For a task as painless as setting your clock back (or forward) an hour, Daylight Saving Time gets an unusual amount of attention. Kayhi students have mixed emotions when it comes to DST. “Daylight Savings doesn’t affect my daily routine much, if any,” said junior Devin Dalin. “When the clocks are set back, I just wake up earlier to take advantage of every bit of sunlight possible. There isn’t much late afternoon light available for outdoor activities.” Students at Kayhi enjoy certain aspects of DST more than others. The biggest benefit being the extra hour of sleep available after clocks are set back an hour in November. Senior Chanell Browne believes dark mornings make it harder to wake up and get ready for the day. “Waking up in the morning is difficult,” said Browne. “Trying to find the motivation to get myself out of bed when it’s still dark outside might possibly be one of the hardest things to do.” Browne is a fan of DST for the morning sunlight benefits, but she is not impressed by early afternoon darkness. “Overall in my opinion, I don’t like it,” she said. “I hate how dark it gets after school. It limits the window of opportunity for outdoor activities in the afternoon, which sucks.”
Facts about Daylight Savings -Daylight Saving Time is practiced in the Navajo Nation, AZ. -Daylight Saving Time will resume on March 11, 2019. -Daylight Saving time (DST) takes place every year in over 70 countries and 48 states. -Clocks are set forward one hour in March, and set back in November. DST began on March 11, 2018 and will end this Sunday, Nov. 4. -Arizona and Hawaii do not participate in DST. Hawaii has close to the same sunrise and sunset times year round, while Arizona residents simply do not participate.
-In Australia clocks are set either back or forward only 30 minutes. Compared to the 1 hour change in the US.
It’s no question hunting in the Last Frontier is a big deal to every hunter in the lower 48. One of the biggest reasons my family and many others came to Alaska was because of all of the stories of the outdoor lifestyle and the wildlife the 49th state has to offer. My parents and family grew up hunting whitetail, duck, and hare in northern Michigan surrounded by the Great Lakes. Almost every Thanksgiving I fly down to northern Michigan to enjoy a winter whitetail hunt. The hunting atmosphere is way different down there compared to Alaska. Everytime I go I have to mentally prepare myself to be bored, sitting in a blind waiting for a deer to walkout isn’t exactly an exciting style of hunting. Being active and hiking to find a good spot or track the animal is a way better experience in my opinion. Growing up being a mobile hunter and fully participating in the hunt makes the sport so much more enjoyable and meaning to me. My uncle, Earl Robinson came along with my parents strictly for the hunting and the fishing he had heard about up in Alaska. “I never thought that anything would beat a good whitetail hunt in the middle of November when you’re freezing in your blind with a cup of coffee waiting for one to walk out,” said Robinson. “That all changed when I went on my first moose hunt with your father when we got up to Alaska.” Hunting is an amazing experience in general but something about Alaska just makes it extra special. Alaska gives off a presence of being wild and untamed and that carries onto the wildlife and hunting experience as well. D Jay O’Brien is a former resident of California where he spent many years hunting and enjoying the outdoor lifestyle the Golden State has to offer. “The quality of hunting in Alaska is just absolutely phenomenal, you can park your car or anchor your boat and just be on your own in the pursuit,” said O’Brien who grew up hunting pheasant. “The laws are so much more complicated and controlling down south, the areas are fragmented into such minimal zones it’s almost impossible to get anything or truly be focused on the hunt.” Another thing that plays a big role for the favor of hunting in the 49th state is an intact ecosystem. Many states down south control the population of animals and bring in certain wildlife species into areas where they don’t belong or where they might damage the ecosystem. Kayhi Football Coach Isaac Castruita has noticed quite a difference in the ecosystem between Texas and Alaska. “The amount of animals in Alaska is absolutely ridiculous compared to Texas, don’t get me wrong there’s plenty of animals in Texas but the way the animals act up here and respond to each other is crazy,” said Castruita. “It’s almost like they know they belong here together and they have to rely on each other in some sort of way.” Hunting in the most northern state is a true blessing. Residents get to experience sights and hunts that other non residents dream of. “There’s nothing like being a residential hunter in Alaska, it blows me away every time i’m out there,” said O’Brien. “People from down south save up thousands and hundreds of dollars to come up here and hunt our land and our animals, that shows how gifted we are to be able to hunt this land as regularly as we do.”
The City of Ketchikan is on continuous diesel generated power for the foreseeable future. Lack of summer rain produced low lake levels causing the city’s power plant to shut down hydroelectric power. Stormy, wet days were a rare occurrence this summer. Many days had the potential to downpour, but instead clouds sprinkled some rain and dissipated. Local lakes need strings of rainy days in order to fill up and produce power for the city. KPU Electric Division Manager Andy Donato said that diesel generators are currently supplying the majority of power to the city. “Yes we have some hydro power,” said Donato. “But we’re augmenting the diesel with that hydro power. We do not have enough hydro power to meet the firm power requirement of Ketchikan.” Ketchikan typically relies heavily on hydro power. 97% of all power comes from hydro power, while the other 3% comes from diesel generators. Off years requiring more diesel. “Nothing is stopping us from going back and forth as we accumulate water,” he said. “As the reservoir level gets low, we go back to diesel.” According to Donato, Swan Lake will need another 30-40 inches of rain in order to safely make the switch from diesel to continuous hydro power. When asked about the possibility of Swan Lake reaching its goal in the next few weeks, he said it would have to be “a biblical type of event” in order for that to take place. Typically, diesel power is used in the spring. Lack of water on hillsides and frozen hillsides restrict the amount of water entering the reservoirs. “Diesel power was needed last year in the spring,” he said. “We usually need extra power that time of the year, but to have this issue manifest itself in the summer and in the fall, that is very rare. Hopefully mother nature will turn around and produce the massive inflows we typically get.” Donato predicts Ketchikan will continue to rely on diesel generated power as winter approaches, but he hopes the city can switch back to hydroelectric power for the holidays. “As we get into December and January,” he said. “My suspicion is we will continue to be on diesel power. Information regarding current lake reservoir levels can be found at www.ktn-ak.us the official City of Ketchikan website.
Unbeknownst to students, teachers change up their regular teaching habits yearly in order to make learning easier. All of them, however, take different approaches. High school science teacher Julie Landwehr incorporated exercises from her reading list. “This past summer I read a book called Factfullness by Hans Rosling,” said Landwehr. “It’s about our pitfalls as humans in actually understanding the actuality of what’s going on around us and the instinctual obstacles we have to seeing facts.” Every Friday this school year Mrs. Landwehr is creating scenarios that represent one of the ten things that we struggle with as humans. After completing the scenarios, she and the class have a discussion about what they learned. “My goal is to have people be mindful of how they are thinking about data and facts for science,” said Landwehr. She believes that the importance of switching things up lies in engaging the ones learning. “It is really important for what I present to be interesting because it really is hard to be motivated if you’re not interested in what you are learning,” Landwehr said. “I plan on changing things every year.” High school English teacher Rebecca Bowlen had her own literal take on exercise when she stumbled across a pop up on her Facebook page. Her plan was to incorporate physical exercise into regular activities to improve performance. “My idea to make things more interesting and change things up is based on something I saw this past spring on an education website called Fitlit,” said Bowlen. “I want to incorporate that into English 1 by adding some type of physical activity into it.” Over the last three weeks, she has yet to receive negative feedback. “We’ve done a few practices like a hike outside when we had some reflective writing,” said Bowlen. “We stopped in various spots to talk about where we are and do some writing before going to on our next little spot.” History teacher Michael Cron had his own slower approach to spicing things up in the classroom. He only changes things up as necessary to adapt to his classes. “I like to wait and see before I make adjustments,” said Cron. “Each class is a little bit different, I have to get to know the class first before I decide what adjustments I’m going to make. Some classes need more energy and others not so much- they get hyperactive and stop paying attention. As a teacher, you always have to ask yourself, are the students actually learning. If they aren’t learning you have to do something until they do.” As for the reasoning behind this Cron believes that it is the only way to be an effective teacher. “It’s important because learning and education at its core is a social act, it’s something that happens between people,” said Cron. “It’s why a physical teacher in the room is still way more effective than a computer. You need to make these adjustments based on how people are responding, sometimes that means you need to spice things up but other times that means that people need more structure even if they don’t want it.”
There are 13,376 people in town today. That would be the 4th largest city in Alaska. That’s 26,752 eyeballs (ideally) 133,760 fingers (hopefully) 133,760 toes (theoretically) Average Snapchat user opens the app 18 times daily so it will likely be accessed 240,768 times in Ketchikan today. Jack.ramsay just posted him arriving in Ketchikan on a cruise line. Codieannie “making his way downtown, walking fast, faces pass and he’s homebound” at Ketchikan Creek. Ketchikan is light__catcher’s favorite town so far. The average person has seven social media accounts that roughly adds up to 93632 active accounts roaming Ketchikan. The average person spends about two hours on social media each day. If I begged a dollar from each of them, I could fly to the Bahamas ($1441) stay at the British Colonial Hilton Nassau ($186) for 45 nights and back with $3500 for spending money. Or I could take the ferry to Wrangell and back 110 times. If I wanted, I could get berths take all my friends, and go six times. I could buy a 2016 Nissan Versa SV with only 34,000 miles on it. I would be able to pay for one year of college tuition at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. 1 in 10 people have athlete’s foot making an extra 1,300 people wandering around Ketchikan with it. This is what I think about when Leah stops and lets half the town cross in front of me.
The sun’s out, AP tests are over, and you guessed it! Tourist season has returned! Everyone is figuring out where they are going to work. Some people work behind the counter, some give tours, and others guide visitors across the street. The crossing guards are very important when it comes to tourist season. Without them, tourists would probably get run over regularly. Jacinda Leighton is a returning crossing guard and is ready to take on the challenge again. “You always know something bad could happen in the back of your mind but I try not to let it bother me too much,” Leighton said. “A lot of people can be very rude and not listen, because of that they can put themselves in certain situations. Nobody wants to be responsible if something bad happens which can be tough”. Kiely Bryce had her first day on the job recently and is super excited to be a crossing guard this season. “I heard about [the job] from Jacinda and Leah [Benning] and it seemed fun so I am trying it,” Bryce said. “My first day was good, easier than I thought it would be. I’m really excited to interact with tourists and to get to work outside. I’m not scared but I am aware so I’ll be careful obviously and ready if that time comes.” Leighton has been on the job since last year. Every day usually runs smoothly and no one gets hurt. However, there was once a time where someone almost actually did get hurt. She recalls her one and only close call with tourists and wants to set a standard for future recruits like Bryce. “There was this one time at the end of the day, and I was crossing the road. The tourists already crossed and I was heading back to my post. There was this bus driver who almost hit me and then proceeded to almost hit not only the crossing guard but the tourists at the other post while running through our signs,” said Leighton. “It was really bad. I actually had to push the tourists out of the way. We eventually talked it out with the bus company and reported it.” 2013 Kayhi graduate, Jacob Potts, has been working as a crossing guard for quite some time now. He recently got promoted to Street lead for his 5th season. He loves his job and can’t imagine working anywhere else. The sun coming out is making him ready to get back to work and be with his friends in the outdoors. “All of my friends worked here and with the flexible schedule with good pay. It’s nice to come back here. And as long as your calm, it’s pretty easy and fun,” said Potts. “It can be stressful at some points, miserable in the rain but in the end a ton of fun. The job is easier if your outgoing, talk to the tourists and be funny with them. They love it.”
Ok, you looked online, saw beautiful pictures of clear days, big fish, and whales watching kayakers so you booked your tickets to Ketchikan. Good job. Here’s what you need to know:
The hike to the Deer Mountain trailhead is almost as long and painful as the hike itself. Your khakis and button-ups aren’t going to cut it. Either call a cab to escort you up or forget it. There’s nothing sadder than seeing poor 8-year old Billy being forced up the mountain by his overzealous dad who was a 3rd team all-conference in high school and won’t back down from anything, and mother who looks like a Lululemon model. I have honestly thought about rolling down the window and telling them to turn back now. I never have, partially because it’s entertaining to see how far dad’s gotten on the way back down the hill.
It’s going to rain. Sometimes it rains and rains and rains for 25 hours a day, 8 days a week. Ketchikan averages 229 days of rainfall a year. You may see more rain in the one day you’re here than you’ve seen your entire life. And not that the plastic ponchos aren’t flattering but the locals will make fun of you for wearing it. Zero percent of people look cool while wearing a poncho. So ditch the clear plastic sheath and bring your own coat. This is a rainforest people!
While I’m on apparel. The docks are made of big long boards of wood. There’s a gap between them just big enough for the heel of your stilettos to fall into. So please don’t forget to pack your three-inch heels because I haven’t seen anyone bite it yet and this summer might be my last opportunity to. Shorts are another must. Even if it’s raining sideways you will assert your dominance over everyone by wearing shorts. And don’t even think about packing a hat and gloves because you definitely won’t need them. When everyone is back home telling their stories of their trip to Alaska, they will remember you and wish they were more like you, shorts guy.
Disclaimer, your tour guide cannot summon whales and bears at will. There are no chain link fences in the ocean or the forest, animals can roam wherever they please. The whales and bears don’t care that you paid to go see them. An authentic Alaskan experience isn’t the pictures shown in your brochure.
You will not catch a record-setting King Salmon on your 4-hour charter. Depending on how the season is going, you’ll be lucky to even catch a king. And honestly, once your fish has been processed and packaged none of your neighbors have to know that it’s just a little pinky. Also! In the same way, your whale watching guides can’t magically produce whales, all your captain can do is put four lines in the water and wait. So, don’t bug them about the lack of fish, you’re in Alaska, be grateful.