Gone fishing

Every summer, Heather Oberholtzer and her family migrate from Coram further north for a season spent running a remote fishing lodge in Alaska, a lifestyle she said she never envisioned but would never change.

Growing up in Pennsylvania, Oberholtzer was a free-thinking independent person with plans for her life that included moving to a big city and surrounding herself with people, art and culture, with no intention of marrying or having children of her own.

Her vision for her future started to change during her freshman year at Kent State University in Ohio, however, when she fell in love with a man who was in love with Alaska.

Alex, the man who would one day become her husband, dreamed of becoming a bush pilot and fishing guide in the Alaskan wilderness, a lifestyle far from what Oberholtzer had envisioned for herself.

Three months into their relationship, Alex left Ohio and Oberholtzer behind for his annual summer job at a fishing lodge in the southwest corner of Alaska.

The young couple wrote to each other all summer until one special letter arrived for Oberholtzer. Inside was a plane ticket to Alaska and a letter from Alex, asking her to come and let him show her the place he’d fallen in love with.

That July, Oberholtzer boarded a plane bound for Alaska. Her luggage lost somewhere along the way, she stared after the tiny bush plane that had dropped her in a vast barren field of white, alone.

She described the scene like one from a movie as she watched Alex appear like a knight in shining armor on his ATV to pick her up and take her back to Crystal Creek Lodge in King Salmon.

Oberholtzer said she spent the remainder of the trip coming to understand the reasons for her boyfriend’s obsession and soon fell in love with Alaska herself.

“You go to this place where you are hands down the minority. There’s more trees. There’s more rocks. There’s more bears. There’s more fish. There’s more eagles. There’s more everything than you, and there’s a really beautiful quietness that comes with that,” Oberholtzer said.

The couple returned to Kent State University that fall, and though Alex continued to spend his summers in Alaska, he always returned to spend the rest of the year in Ohio with Oberholtzer, even after he’d finished his schooling.

Oberholtzer completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in arts education, and the two married soon after she graduated.

When Oberholtzer found out she was expecting later that year, the time and distance the couple spent apart during the summers began to wear on her.

After their daughter, Lexie, was born, Oberholtzer decided it was time to make a change that would allow their family to stay together year-round.

The following summer, a position became available at the Crystal Creek, and Oberholtzer took a job answering phones and managing guests with the baby at her feet.

That was 13 summers ago, and today, Oberholtzer and her husband help run the lodge four months out of each year and have added two more kids to their ranks.

Now part owners, Alex manages the field program, overseeing guests’ activities as a guide and pilot, while Oberholtzer manages guest services and hiring for the lodge.

“Alaska is still that much wild, that you sometimes feel like you’re getting to see the world in a way that it’s been functioning that way for so long. It’s the same thing that people have been seeing for thousands of years,” she said.

From June to October every year, Oberholtzer, her husband and her staff work seven days a week for 16 weeks, spurred on by nearly 20 hours of sunlight a day.

Alex takes guests out each day for a customized experience based on their interests, whether that be fishing along Bristol Bay for the plentiful king salmon or rainbow trout, hunting an array of game animals or wildlife watching, to name a few.

When guests return to the lodge, however, they fall under the care of Oberholtzer and her staff of chefs, bar tenders, house keepers, waiters/waitresses and the rest of her hospitality team for an evening of storytelling, gourmet food and drinks by the fireplace.

“We have a running joke at the lodge that you can sleep in October,” Oberholtzer said.

When October rolls around, the Oberholtzers return to their home in Coram, where the family hunkers down for the long winter months.

They decided on Montana, Oberholtzer said, after friends from the lodge encouraged them to explore a place much like Alaska that could accommodate their outdoorsy lifestyle while providing the best schooling Oberholtzer said she could have wanted for her kids.

Oberholtzer said the one thing she looks forward to most upon their return to the lower 48 is the peace that comes with having nothing more to do than sit on the couch and watch Sunday football, while her husband rewards himself for a summer of hard work with Montana’s hunting season.

Once back in the swing of things, Oberholtzer busies herself with “making life happen” on a smaller scale, volunteering for events at her kids’ schools and extra-curricular activities while working on the lodge’s schedule for the next season from home.

As her kids get older, Oberholtzer said she knows they’ll begin developing their own interests outside of their Alaskan summers, but for now, they’re in a sweet spot.

Lexie, 12, decided last summer to start her own business at the lodge, and developed a successful niche washing the staff’s laundry.

She and her brothers, William, 10, and Samson, 5, spend their summer days interacting with and entertaining guests and fishing off the docks on Bristol Bay.

Looking back on the differences between the life she planned and the one she has, Oberholtzer said she has learned the importance of “letting go and letting God.”

“The big lesson for me was faith, surrendering and finding peace with the fact that your story’s been written,” Oberholtzer said. “What you need to do is enjoy it. Be inspired to make the world a better place. Be inspired to make other people’s lives better.”

With business booming, her family growing and another summer on the way, Oberholtzer said she has God to thank for messing up her plans and giving her a life and a family she never knew she wanted.

“Now I find myself in these very remote parts of the world all the time,” she said. “I think the heartbeat of nature, the heartbeat of God is really what I was supposed to be listening for, and now I can hear it.”

Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.