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| Yes, they're the same color as bluberries; but these are the fruits of the bluebead lily, and please, please don't eat them. |
1. The thimbleberries (finally, finally, oh hooray!) are ripe. August is that blissful month when every single day you can wander around Snug Harbor and it seems like, even though you SWEAR you picked every single ripe one the day before, the bushes are suddenly loaded with super red, luscious, juicy berries once again. They keep on coming. If you get sick of thimbleberries, well, the raspberries are ripe too. In fact, this whole island is a burgeoning cornucopia of ripening fruits, in all colors and ranges of delicious-ness. Instead of questions about flowers, we get questions about berries. ("What are the nice big shiny ones? Are they poisonous? I just ate a bunch.")
2. On a related note: you spot Captain Don wandering the back woods of Snug Harbor with a plastic Folgers container and an old shirt so stained with thimbleberry juice it looks like he killed three men. He's got a slew of secret spots and comes back with literally pounds of berries. Pounds. He's basically a professional.
The First Episode in Don's Famous 'Berry Man' Series
3. Visitors stop complaining about how cold the water is, and instead Tobin is always overrun with happy swimmers, laid out on the docks like the sunning turtles.
4. It's getting awfully crowded. The Ranger III, the Queen IV, the Voyageur II, and the seaplane (it needs a catchy name - does it have one and I'm just unaware?) have all been working ceaselessly, bringing full loads out and back. The campgrounds, including the group sites, are beginning to bulge somewhat at the seams. Our permit program, "Trakker", has this very angry, bright red face icon pop up (very official) whenever a campground is full, and I don't believe I've completed a permit without at least one angry red face in quite awhile now. (If you're ever in the VC and hear us talking about 'frowny faces' or 'the scary angry face,' well, now you know. This is how our computer communicates with us.)
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| A dramatic photo of the Queen IV, thanks to endlessloopphotography.com |
5. The waves are picking up - and by that I mean the Queen IV was quite liberally splattered with vomit when it bounced and rolled into the harbor this morning. Yep. Gross. Sorry to throw it at you so bluntly there. And today was the better day; yesterday, 13-footers and big storms in Copper Harbor made its trip impossible, stranding a few dozen passengers here for an unintended extra night (who can complain, really?) Today, the Queen will make two trips with quick turnarounds. They arrived at noon and started back at one pm; they'll return to Rock Harbor with about eighty more people at 8:30 pm (or thereabouts), do as quick of a turnaround as humanly possible, and hopefully make it back to Copper Harbor by one am. Woohoo - night ride on the Queen!
Besides the occasional nauseating boat rides, visitors are having a great time here in Snug Harbor, and our staff is as well - with canoeing trips to Duncan Bay (holy portage - my neck is still angry at me), 'Cinco de Augusto' celebrations, and lots of our own swimming and sunbathing. This Snug Harbor Reporter hopes YOU'RE enjoying your August as well.
:)
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