June 9 - Hetta Inlet still

June 9  Hetta Inlet

Today was spent fishing by those fishing – Fish count:  Michelle & Steve 1 Snapper, Nicole 11 lb Snapper, Peter 1 Snapper, Tom a 75+ Prawn and maybe a fish, Gary 1 Prawn (oops), Diane & Willard a Snapper I think.    Diane is harvesting the ‘feather’ bones out of as many of the fish as she can.  Harvesting is a nice way of saying ‘hacks out these special bones’, a surgeon she is not.  <grin>

Glen took some of the ladies – Liz, Linda, and Chris on a ‘one-hour tour’ exploring by dingy and looking for critters.  Okay we did see where a couple towns – Sulzer, Jumbo Mine docks, Copper Harbor, were in the later 18 to early 1900’s.  Copper Harbor was the site of a major Copper mining operation which had a tramway down the mountain to bring ore down to where it could be processed and loaded onto barges.  Sulzer must have been a big place because it apparently had a post office and a court house.  No evidence of these towns today but there was evidence of land cleared in the past and a few roads and places where docks likely had been.

 

 

 

 

And we did see some critters.  Seals on the rocks (we really haven’t seen too many seals on this trip), a few Eagle including young ones without their white heads, and two adult Deer and one very young Fawn.  The momma dear had taken her Fawn down for an afternoon at the beach.  She had him/her curled up amongst the seaweed covered rocks, while she munched on the leaves and enjoyed the nice day – great camouflage. 

 

 

We did not even see it at first but the mom kept walking around and did not go into the woods so we knew something was up.  Linda spotted the fawn.  The mom walked quietly into the bushes but was never totally out of sight.  The baby was frozen in place not moving at all.  We took photos and as the dinghy got closer to shore the baby kept flattening itself as low as possible as if to hide further.  Very cute.  Photos taken we moved on.   We were likely the first ‘humans’ that Fawn had ever seen, but he did not have a camera to take our photo.  

 

 

 

We also saw three eagle ‘fighting’ for something (fish or land based food item), it was two adults and one young eagle.  Might have also been a ‘training’ session for the young one.   Poor photos but fun too watch.

There was an abundance of ‘yard art’ on the beach in a couple places.  Remnants of an old cannery likely from the 40’s. 

 

 

 

 

The wind and waves came up with white caps and was quite bumpy on our return trip.  Don’t trust Glen when he says ‘one-hour tour’!   3 hours later we came back cold. 

We headed out for a bay close to Hidaburg.  On our way past Hidaburg we noticed the cemetery across the bay, someone must have been a Seahawks fan as there was a 12^th man flag flying.   We might stop to check out the cemetery tomorrow.  It sounds odd but it is kind of interesting to see the age of the cemeteries and try to find the ‘longest ago’ headstone in each cemetery. It makes you wonder what life was like for those so long ago.  

There is snow on the hill tops, not much but it’s still there.

 

Appy’s were on Magic – Chili Lime Halibut Dip, Gluten-Free Cheese Its, Prawn/curry Dip, Firecracker crackers, and assorted cheeses.  Dinner was on Nelsea I bet you can’t guess what we had … Fish – Halibut, Salad, Prawn, and hot fresh bread.  We are not starving on this trip by any means.

During dinner we discussed the upcoming family events:  June 10 – our 38^th Anniversary, June 13 – Gary’s 75^th birthday, June 15 – Glen’s 63^rd birthday, June 16 – Jim’s 73^rd birthday, June 22 – Gary & Lenore’s 53rd anniversary.  Matheson’s have an anniversary in there somewhere too.    It was discovered that in the group at the table all couples had been married 34 or more years – quite an accomplishment in this day and age. 

Glen, Nicole, Willard and Diane had a Cribbage rematch after dinner.   I worked on the blog and some other documents.  Hopefully some internet and cell service tomorrow.