When the plane touched down in Sitka back in mid-March of this year, locals on board cheered with the successful landing. They explained the flight was unusually bumpy, and the runway is rather short. Unfamiliar with the standard Sitka, AK flight, the turbulence seemed par for the course on a small Nepali plane descending to a high altitude runway. I picked up my bags and called a taxi.
It was a slow day, and my cab driver just moved back to Sitka, so he gave me a tour around town and practiced his previously rehearsed tour guide speech. Snow and slush remained on the roads from a heavy snowstorm the previous week.
The little fishing town of 8500 seemed anything but little with herring season just beginning. Dozens of fishing vessels were rushing out towards the volcano for the first rounds of combat fishing / seine fishing for herring. The yearly spawning of the herring turns the sea waters near shore a caribbean blue that I cold see when descending on the plane. The weather was the usual – fickle with snow, hail, freezing rain, sunshine all in a matter of hours, then melting and repeating the following day.
Looking down at Sitka from Verstovia Mtn.
Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital - my place of work
