Twelve Floors over Ketchikan

I was surviving out of a two-person tent pitched at Ward Lake, about six miles north of Ketchikan, Alaska. It was still winter, and I was looking for fishing work, a spot on a boat, anything other than my tent, but there was none to be found. Some days it was too bitter cold to leave my tent. Other days I would hike that six miles through snow and rain with the intention to walk the docks and find work, but I always ended up in the bar. And this was not my bottom.