Naknek: Bears, Bones, Bald Eagles

Bald eagle on the beach

I am the front line against dental discomfort. I am what salmon tell their young about when they don’t eat all of their krill. I am spoken of in hushed voices around underwater campfires. I am a bone picker, tearing the bones out of the flesh of unfortunate salmon. Using a pair of tweezers.

I’ve recently finished my first shift in the plant. The afternoon was spent meticulously pulling tiny bones out of massive fillets. Riveting work, honestly. The task is almost surgical, an extraction of some large natural splinter, while doing as little harm as possible to the surrounding tissue.

Do you know the fishing regulations for Bristol Bay and the surrounding estuaries? I don’t. I couldn’t even find them online. Like almost everything here, it seems to be on a need-to-know and word-of-mouth basis. My supervisor didn’t even train us before our first shift, I was just put somewhere and began working, imitating the college students and tiny Asian octogenarians that surrounded me. I haven’t even actually met my supervisor.

The good news is that the plant is almost militant about cleanliness. Entering and exiting the processing area is very time consuming: put on a hairnet, put in your earplugs, put on your hat, put on another hairnet, wash and dry your hands, put on your rain gear, put on your eye protection, clock in, put on your glove liners, put on your gloves, wash your gloves and rain gear, step through the boot dip, and you’re in. Exiting is the exact opposite. So rest assured, your salmon is clean and bone-free.

This is like some semi-sadistic mix of a summer camp and a sweatshop. On one hand, we’re working insane hours doing repetitive, mindless work, we’re confined to a small space with stressful living and working conditions. Six people to a room, limited contact with the outside world, taking part in a process that is still shady without actually having sweatshops. On the other hand, we’re meeting hundreds of new people, mostly young adults. We start conversations with strangers because no one knows each other. We eat together. And we have bonfires together.

On my second night here, some of the employees decided to have a fire on the beach. It was an excellent time with no hiccups and was a great opportunity to meet coworkers. The sun shined until well after midnight.

Later that night, on the beach, two employees were charged by a grizzly bear. They ran and the bear backed off. No harm, just a heightened paranoia in camp. The next morning there were signs posted everywhere warning people to stay off the beach at night.

Bears are one of the several ways in which a person’s history with this fishery can be determined. Another way is their clothes. If a person’s clothes are spotless, for example, they’ve either just flown in or they are a wizened veteran. If someone is filthy, covered in mud and mosquito bites, they are somewhere in the middle; they’ve done some work and are too young and careless, unlike their older counterparts, to care about looking like a reputable supervisor or seaman. The bears, though, they can also show how long a person has been here. I walk boldly around blind corners, proud to have memorized the layout of the camp. Veterans notice the strange banging noise that I completely miss and stand behind the corner, slowly peering out to see if it is a bear trying to get into a dumpster. It’s usually just people cleaning buckets. Usually.

In Chile, I became familiar with one sound that would stop people in their tracks: the incredibly deep rumbling that comes from below and precedes earthquakes. The deadliest earthquake in recorded history occurred in Chile and the country experiences several earthquakes a day, so the fear is understandable.

In Naknek, Alaska, the equally paralyzing noise is someone yelling, “Bear!” Everyone stops, looking around tensely. Sometimes the bear is close and people run or get killed or the bear runs or gets killed. Most of the time, the bear is at a distance, wading in the river or chasing seagulls, and people give it a personal bubble that’s 200 yards in diameter.

Today I had my first encounter with a grizzly. I was walking down the beach when I spotted it stalking seagulls about a hundred yards away from me. I stayed just long enough to take a blurry photo and be alarmed by how quickly it ran before I turned around and jogged back to my building.

If mercurial weather, 12:30 am sunsets and 3:00 am sunrises, bears, and insane amounts of smelly work appeal to you, by all means, come to Naknek. It’s got everything you need.

Drugs

As I hope you would all imagine, I have no practical knowledge of the work of drug dealers. The first evening of my trip was spent in Pittsburgh, where I passed my four-hour layover walking around downtown. My arrival in Pittsburgh shortly followed a large Pride Fest, of which I could only see the dying embers: blocked-off streets, garbage strewn from sidewalk to sidewalk, people fighting, and many-colored flags hanging from every window like rainbows after a particularly dirty and colorful storm.

That may sound negative, but I commend Pittsburgh for having a Pride Fest in light of the recent tragedy in Orlando and despite the fact that their hockey team was playing (and subsequently winning) the final round of the NHL playoffs that night.

While waiting around at the train station, I met a friendly man named Steve (name has been changed). Acting for the first time on behalf of my responsibilities, I started a conversation with Steve. I asked him about where he is from and what he does. Steve works in construction, a booming business in Pittsburgh. Steve eyed me suspiciously for a moment before adding “and I do some work on the side.”

“What kind of work?”

“You know, man. Just some side stuff.”

As a college student. When I hear “work on the side,” I typically think of waiting tables or trolling Craigslist looking for someone who needs their refrigerator to be moved up a flight of stairs. Steve must have seen this on my face.

“Slinging, man, slinging,” he elaborated.

"Slinging what?”

“Some coke, you know. Just some coke on the side.”

At that point, I wasn’t really interested in hanging around Steve anymore, but my curiosity got the best of me. “So,” I said jokingly, “which job makes more money?”

“Selling,” he said, without missing a beat. This took me by surprise. I don’t know where Steve falls in the hierarchy of Pittsburgh coke dealers and I didn’t stick around long enough to find out.

Did you know that you can make more money as a coke dealer than as a construction worker in Pittsburgh? Because I didn’t. I do now.

Disclaimer: Steve has given me permission to use quotes from our conversation under the condition that I change his name. Also, I have no qualms with Pittsburgh. It’s a big, beautiful city with a rich history.

Because this post is titled "Drugs" and not "That One Time I Had a Conversation With a Drug Dealer," It's worth noting that in six out of the eleven states that I have visited on this trip, marijuana is legal for either medicinal or recreational purposes.

Fast Facts on the Long Haul

My original numbers seem to be skewed. A combination of delays and me neglecting to factor in different time zones means that I was on a train longer than anticipated. I was aboard a train from my hometown of Johnstown, Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh for an hour and forty minutes. Then I had a ~four-hour layover in Pittsburgh. The train from Pittsburgh to Chicago departed at 11:59 pm and it took about ten and a half hours to get to Chicago. I had a six-hour layover in Chicago and then boarded the train to Seattle.

I took three different train routes on the way to Seattle: the Pennsylvanian (78 miles), the Capitol Limited (481 miles), and the Empire Builder (2,205 miles), which starts in Chicago and ends in Seattle. It is supposed to be a forty-nine-hour leg of the journey. Total mileage to Seattle: 2,764 miles through ten states.

The Empire Builder is sometimes referred to as the Hi-Line because it is the northernmost travel route in the United States, following U.S. Route 2 for many miles.

I’m fortunate to have a Route Guide for the Empire builder, which passes by many historic areas and cool landmarks. I’ll cover the ones that I find most interesting in the hopes that you will find them interesting, too.

Chicago, Illinois

The stretch of tracks between Chicago and St. Paul, Minnesota began as a plank road used for travel by wagon and horse.

Chicago is known as the “industrial core” of the Midwest due to its massive distribution of farm products.

The word “skyscraper” originated in Chicago when the first one was built there in 1885.

The City is home to the Sears Tower, the second-tallest tower in the United States.

The Chicago River became a marvel of engineering when civil engineers reversed its flow into the Mississippi River drainage.

Niles, Illinois

Niles is home to a replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which was seen in the popular film Wayne’s World.

Milwaukee, WI

Milwaukee is the only major city in the United States to have elected three socialist mayors.

It was here where we passed right next to Lake Michigan.

Watertown, WI

The city is home to the first kindergarten in the United States, started by German immigrants.

Columbus, WI

The Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church houses a bell that is cast from the pieces of a French cannon. The cannon dates to the Franco-Prussian War and was gifted to the town by the Emperor of Germany.

Portage, WI

Portage gets its name from the French word Portage, meaning “to carry.” Portage was a regular hub for trappers, settlers, and traders who would have to “portage” their gear between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers on their journeys between the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan.

Wisconsin Dells, WI

This city has declared itself the waterpark capitol of the world, with eighteen indoor and three outdoor waterparks.

Tunnel City, WI

The aptly named Tunnel City houses a 1,350 foot railroad tunnel.

Winona, MN

Winona is famous for Sugarloaf Mountain, a huge chunk of rock protruding from the top of a small mountain. The top of the mountain was used as an anchor as the sides were quarried away, leaving the rock tower known as the Sugarloaf,

This city is also the stained glass capitol of the United States.

Wabasha, MN

Have you seen Grumpy Old Men? If not, you should. The popular movie was set in Wabasha.

Wabasha is home to the Anderson House Hotel, Minnesota’s oldest operating hotel, having been founded in 1856.

Lake Pepin, MN

This is where waterskiing was invented by eighteen-year-old Ralph Samuelson in 1922.

The Mississippi River

It’s the second longest river in the United States and the fourth longest in the world. We rode along its banks for 140 miles.

St. Paul-Minneapolis, MN

Interestingly, this station is not only the center point between these two cities, but it is the center point between the equator and the North Pole. The more you know.

Minneapolis has an interesting backstory to its name. It was named using the Native American word minnie, meaning “water”, and the Greek word polis, meaning “city” due to the twenty-two natural lakes found within the city.

Minneapolis is also famous for the great Mall of America, the largest shopping mall in the United States.

St. Cloud, MN

In the mid-1800s, the granite in this area was quarried to make a wall around a prison. The wall was built by inmates and is still standing as the longest granite wall in the world.

Fargo, ND

The movie. The TV show. Fargo, the largest town in North Dakota.

Devils Lake, ND

This former glacial sea is named as such because Native Americans believe that its crumbling walls and loose rocks are the result of an epic battle between thunderbirds and water monsters. How awesome would that be, though?

Rugby, ND

The geographical center of North America.

Minot, ND

Minot was known as “Little Chicago” during the prohibition because it was Al Capone’s main hub for smuggling liquor.

Fort Buford, ND

This is the site at which Chief Sitting Bull surrendered after the 1881 Battle of Little Big Horn.

Wolf Point, MT

This is the largest community in the Fort Peck Native American Reservation.

It is also the home of the Cowboy Hall of Fame. Yeehaw.

Fort Peck Dam, MT

Built in 1940, the largest hydraulically filled dam in the United States is located in Fort Peck.

Glasgow, MT

Glasgow is known for the abundance of dinosaur fossils unearthed there.

Wagner, MT

Site of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s last robbery. They made away with $65,000 (worth over $1,000,000 today), headed south, and were shot many, many times.

Bear’s Paw Mountain, MT

Site of the surrender of Chief Joseph to the United States Army after a 1,700-mile pursuit. “From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.”

Havre, MT

There’s an underground bunker here. Over the last century, it has been used as a brothel, a Chinese laundromat, a saloon, a drugstore, a prohibition-era smuggling room, and at least three opium dens.

Shelby, MT

One of the only places on Earth to have an antipode, meaning that there is land directly opposite it on the other side of the earth. Shelby’s antipode is one of the Kerguelen Islands of the southern Indian Ocean.

Cut Bank, MT

The surrounding area is known for the coldest mid-winter temperatures in the contiguous United States. I didn’t believe this so I checked several sources. It’s okay, I did the work for you.

Glacier Park Station, MT

This station boasts a view of fifty glaciers and mountains that reach 10,466 feet in height.

The surrounding park has over 700 miles of hiking trails.

Marias Pass, Rocky Mountains, MT

This is where we passed the Continental Divide at 5,216 feet above sea level. This particular pass is the lowest one in the United States portion of the Rockies.

We blew through fifty-five miles of the Blackfeet Reservation in this stretch.

Belton-West Glacier, MT

This is the Western entrance to Glacier National Park.

Snowfall here averages between 100 and 200 inches per year.

Flathead Tunnel, MT

This railroad tunnel is seven miles long, making it the third-longest tunnel of its kind in the Western hemisphere.

Spokane, WA

This city is the largest inland city in the Northwest. It’s also the birthplace of singer and actor Bing Crosby.

John Jay Dam

This $511 million dollar hydroelectric dam was constructed between 1958 and 1961. It is a massive 5,900 feet in length and boasts the highest lock in the world, capable of lifting ships 110 feet.

Mount Hood, OR

Mount Hood is the highest mountain in Oregon, standing at 11,235 feet. It has perpetual glaciers and is part of the Cascade Range, which cuts across Oregon and Washington.

Cascade Mountains, WA

The most efficient way to cross this range is to go beneath it. The 7.8-mile tunnel, 500 feet beneath the face of the mountains, allowed us to do just that.

The tunnel was, until very recently, the second-longest in the world. One that just opened in the Alps takes first place, bumping our Cascade Tunnel down to the third-longest in the world. Bummer.

Everett, WA

Boeing has an assembly plant here. It is the largest building by volume in the world. It’s really cool. While it is a myth that it has its own climate, it is true that clouds did form in the building between the time it was built and the addition of a ventilation system. It’s 472,000,000 cubic feet in volume. There are over 1,000,000 lightbulbs in the facility. The second-largest building in the world is a lightbulb factory next-door. I’m kidding.

Seattle, WA

Seattle, known as “the Emerald City” for its proximity to lush wilderness, is where I disembarked. The city is home to many nationally-known names such as Microsoft and the Space Needle. And to think, it all started out as a sawmill town. Then people found gold and did what they do best.

Sockeye Salmon

Sockeye salmon are one of the seven types of Pacific salmon. As far as salmon go, they are on the small side, but their meat is favored more than that of their larger, luckier cousins. That’s why I will be cutting them up.

Fortunately for the fish and their predators (including us), they are not endangered. In fact, they’re not even considered threatened except for in a few small areas. These guys are great at breeding because about sixty-five million of them are caught each year, thirty million of which are caught in Bristol Bay, where I will be working, and they still don’t seem to be going anywhere. Good for them.

“Sockeye” is a miserable attempt at anglicizing the Coast Salish words suk-kegh, meaning “red fish.” Sockeye have more recently been called “red salmon” in English. We should have just started with that, instead of butchering the native name like, well, a salmon.

This particular type of salmon is known as the red salmon because—you guessed it—it’s red. To be more specific, its meat is distinctly red, not the outside of the fish. This is due to the salmon’s diet, which consists mostly of orange krill.

Sockeyes are processed and either canned or filleted and then sold around the world. Some of you reading this have probably eaten salmon that was processed and packaged in the plant that I will be working in. In fact, if you’re going to buy salmon, sockeye is probably your best bet, as they are almost never farmed. Tip: it’s sold at Walmart. I, on the other hand, will be getting the freshest possible salmon, served to me on a plate three times a day and also all over my clothes and probably in my hair. It’s a messy job.

365 Days

No, I will not be in Alaska for 365 days. The train ride is long, but not that long. 365 days in Alaska would mean 5,840 hours of work as opposed to the American yearly average of 2000 hours. 365 days would also mean $70,000 in my pocket. So maybe I should stay there for a full year. But that's not really an option.

This post was almost mistakenly titled "364 Days," but 2016 is a leap year. That means that 365 days ago today, I left Chile. I'm feeling a little bit of nostalgia masked by all of my nerves and excitement. It's a strange point of pride for me that it will have been less than a year between my little adventures, thanks to it being a leap year.

I'll be leaving my house in an hour. I'm crossing each bridge as I get to it, with the guidance of my parents and the internet. I'm not totally confident in my familiarity with the train route, but that bridge will be crossed when I reach it.

I will be posting updates when I have access to the internet. At this point, I'm planning on writing a series of posts covering a variety of topics, from salmon to King Salmon to shoestring-budget travelling.

All aboard the Salmon Express.