Snettisham Construction Adventure
2001-2002: Picking the Spot

In 2001, Larry and I sailed down to Port Snettisham and toured my father's other property at the entrance to Port Snettisham near Pt. Amner. The land is in a beautiful old growth forest at the mouth of a valley, bordered on one side by a pink salmon stream and fronted by a pleasant beach.  Unfortunately, the forest is very wet, all the likely openings between the trees for potential cabins harboring soggy ground or standing water.  Furthermore, my father divided the lot in two years ago and sold one to a neighbor in town, so it was not particularly isolated.  I left hoping that the other property would suit me better.

The next summer my father and I flew down to the other property for a comparison, my future plans still vague in my mind.  Wandering around the land in late October, I was delighted to find site after site of buildable land.  The mature old growth forest left wide open spaces among the trees, most with views of the water.  Following is an excerpt of my journal entry recounting the trip:

12/4/02 Friday was foggy but the weekend dawned with a 300 foot ceiling and we made it.  The emerald water was glassy and reached almost to the trees on the tiny point of land that protruded from the fjord wall.  Several western grebes were there when we landed, diving into flawless surface...Bald eagles sat at the edge of the water and gazed down.  The property turned out to be much more than I'd expected or hoped.  The sun glowed between the trees on perfect, flat terraces of moss and ferns.  I kept shouting "Is this our land?" each time I saw an ideal building site.  The rocky point at the east corner is inspiring. Licheny, above high tide, flat benches to gaze up and down the inlet and into the perfect little cove above it.  The creek shone over its little waterfalls in the sunshine.

Thickets of currents grew at the forest edge.  It also turned out to be much larger than expected.  After half an hour's exploration I was utterly thrilled, convinced that it was worth doing anything to bring people to see.  I left the ancient trees and we took off, flying up the Whiting, over Crescent Lake and down the Speel River side and over the ridge home.  Half a dozen swans on both lakes...found a sea lion rookery at the entrance on a rock like any other along the shore.  Seals in the water.

At home I began seriously planning.  After some initial meetings with the City I discovered that I could do little in the way of permitting for the next summer without a site plan.  In November I hastily chartered a plane and Larry, my friend Dan and I went down and surveyed the lot in order to site cabins and take elevations.  It was a primitive job, but with the help of a compass, a 100' tape, and a lot of estimation, I put together a reasonable plan.  Each cabin was designed to have a view of the water in a location where no trees needed to be cut for construction.  The result was a rather haphazard, organic site plan which later became a more accurate and formal grading plan.