AWOL in Alaska

SITKA -- August 19, 2007

Local residents and SEAtrails board members were in a state of panic (well, maybe "concern" is more accurate) when SEAtrails VISTA volunteer Karen Smith could not be located this past weekend.

"I called her house and the guy who answered the phone said she moved out," said Davey Lubin, dad to Louie, the whale watching and hiking poodle extraordinaire. (The brilliant guy upstairs deduced this based on the lone piece of evidence that the Jeep was not in the driveway for a few days.) Davey, who spends a lot of time out on the water, really let his imagination get carried away. "I thought maybe she'd flipped out or something or run off with a bunch of Forest Service guys."

"I don't know what all the hooplah was about," responded a relaxed and unfazed Karen Smith. "I told my supervisor that I would be out playing all weekend. Everyone knows the boys upstairs never relay any message, whether it's in person or on the answering machine. All I did was go fishing."

You can see pictures of Smith's weekend whereabouts.