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| Out on the Shelikof on an abnormally calm day |
On the last survey Gregg and I got a lot of help from the Afognak Native Corporation's patrol boat. They helped us to survey a lot of the coastline quickly and moved us around to more efficiently cover what we needed to survey. Without their help the survey would have required at least twice the time.
That said there were a lot of areas that the big boat could not reach or that needed to be hiked. We did spend a morning hiking up to Selief 'Lake', and hiked most of the little islands off the south end of Raspberry Island.
At the end of each survey I try to mark on a map which areas I surveyed on foot as opposed to by boat. Hiking coastline is the most time consuming method of survey but it also finds the most sites. Hard to miss a site when you walk across it. But if you had to hike everything you would never complete the job - so I had to constantly assess whether coastline was 'worth' hiking.
Surveying entails a lot of getting in and out of boats. It can get tiring, and there is the often an inclination to just say, 'nah', and stick with the boat. Needless to say, but I got in and out of the boats a lot and did it ALL day.
On occasion I even hike coastline that doesn't look promising just to make sure my 'worthiness' model is up to snuff. I don't want my model to determine where I find sites - that would be a self-fulfilling model. So on every survey I do check random places and climb mountains etc, but I also balance that by not checking on a lot of unlikely areas. These are the coastlines where we just paddle or motor on past - slowly of course and with the binoculars in hand! Patrick
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| Here I am thinking, 'do I need to get out and check this beach for a site?' |
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| Tonalite dike on the beach on the North end of Little Raspberry Island |
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| Something related to the Port Bailey Cannery? That's one BIG engine |
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