About a week ago I arrived in Aleknagik, Alaska, a small village in the Bristol Bay region, about 20 miles north of Dillingham. You can't get here by road from Anchorage -- just plane and boat. This is the one I flew in on:
The two real live Alaskans on the team are probably yawning about this, but I think it's pretty cool.
This time of year, the only thing on everybody's mind around here is fish. That's because the biggest sockeye salmon fishery in the world operates out of Bristol Bay. This year they're predicting an average-size run of around 36 million salmon. Turns out that one of the biggest side industries to actually fishing the salmon is predicting how many will come and when... this way the fish processors know how many workers to hire, the fishermen know when they have to go out, and the district managers know how much fishing to allow so that they can meet their sustainable fishing goal. The Bristol Bay salmon fishery, unlike most fisheries in the world, is well-managed and thriving. I learned a few days ago that it's actually unconstitutional in Alaska to manage natural resources in an unsustainable way. Wild!
Anyways, I'm working with University of Washington researchers who try to come up with an accurate real-time forecast of the salmon run. For the most part they have the models all written and it's just a matter of running the code, but there's also a fair amount of human evaluation and heuristics that go into it.
As I write this at 1am, it is legitimately dark out -- perhaps the equivalent of 10:30-11:00 at night in Boston right now. This is the first time I've seen it like this, and it's probably a result of particularly thick clouds. Here's a picture I took of the view from the dock a few minutes after midnight the evening I arrived:
The first time I went for a rollerski here, I left at 9:30 PM and got back an hour and a half later in comfortable daylight. Since then, I've transitioned to a morning schedule that feels a little more natural to me.
The availability of training facilities here is not too bad. There is exactly one paved road that goes 19 miles into Dillingham, and it is pretty well-paved, low-traffic, and fairly rolly... definitely V1 material in a few places. Unfortunately, even though there are a bunch of mountains around here, none are easily accessible from my location and getting the vertical in is my biggest problem right now.
I've also been told to keep an eye out for bears and moose while I rollerski. I'll keep you posted on this, but so far the animals that have caused me the most trouble so far are mosquitos. Really, though, they're not that bad, particularly with judicious clothing choices and application of DEET as necessary.
The most fun thing about training so far has been coming up with my strength routine. This is a pretty well-stocked camp and I was lucky enough to find a pair of 12lb dumbells and a gym ball. There's even an installed pull-up bar and stationary bike! But, with no med balls to be found, I assembled a collection of rocks and a concrete block to use instead:
Not a bad view for core strength.
I'll keep you all updated!
Chris
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