The Adventurous Falconer: Welcome to Alaska, Cheechako

Week of 23rd of July 2012

Magpie

When we arrived Adam and I hit the ground running looking at houses the day we got there as we had already narrowed down our search to a top six list. I've learned a few things in the week that I've been here. I've been called a Cheechako, an Alaskan term for newcomer, just so you know. I'll take it as a badge of pride because I know live in the ultimate land of the outdoors, the last frontier. In Alaska, they don't have sno-cone stands. Instead, they have espresso stands and apparently they are very popular. I had my first experience and was bewildered because they not only didn't have sno-cones they seemed to mock me as they had every flavor that belongs in a sno cone stand, but were flavors for coffee instead! The horror! We saw several moose, but sadly I didn't catch a picture of them. The weather in Anchorage so far has been amazing with temperatures in the 60's up to (rarely) the low 70's. Most of the time it is cloudy but I will take it in exchange for the amazing weather! When we arrived it seemed like everyone was out dip-netting. Dip-netting is the act of taking a huge oversized net and standing up to your waist in water or in a boat and "dipping" for the passing by salmon. This can lead to quite a haul i'm told with sometimes over 100 fish being caught by two people. One hundred fish caught also means several hours over a few days of cleaning, processing, vacuum sealing, and freezing the take. It isn't the question of if you hunt in Alaska, it's what do you hunt. I'll let you know how dip-netting turns out for me next summer when season starts again. Our timing arriving at Elmendorf Air Force Base couldn't have been more perfect. We arrived just in time to attend the Arctic Thunder Air Show. This air show happens to be the largest gathering of Alaskan's in one place. This year, on one day of the two day air show there were over 100,000 people in attendance (they even ran out of parking)! The air show takes place on base with the air strip and several hangars opening up full of vendors and children activities. One of the demonstrations was a joint Army/Air Force routine in which a gun fight was staged with two helicopters dropping a big gun and a jeep to fight the "opposing forces".