Up river

After 21 long stikine-less years, i finally got the opportunity to go up the river this last weekend. My best friend from high school, jaclyn was here visiting, and drunkish talk at the bar resulted in an actual trip being planned. Casey flint got his jet boat loaded up on sunday, rented a forest service cabin, and we were on our way by noon. Jaclyn couldn't make it, as she had prior familial obligations, and zieak almost didn't make it with the pool breaking down all over again, but the two of us joined casey, jody leekly and matt moran on a fun-filled boat ride up the river.

We cruised up to shakes lake first to collect some glacial ice for our cocktails. It was dang cold, but worth every second. All of these years, i had a certain image of what i thought it would be like up there, but the scenery turned out completely different to me. It was a pleasant surprise.

The one thing i had really looked forward to, not only because of their notoriety, but because we were dang cold, was the hot tubs. But alas, upon pulling up to the entrance, we discovered that a huge, old no longer beautiful tree had blown over, completely blocking it. It looked as though someone had taken a chainsaw to it already in some spots, but had no success.

We actually tried walking the shore, but after getting laughed at by a boat of wrangellites whose boat was tiny enough to fit right under, and sinking in the quicksand like mud a couple of times, we turned around. Right as we were loading up to just head to the cabin, a boat from wrangell with some individuals drinking alcohol (*gasp - no!*) pulled up and whipped out a chainsaw. Casey just happened to have one also, so the two began to try and do some damage. However, neither chainsaw wanted to start - or keep running once it did. It was quite entertaining... that is me giving what looks like a slightly cavillous look. So the hot tubs weren't in our destiny. Oh well, i'll just have to wait to experience them the next time i go up, and i surely won't wait another 21 years.