Back from the Great White North!

Well, now that I'm back from ST Paul Island, I can finally fill you all in on what I was doing for the last three weeks. Due to some crew manning issues back here in Kodiak, I was the lucky winner of an extended vacation in lovely remote Alaska. For those of you logging on earlier in the month you saw what I was able to do the first week that I was in ST Paul, but after the first week the caribou season was over and I was resorted to trying to pass time other ways. It was probably a blessing that hunting season was over, as the second and third weeks I was there the weather was less then desirable.

Here is a picutre of the Loran Station where we stay while in ST Paul. The crew of this unit are sent here for one year at a time with a free trip home for 30 days in the middle of their tour. Needless to say, they quite enjoy having the aircrews come thru and give them a constant change of faces for the two months we are there. Besides the 18 stationed here, there is small village on the island that has a couple of hundred people that live here year round. Most of them either work for the native corporation or work in the fishing industry.

Here are some of the photos I took while delployed. Hope you enjoy.

Just a small amount of snow, there are windows in the building but they can only use them during summer months. This truck, if that's what you would call it allows them to travel on the roads when plows can't get out to them. They also got a snow cat halfway through my stay. The banks below give you some more prespective to how much snow there is, and how much it drifts.

In between the mulitiple days of blizzards we were able to get some ship landings done (unfortunately that meant yet another trip to Cold Bay), and also to hike around St Paul. You can see the overriding theme in all these pictures though is that it's cold. It averaged around -15 celcius.

When the sun did come out it was quite nice, and let us chase down some of the local wildlife (fox and caribou).

Lastly there is a picture of the real reason that we are here. The crab season in full swing. When the ice allowed the boats would come in to off load their crab. Hope you all enjoyed, and there will be more to come.

Jason