25 April 2008 Echo Cove

The Alaska Friends Conference (i.e. Alaska Quakers) gathered north of Juneau this weekend for an annual spring meeting and retreat. Alaska has one of the highest density of Friends Churches in the country, but a very small number of unprogrammed Friends, the Quaker branch that Alaska Friends Conference represents. Friends Churches have ministers and hold beliefs and customs similar to other evangelical Christians. Unprogrammed Friends, who tend to be more liberal, sit together in silence until the Spirit moves someone to share. Someone estimated that AFC has only 80 formal members in the state. Sixteen of us walked out to Echo Ranch this last week.

The weekend began auspiciously with a beautiful spring evening in southeast Alaska. Several of us had left a snowstorm in Anchorage that morning (24" total!). The sunny skies of Juneau were a welcome surprise, given the normally rainy weather there. We walked 2.5 miles down the beach of Echo Cove to reach Echo Ranch at the edge of Berners Bay. Mallards, goldeneyes, and scoters floated in large groups in the cove. In the bay, humpback whales surfaced, exhaled loudly, and dove to feed.

Snow was still deep in parts of the woods and the songbirds seemed to be returning through the weekend. The shrill whistles of the varied thrushes became more constant through the weekend. On Saturday afternoon, I encountered a small flock of robins while walking on the beach. On Sunday morning, I heard my first ruby-crowned kinglet of the spring.

Back here in Anchorage, Paul had cleared the driveway and those two feet of snow were rapidly melting in 45 degree weather. The first robin has returned to our neighborhood and has been singing constantly. The grape hyacinths are blooming under the eave on the south side of the house. Spring is ever so slowly working its way north.