Rain, Rain Go Away!

Day four and the weather is still crappy. We were to call in at noon to give weather reports to see if they could come and get us. As of 8 am we had low cielings, low visibility and rain. But at least the wind had died down. By this time all the clothes I had brought were wet. My tent was wet and my sleeping bag was wet. It didn't matter anymore if we were inside or outside. You were just wet. The intern decided after breakfast that he would sit in his tent and just read. The two of us biologist decided we would sit outside on the cold damp ground in the rain and wish it to go away. We thought about doing some kind of sun dance but since neither of us knew one and we were afraid to dance in case our moves brought more rain.

Then out in the distance a patch of blue sky appeared. It was heaven sent to us but a long ways away. Then you could see that the sun was finally trying to break free of the dark rain clouds. We decided to leave the enclosure with the electric fence that didn't work all week and climb to the top of the hill and watch the battle between the sun and the rain. As we passed the solar paneled battery for the fence my partner gave it a quick kick and said "Piece of shit".

We stood at the top of the hill willing the sun to come out. We were tired of being wet. If the weather did not clear up the next pick-up day was two days away. I wasn't sure I could last another two days of rain. We were watching the rays of sunshine try to peek free from the dark clouds. We could see on the horizon clear skys. The hope inside of us grew. Then for a brief moment we could see the sun. It was an awe inspiring moment that lasted only seconds as the rain god closed ranks and let one last torrid of water fall upon us. We were determined that the sun would come out and we were going home. Standing at the top of hill with rain pouring in buckets upon us we watched for the return of the sun. It took about a half an hour but the sun finally won out and shone through the dark clouds.

My partner could finally see her shadow and did what she called the shadow dance. We walked back to the camp site. We shook water off the tents and layed clothes out to dry. We watched as visibility cleared and the ceiling of clouds rose high enough for a plane to fly. All was good. We talked to the pilot at noon and he siad he would have to make two trips, one person and gear the first trip and the other two people and emergency gear the second. So we had to go through and decided what was going on the first run and what would be needed if the last two had to stay. The other biologist was the team leader on this mission and she said that I would be the one to fly back with the gear. We divided the food and supplies. Then we broke camp and moved everything to the beach, staging two piles of junk. Sitiing on the beach we noticed that the winds had begun to pick up and the cieling had dropped some. We kept dispatch updated with wind speeds and weather changes. Finally we saw the plane. It circled around a few times looking for a place with enough water to land as high tide was just starting and the water levels weren't that high yet.

The plane landed about a mile away from us. The three of us grabbed all the stuff going on the first flight and hiked as fast as we could to the plane. Within minutes we had the plane loaded and we were inside. The last thing the pilot said was that if the winds pick up anymore he probably won't be able to pick them up. I f conditions stayed the same it would be two hours before he would be back. With that we were on our way.

To get to Katmai Bay we flew over the valley of ten thousands smokes. We got to see the volcano crater. It was a very interesting trip, but we could not fly back that way as the pass was clouded shut. We flew south and crossed the mountains on a different pass. The ride was bumpy and rough. Good thing the dramamine worked. I did see a very large bear from the plane and numerous waterfalls in the mountains. We landed on the river and within ten minutes we had the plane unloaded on the dock and refueled, and the pilot was on his way. It felt good to be home. I am a horrible person though. I took care of all the equiment, stopped at Eddies for a cheeseburger and then home for a hot shower and my warm bed. I didn't go back to the dock to see if they had made it back. I was out like a light in my bed. The rest of the team did however, make it back and did the same thing I did.