Chignik Olympics I

Its a well known fact that we just don't get much exercise here in Chignik. Jen and Lindsy were pretty vigilant about running up and down the trail from the cabin to the boats, but in general our hearts don't get much of a day to day workout (unless you count pumping pork products). That said, we do have a few activities we affectionately term the Chignik Olympics. Here are a smattering of them in no particular order:

Generator starting. Ever since the alternator went out on our 1982 Lister 5kW generator we have been starting it by hand. Originally we would have one person crank and flip the compression lever, but lately we have all been cranking and flipping on one fell swoop.

Cart pushing/pulling. Our camp is about 400 feet from the river, and to get anything to and from the boats (which is everything) we load it on a cart and roll it up the hill. The challenge is to see how much you can load and roll without dumping the whole load on the path.

Barrel rolling. This is a big one. We need approximately 18, 55 gallon drums to fuel our boat and power requirements for the summer with a little left over to start the next season. Gas barrels weigh about 350 pounds, and diesel about 390. We bring them in our large boat, push them over the side and roll them up to camp. Champs in this sport like Conrad (pictured) can push a barrel all the way up the path to the fuel area by themselves.

Rope pulling. This is kind of an odd one, but we sometimes try to tension rope to hold a beach seine in a boat or in this case hold a boat midriver in the current. We pull so many ropes that we all have hands like velcro after a couple weeks.