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: A Public Defender's Life in Alaska

So, Tustumena lake. On a working boat. Yes, yes I know. Doesn't seem possible. The truth is the boat had a couple of problems but they were my error rather than the boat. We need to get further off shore before using the main motor or the jet gets plugged. It also only burned 7.8 gallons per hour! Good lessons. We had planned to go back to Tustumena Glacier. Just by typing "Tustumena Glacier" I think I am doubling the amount of information on the Internet about it. I could find few pictures and no one appears to have chronicled the entire trip from Slackwater on the Kasilof River to the glacier. Alas, neither am I. Not today. For the lake turned us back. It went from flat calm like in this picture to waves crashing over the boat. Crazy. That lake is like that. It is like a switch goes off. The wind starts blowing off the glacier it gets mean fast. So we waited I cooked a chicken. Prince William Sound shrimp. I may have had a cocktail. When it got calm enough we went to the glacial delta where the glacier melts into the lake. I don't know if I was saved or what but we were just about to take my boat into the 'river' when I got something stuck in my jet (it came out). We decided to turn around. God knows what might have happened with my big old boat up that little stream. So we went back to the other side and I slept under the stars. But we intend to go back. Maybe when G gets here. Hike the 5 miles from the lake to the glacier. Maybe it will still be there when my girls are old enough to come with me. It is receding fast. Have I ever said how much I like Tustumena lake? I only hope that when Jesse leaves I will still be able to go. Good trip. Thanks Jesse. Thanks Bill. I savor these trips like a dying man.

Full post as published by A Public Defender's Life in Alaska on May 30, 2010 (boomark / email).