Yesterday afternoon, I boarded a small twin-engine plane along with a little girl, her mother, and about 700 pounds of freight and departed Nome for St. Lawrence Island. We headed southwest – straight out from Nome – across the now open ocean. Looking down into the big blue, I can tell that the sea ice was only here just a week or so ago as there are still little ice chunks bobbing in the waves below. I searched for marine mammals along our route but didn’t see any. After awhile, I took a snooze as it takes about an hour to get to Gambell. When I woke up, I see St. Lawrence Island to my left. It is still covered with some snow and to my right I see sea ice again. Beyond the sea ice I see mountains and the coastline of Siberia! As we approach the island, I recognize a large cliff where all the seabirds like to nest in the summer – Gambell is just around the corner.
Looking across the Bering Sea to Siberia.
View of Siberia from the plane.
My first view of Gambell. Gambell is located just to the right of the hill on a gravel spit.
View of the cliffs just before reaching Gambell.
It’s been about 6 years since I’ve traveled to a remote Alaskan community and over 15 years since my last visit to St. Lawrence Island. As we landed, I was pleased to see that some things never change as the plane was meet by about 20 people on 4-wheelers. Some people were there to greet the family coming home while others were there to get cargo or catch the plane back to Nome. Whatever the reason, it’s always nice to have such a welcoming party and something you don’t see unless you travel to a small community.
After several handshakes and greetings, I was whisked away on the back of a 4-wheeler to the Sivuaqaq Lodge. I wasn’t sure what to expect since the lodge was not here 15 years ago but was pleasantly surprised to find out that they had over 15 rooms, full kitchen, showers, laundry, a TV room, and yes, wireless Internet! The lodge was put up for workers that were building the new school. When the school was completed, the building was turned over to the village cooperation and they rent rooms out to travelers. During this time of year, the lodge is full of birding groups. The birding groups travel to this remote part of the world for sightings of migrating birds that often get blown of course and into the island. It’s one of the worlds "hot spots” for rare bird sightings. Thank goodness for the birds, as they are good for the local economy ?
After settling in at the lodge, I head out the door to go reacquaint myself with Gambell. The only thing hard about doing this was the walking…Gambell is on a spit and the "gravel” is really small, rounded rocks that make walking very hard and something I completely forgot about! Turns out that getting re-acquainted Gambell is going to be harder than I thought ?