The snow stopped but soon we will have rain. Aki and I walk the crescent-shaped beach in front of the old Auk Village site. Blaise gulls crowd the deltas of small steams draining into Auk Bay. Just off shore a knot of harlequin ducks bob in small surf. Further out, between Point Louisa and us a small pod of Dahl Porpoise dance along the water surface. But is it the light breaking out above the Chilkat Range that holds my attention. After days of wet, gray skies, fingers of light reach through the marine layer to explode on the surface of Lynn Canal. Each seems to promise a better day or two of weather, maybe a better year than the one just ending.