I leave for Alaska on July 5th. Four kayaks and a pile of gear, headed for another summer at Cape Decision. More beach surveys and cleanups are on the docket, along with an assessment of the debris deposition rate at the Landing beach and water samples from points farther away than last year. The idea this time, now that the kayak fleet is complete, is to spend two or three days out of each week exploring the surrounding area, visiting remote sites that we haven’t been to yet and scouting the routes for future kayaking trips.

In addition to the boats and other items that will be going on the ferry with me, there’s a pallet of food and other supplies that we’ll ship up in another couple of weeks. Everything from noodles to super sacks goes on there, things we are better off buying here than in Alaska (which is just about everything). Fresh vegetables, meat and dairy we’ll pick up in Wrangell, but everything else gets shipped. Grocery shopping is scheduled for later this week, so that’s all getting real.

Presentations and other events are still going on… slowing down soon but not quite yet. Yesterday was a great day at Oceanfest in Tacoma, and Wednesday I’ll be at the Disco Bay Detour for a Wilderness Wednesday. The next night, at the Surfrider meeting in Tacoma, I’ll be recapping the Tacoma Shoreline Survey, going through the numbers and looking ahead to next year’s event. If you can make it out to one of these, it would be great to say hello.

But when July comes, I’m going to be gone.