A Rough Ride to Boreal

"It was during the summer when Walter Pitka and I were going down to the Boreal processing plant near St. Mary's to deliver fish. The river was very rough and we had a boatload of fish. I didn't want to drive because it was too scary, so I let Walter drive while I was holding onto the boat really hard. The scariest part was when we were crossing the Yukon River to get to the other side so we could go through Short Cut Slough. Even so, it took us two or three hours to reach Boreal because we had to go so slow with such a large boatload of fish. The rough water didn't help.

When we came back up we followed Fred and Bill Fitka because it was so dark out. The only way we knew we were behind them was because we could smell the exhaust from their engine. While we were coming up, I remember there was another boat on the other side of the river and they had a spot light. When they flashed the light at us and then turned it away we couldn't see for awhile. Not a nice thing to experience on a stormy river!"

By: Roberta Fitka

Interviewed by: Tanya Peter