On a clearer day I'd see a dormant volcano called Mount Edgecumbe. Closer by, on land, there is an eagle or two on a tree, and a raven picking at a chunk of food by a puddle. And of course the red flag and arches of McDonalds, and the busses for the tourists and schoolkids, parked across the street, in front of the only funeral home in town. Mold and rust are rampant, but the mountains, where they haven't been clear-cut, are thick with cedar, hemlock, and spruce. Out on the water, it is common to see humpback whales, sea lions, and otters.
Some days being here is like living in a postcard.
The bike came from a store in Beverly Hills. On one of my visits to LA, after running some heavy errands in a rental car, I bought a used bike. You don't want to impose on folks in that car-dependent sprawl to drive you around, and you can't get where you need to in a reasonable time on public transportation. When it was time to leave, I put the bike on top of a friend's VW bus to Seattle and barged it from there to Sikta, to let it have a chance to rust. I lived in LA a while too, on and off for 8 or 9 years.