(SitNews) Klawock, Alaska - It’s almost 8 p.m. and there is so much light I can’t help but throw up celebratory fists in triumph over my first Alaskan winter since I moved back.

I don’t know if I expected to be locked into a never-ending tussle with the cold damp darkness of winter, or I was just surprised at how quickly the mild season passed. I guess there wasn’t a question that I would make it, but I wondered if my psychological integrity would be compromised. You know, get a little cabin fever, put on a hawaiian shirt, crawl into the fetal position under my desk with a flashlight, flip-flops and stroke my California driver’s license like it’s The Precious.

But I never developed that need for sunlight or depression when it was 3:05 and the sun was already set. The sun just went away, and I spent the next seven hours not coaching basketball, not playing outside, not hunting and not fishing. I think back and wonder, what did I do? I did some reading, some writing some fly-tying and some grad school classwork. I don’t think I watched a lot of TV, but who knows. Either way, somehow the hours passed, the days went and here we are just weeks from June. There are some, some steelhead, Dolly’s and trout in the creeks and the alpine will start its white, to brown to green transition. Not to mention there are a few kings milling around out there.

So each day I get lulled deeper into the night than I intend because there’s so much available. I’m not pressured to rush to the river to fish before the sun sets. With more post-work daylight I’m limited only by school work or my stomach. I can even do one, feed the other and still get in some time on the water.

Around this time of year I’m usually getting twitchy at the prospect of my June arrival home to Prince of Wales, but since I’m here, I’m well, already here. It’s not the out of sight but very much in mind thing that it used to be when I was in California having fun with rainbow and brown trout. In March and April my colleagues and I are usually planning the first big English department fishing and camping trip to the Sierra Nevada or Siskiyou Mountains. But again I’m here, so the warmer days make me think about the campfires in the front yard next to the ocean and seeing my flat-land buddies for the first time in a few months. In the meantime the outdoor bonanza has started. Actually, it hasn’t really stopped which makes it feel like time has accelerated since I moved to Klawock.

If it were a basketball game, living in California was two teams playing half court zones. Patience, proper execution, entertaining in spurts, scores in the 60s.
Alaska is an up and down full court man-to-man thriller. Electric, out of control at times, scores in the 90s. There’s always something shoot, fish for, hike and especially haul and fix so whether or not you feel like doing it, there is always a bunch which demands your attention.

Now the attention is focused on the warm weather fish - preparing nets, hooks, boats and skiffs to get them in the ocean, and respooling rods for the rush up river. Out come the tents, canoes and kayaks (if they weren’t already) as the season for campfires, burning marshmallows on orange coals and hot dogs falling off sticks into the inferno (you eat it anyway) nears. We’re in the transition period, near the cusp.

Another summer home for me, but one I won’t have to wait for, one I can see coming.

Jeff Lund ©2014

Jeff Lund is a Teacher, Freelance Writer, & River fishing guide (Tranquil Charters) living in Klawock, Alaska
Contact Jeff at Email – aklund21@gmail.com

http://www.jlundoutdoors.com

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