, we thought of you on your birthday and remember spending one of your birthdays here at the farm, I believe we went to the Pony Creek lake with kayaks so you could be on some body of water! I’m sure your Alaska birthday will be a memorable one! Love to all!
    Tammy and Dennis

    1. thank you! we’re thinking of you guys too, and I remember that birthday really well! hope you’re doing well on the farm! love from Alaska.

  10. Living the life! Caitln, I’m remembering at this moment a conversation I had with your father, just before he departed for a Colorado river raft adventure.(if I’m remembering correctly.) It must have been about 1975 or so. We were linked in his subcontract with my firm. He was looking forward to that trip as I know you and Jason and the kids look forward to your adventures. Keep at it!

  11. Brings back great memories
    Loved it when I was in Alaska. Stay safe. Had a nice lunch with your mother JASON.

  12. We are so impressed with your family adventure. I love that you are doing high latitude sailing as a family! Good luck.
    Dan & Melanie

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