CEEROW FORTY-SEVEN

If you have ever embarked on a leisurely cruise, you know that within the first couple of hours you must participate in a “lifeboat drill!”

For me, the drill is just another thing that keeps me anxious until it’s over. This anxiety was first brought on by my wife’s absence on our first cruise.

While boarding, she was handed a “free makeover” ticket, and told that she must go to some lounge at 3PM to ensure an appointment during the cruise. The time was just one hour before the mandatory “lifeboat muster,” which left me at 3:55 PM pacing our cabin, my life vest on, sweating, wondering where the hell she was!

Then suddenly the captain sounded the alarm and begins the announcement to report to your “Lifeboat Station,” the number of which is posted on the back of your cabin door! Still no Judy!

Finally, after the corridors are almost empty of scrambling passengers, all decked out in their blaze orange floatation devices, I see her casually wondering along the hall toward me. “Where have you been? Would you please hurry?!”

Judy, nor any of the Dragons, ever gets in a hurry…it’s all about them and everyone else can just wait until they’re ready to play any of life’s games! So that’s where my anxiety over “lifeboat drills” was born.

So, on this trip to Alaska, we stood ready, in our rooms with our vests on, mine untied, since it wouldn’t reach around me, waiting for the dreaded signal. At least she’s learned to help squelch my anxious attacks by not wondering off just prior to the planned drill.

With the signal and the announcement blaring, we shuffled out through the little door and into the already crowded hallway, and followed the crowd down and out on the lifeboat deck, all the time looking for our proper station.

Once at the station, under the lifeboat hanging from above, we get into line and look outward toward our “lifeboat captain”, who incidentally happened to be one of the primary chefs by day!

I don’t remember this guy’s name, but even if I did it would be blurred by the nickname Neena hung on him.

He stood in front of the large group, maybe a 100 of us, and began to call off the room numbers for accountability with his heavy Asian accent, “Ceerow foree-sevan?”

Someone shouted, “Here!”

I soon realized he was calling room numbers, but I could not understand what “ceerow” was! Would he call out “ceerow one-forty-seven” when he came to our room number?

Well into the roll call we finally realized he was calling out the room numbers in 3-digits to conform to the roster sheet, and putting a zero in front of the double-digit numbers! From that point on during the cruise, when one of us saw him, they shouted, “There’s Ceerow!”

Ceerow would just look up at us puzzled and smile!

NO NOT THAT BRUCE LEE!

I should have known by his calm confident demeanor, and the way he poured out knowledge of the wilds, that our Denali guide had done something special in Yukon or Alaskan sports lore, but I didn't. I just sat amazed as he educated the packed to capacity tour bus with fact after unknown fact!

Had Ron (my brother-in-law) not been the sports and outdoors nut that he is, we would have never known that he was Bruce Lee. “Bruce Lee?” I said when Ron told me.

“No…not that Bruce Lee, the Bruce Lee (with cap below) that won the Yukon Quest in 1998!”

We had just discussed this year's winner of the Iditarod, Lance Mackey, over Alaskan Amber the evening before, or I may still have been in the dark.

Lance Mackey won the Iditarod on March 12, 2008; winning his second Iditarod in a row and the second time in a row he had won the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod in the same year!

I got involved in this tale quite innocently while fighting the bumps in the gravel road on the return trip to the hotel. I had just risked making us look gay by holding on to the back of the seat, with my left arm behind Ron, when something “yellowish” in the brush just 50 yards or less from the side of the road caught my eye.

“BEAR,” I yelled, which is quite customary to let the guide know you have spotted wildlife. Sometimes the alert is “MOOSE” or just plain “STOP”, nonetheless, the driver will stop the vehicle and try to ascertain where the animal is.

In my case, Bruce stopped the vehicle, and looked up high on the mountain to his left. “Where,” he asked, and began backing up, “Up high?”

“No, right down here next to the road, about 40 to 50 yards up,” I directed.

By this time others had spotted the two juvenile grizzlies playing in the tall bushes, and began yelling and pointing. “Good eye, good eye,” some yelled!

The attached photos will not show you a great shot of a Grizzly Bear. First, a normal digital camera has a wide angle lens that makes things look further away than does the naked eye. Second of all, the bus was rolling and rocking from side to side, which blurs any image. Third, I was shooting through the window…note the white cloudy areas in the photos.

However, the photos will point out where at least one bear’s head is and how difficult things are to see in a moving bus.

Bruce Lee stopped the bus just as the first bear came down the hill and stepped onto the road behind the bus. I was about to burst with excitement and anticipation of a great “bear” shot when some fool dropped his window, yelled at the bear to get its attention, then stuck his arm and camera out. That’s when Bruce made the bus lurch forward and about 200 yards further down the road!

Immediately, 6 or 8 people, all from New Jersey (I’m just saying) began screaming obscenities at Bruce and giving him the bird! There was even an 11-year old girl saying the f-word!

Everyone was just pissed at not getting the “bear” money shot, and I have to admit I was too. However, my anger was focused on the person/s with their heads and arms out the windows! Man…that would have been some shot to bring back to you, but it was not to happen.

In defense of Bruce, he did the right thing. After driving around to other side of the valley, and letting us watch the two grizzlies romp down the slope and out onto the alluvial plane, some quarter of a mile away, he stopped the bus. He then slowly, calmly, and eloquently laid out his position.

Grizzly Bears in Denali are treated unlike other bears in National Forest or other National Parks. They have little interaction with humans, except in the backcountry. No food is taken off any of the buses and no trash cans are placed anywhere. Guides do not allow bus loads of city-folk to wave wildly or scream at bears. The reason is this, if you meet a grizzly, the first thing you do is raise your arms and yell out at him/her. The point is to make yourself appear larger than you are. If grizzlies get used to crazy people waving their arms and yelling at them from buses, then the bears think, “Oh, I’ve seen that before!”

Guides try to minimize all contact with humans…encounters should be brief. You can look all you want from a distance, or from inside a closed vehicle, but not up close using gestures and noises that should only be used during an encounter on the trail.

Thanks Bruce Lee for teaching us a valuable lesson.

MY ALASKA PHOTOS HAVE BEEN POSTED

Well, there I was...climbing McKinley when...seriously, if you are interested at all in my Alaska photographs, they have been posted on FLICKR...CLICK HERE to be taken to the thumbnail page. To see large formats of the shots, double click each shot. The thumbnail page presents the shots in chronological order of the trip.

Any future posts will be based on comments left here or at Flickr!

The trip is pretty self-explanatory at Flickr, so I don't want to bore you with "blow-by-blow" account. If you have questions, then I will try my best to answer them.

We had a ball...hope you enjoy the photos!

BACK FROM POINTS NORTH OF HERE!

Yep, we made it back after 11 days or so in Canada’s British Columbia and Yukon Provinces, and the state of Alaska. The average temperature was probably around 55, with Fairbanks being the warmest at 72.

What a trip! The only bad part was the flight home, but I’ll save that for later.

I just wanted to let you know we were home safe and show you a photo of the tour group we lived with for the duration of the adventure north. There were only 25 of us, counting the cute little tour director from Birmingham, Alabama, which made it very roomy on the bus and other excursions. We all loved Emily, and I’ll show you her photo later and tell you some stories about her and others.

Neena (peeping around Bob) and Ron are under the “O” and Judy and I are just to the right of the “N”. That’s Bob standing in front of Neena (his hand on his leg) and Linda, his wife, is stand in front of Ron (black jacket). They were a hoot and we hung with them most of the time, especially when beer was involved! They are from Oregon and Bob and Ron had much in common – both being outdoorsmen – and Linda was like one of the Dragons instantly!

The trip included a stay in Vancouver, B.C., and a 3-day cruise to Skagway, with a stop over in Juneau on the way up the coast. From Skagway, we made the trip up over the White Pass in a vintage locomotive to Whitehorse in the Yukon. All along the way we were educated on the 1898 Yukon Gold Rush and the “Stampeders” that braved, survived, and died along the way. Hundreds died following their dream of sticking a shovel into the ground and striking it rich. Turned out that most of the gold and claims had already been found or staked! How they made it in -20 to -60 degree temperatures I’ll never understand. Not many would make it today with our modern GORE-TEX® and insulated clothing.

From Whitehorse we boarded a large Holland tour bus and made our way on to Dawson City! We then boarded a dual hull jet boat and made the 102 miles to Eagle, Alaska, where we met up with another tour bus to Chicken Creek, and on to Tok.

From Tok we trekked on by bus to Fairbanks and finally by glass top train the Denali/McKinley National Park.

Finally, the train took us on a 7-hour trip to Anchorage where we boarded our flight home. That’s where the irritation for me began!

I also wanted to let you know that I have just posted my trip “bar and pub” shots on Flickr. I especially wanted you to note the “Sourtoe Cocktail” shots!

In Dawson, there is a place called the Downtown Hotel and inside is a great two-level bar, complete with vintage piano and décor. If you venture into this bar any time between 9 and 11PM you will find Captain Dick/Tom (one or the other) sitting in a corner registering “sourtoers!” You become a member by first buying a shooter of your favorite poison and then giving the Captain $5. He then swears you into the club by reciting a pledge and saying, “You can drink it slow, or you can drink it fast, but your lips must touch the toe!”

The “toe” is real! However, it’s dead so it can’t hurt you and it has been baptized in so much liquor by now that no germ could survive! But the “Sourtoe Cocktail” is ready when the Captain drops the toe into your shooter! One gulp and a kiss of the toe against your upper lip and you’re inducted!

Well, I have 689 photos to work on, so I’ll be back soon with more tales! Keep checking…the best of my photos will be posted there sometime within the week.

I won’t lie, it’s good to be home and in my own bed, but it was a wonderful trip!