On Friday of the Folk Festival week Kate introduced me to Dan, a pilot who works as a fish-spotter, that is he has the dangerous job of flying low above the ocean spotting schools of fish and then orchestrating the position and timing of casting nets over the schools. Often there are a number of planes in the air above the fish schools, and this is the dangerous part - the pilot is watching the ocean carefully, not where they are flying. Thus a passenger is employed to keep an eye on where the plane is flying and to prevent collisions as best they can. Even so, the job remains a dangerous one and accidents happen. Needless to say, Dan is a very skilled pilot, and Kate and Damon were relaxed enough with the idea of sending me up into the air under his care. I am thankful that they did.
From the air the exquisite ice fields unfold. The ice fields lie behind Juneau and stretch into Canada beyond the thin strip of Alaskan territory that hugs the coastline. According to Dan, most people never see this and it's hard for some to even imagine. To me, it was like heaven. Surreal whiteness. An absence of relative scale.
The glaciers are a liquid solid. Ice that is flowing - slowly, slowly over time.
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