Sunday, May 23, 2010

April feast up the Chilkat and Chilkoot

If you're trying to find a recipe for unpleasantness, I don't think the following would fall into the equation: Sunny skies in the Chilkat Valley, temperatures loitering around the 60 degree mark, a cozy cabin, good company, free bicycles, Haines Brewery beverages, and the annual caloric bonanza that is the hooligan spawn.


Gulls gathering for an instinctual meeting on the mudflats of the Chilkat Valley. In late April, it'd be hard to find a hungry gull in northern Southeast, given the abundance of slimy little snacks spawning their way up familiar watersheds.


Eulachon, or hooligan, or candlefish. Whichever you prefer. They are, regardless, the culprit responsible for the massive April feast in choice estuaries throughout northern Southeast Alaska. The fish run in the millions, providing a nutritious free-for-all amongst humpbacks, sea lions, gulls, eagles, and other feathered friends with an appetite for the stuff. Hooligan are oily enough to burn like a candle, but I've recently passed a personal resolution to burn candles that smell pleasant, not ones that smell like oily fish carcass...

Thousands of gulls speed-dating on the mudflats in front of the unphotogenic Chilkats.


A couple good-lookin' peaks looming largely.

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