My Guide-Post

 I'm a Guide now.  Before, perhaps I was hired as such, but I've grown confident in my leadership over the last few weeks.
Alaska is greener and bigger and brighter than ever before, my eyes are continously popping out of my head with delight and surprise, and I love my job.  So, what have I seen so far?
There's been a number of birds that are on migration paths that take them through SE Alaska, so for a short time they are here, but in years past I haven't been around this early in the season, or been in a position to be looking for them (or pointing my camera at them) before.  Can you ID any of them??

I am also quite stunned by the last three weeks, which have been sunny.  I've never seen a run of such weather, and I don't know what to make of it.  Many of the locals are talking about it too.  If it doesn't rain, will the trees dry out?  I really love to see this place in the sunshine, but the rain is important.

It seems that a week of sun gets all the mammals out to warm up and munch on things, and this season we've seen plenty of Bears, as well as Otters and Mink.  I've even seen a Moose.

My friend Danny was aboard initially (since he was The Captain of this boat last year) and helped to train people on the places and operation, and we got to playing around with kites a little bit.  He gave me a nice low wind kite that I've been flying a little bit, and I bought another fishing reel like the one I got last fall (the Penn Senator 114h) and have been using that as my kite line control and storage.  It is wonderful!  I've got 1000 ft of line on the reel now, and hopefully I'll get a few more on in a little bit.  The view from up there is fantastic, and this new kite flies beautifully.  Here is a shot from aloft in the middle of Icy Strait.
I am going to be taking a three week break now, two of which are going to be in Mexico, and then one back in Seattle.