Heather Lende
Just another away meet
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I was halfway through another "road trip" with the Haines High cross-country team, which I coach.
We left Haines for a meet in Sitka at six thirty Thursday evening, after running the five miles along the waterfront from school to the ferry terminal. The boat docked in Juneau at 11:00 p.m. but the kind crew let us sleep until 4:30 in the morning when we walked to the ferry terminal and waited six hours for the ship bound for Sitka.
It was raining hard by the time we got on the LeConte, the smallest ferry in the fleet ,pulled out of Auke Bay on our way to Hoonah (3:15 p.m.), Tenakee (8:15 p.m.), Angoon (1:15 a.m.), and Sitka (4:30 a.m.). The ship was packed with locals, tourists, the Juneau, Haines and Skagway cross-country teams and a Juneau junior league football team.
At lunchtime a tourist complained to the purser about the noise. "These kids are driving me crazy," she said. "Is there any place I can go to get some peace and quiet?" When he half jokingly suggested ear plugs, she didn't laugh.
Outside the rain poured down, inside the windows steamed up. It smelled like hamburgers, warm bodies and mildew. Whenever the bathroom door opened the whiff of disinfectant was vaguely reassuring.
A chaperone explained to another distraught tourist that the ferry is the Alaskan version of a South American bus, "just be glad there's no chickens." The tourist looked like she might cry, put on her rain coat and stepped out onto the stormy deck.
One of the coaches got his kids to play charades in the open area by the stairs. Some students did homework and others listened to Walkmans.
The runners ate bagels and drank water. The football players ate french fries and drank Mountain Dew. Four men in flannel shirts played poker at a table in the cafeteria. One of them wore a cap with the price tag dangling off the side. He said he wanted everyone know it was new, "kind of like Minnie Pearl."
After supper the Haines team headed for the solarium, a covered deck at the top of the ship, and spread out sleeping bags on plastic lawn chairs and climbed in them to stay warm.
At nine a handful of twenty-something foreign travelers joined us. They dragged a trash can under the solarium roof and put candles on the lid, then stood in a tight circle to block the wind and wet spray. They chanted and sang softly in Hebrew. They smiled at us a little self consciously and whispered to each other in French and German. We tried not to stare, but they were right at the foot of our chairs.
When they left we settled into our lounge chairs and went to sleep. We almost lost these beds earlier in the day when the football team stole them while we were taking a walk in Hoonah. There were only about twenty chaise lounges on the boat, and we weren't giving ours up without a fight.
Three of our toughest looking boys asked for the chairs back, but the cocky little football players didn't budge. Then two tall blondes from our girls team smiled and asked if they could please have their chairs. The floor was hard and dirty. The deck was wet. The football players looked at the pretty girls and mean looking boys and said "OK"
It is, to my knowledge, the only time a cross-country team has ever beaten a football team. Granted, it was fit high school runners versus chubby eighth and ninth grade football players, but still, I'll take the win.
We got into Sitka and slept a little at the school before the noon meet. The sea, islands and sky sparkled in the sun. Teams from all over southeast raced on winding trails through a park filled with old spruce trees and tall totem poles carved in memory of Sitka natives killed by Russian soldiers.
Totem Park is a beautiful and holy place. It's also a great place for young athletes to learn something about themselves. As first the girls, and then the boys, charged toward the finish chute, everyone on the sidelines clapped and cheered, encouraging them to do their best.
It took us two-and-a-half days to get to a race that lasted about twenty minutes. We didn't even spend the night in Sitka. Instead we caught the jet to Juneau and a ferry back home.
One of the sleepy parents who met us early Sunday morning in Haines took his son's sleeping bag and asked how the meet went. "Pretty good," the boy said.
I watched as all the young runners met up with their families in the dark parking lot, and thought he's right. It was long, and exhausting, but you know, it really was a pretty good trip.