I have wanted to go to Cape Decision Lighthouse for a long time. Neighbors and friends from Salmon Beach have been coming to this 1932 Coast Guard lighthouse, slowly working to restore the building and improve the ‘grounds’ (250 acres of true wilderness), for lots of years. I always wanted to go, but it is one of those adventures that if you don’t MAKE it happen, it never will (thank you Micki!)

Reachable for a handful of weeks during summer, work here is a labor of love. Kind of a two steps forward, one step back kind of situation. For a month at most the lighthouse is occupied- warmed by a wood fire, generator rattling away to power the tools, light from the windows reflecting on the edge of the forest at night. Then 11 months of bears, whales, eagles, and the occasional Coast Guard crew checking the light as the only visitors. And of course mice. Lots of mice.

“Week 1 is the best, an adventure, you have no what you are arriving to!”

This means that the Week 1 Crew has no idea what they will arrive to- collapsed ceiling from a leak in the roof? Was the skiff safe where they left it, pulled up onto the rocks, or was it twisted into a pile of aluminum by the winds and the waves?

Rowan and I flew into Petersburg AK yesterday with a Salmon Beach friend, all on our way to Cape Decision Lighthouse. Shopping for supplies for 7 people for the week, meeting another neighbor who is joining us, grabbing supper, and finalizing the next morning’s boat ride 100 nautical miles to the lighthouse.

And today, here we are. The Week 3 Crew, the last of this year, finishing what we can and closing the lighthouse up for the next 11 months.

“Go the last week. The hot water is almost always working by then!”

It is now evening, the fireplace warming the main room, cribbage game winding down on the table, a glass of wine sharing space with my feet propped on a cut log stool. A day of exploring the lighthouse and the nearby trails, homemade bread and soup, lots of laughter, and a bit of work.

Only the seven of us, the only human beings for many, many miles.