More new camera

I really like my new camera.  It is waterproof, shockproof, and takes REALLY REALLY good pictures.  In the past when I'd take pictures in low light with my old camera things would always sort of look muddy.  Not so with the new camera.  The new look is sharp and colorful.

These are some more pictures from yesterday in the park. Now to see how it works on our vacation to Afognak!  Patrick

Trying to Capture Rain and Wind

The day before yesterday I took my new camera and the doggies into the park during a pretty severe storm.  Nothing like a little heavy rain and wind to test my camera's abilities to withstand the elements.  I also figured it might be fun to try and 'capture' the storm.

At the park I was struck by how all the wind was flipping all the salmonberry leaves and thrashing them all about.  It was really quite dramatic.  I tried to photograph it by using a slow shutter speed to give all the leaves a motion blur.  You can see that I tried to take this photo a bunch of times.

Later in the hike I tried to take a photo of the raindrops falling into a pond.  It was pouring but my photo does not really show it.  Oh well I got the new camera and this winter I'm pretty sure there will be plenty of storms.  I guess I will have to try again!  Patrick

I tried to get the leaves to motion blur in the wind with the tree trunks sharp

Raindrops amongst the lily pads

Lost Photos

Over the weekend the kids, dogs and I went on a photo safari to jewel beach and the old WWII bunkers behind Boy Scout Lake.  I was excited to see how my new camera did at taking kid and dog action shots.  We all got to try out the new camera, and decided that the bunker was too scary to go inside.  By the time we got to the beach we had taken some GREAT pictures.

I was really happy with the photos.  In particular, I took some of Nora throwing sticks into the water with all the dogs jumping - all in focus with a blurred background due to a low aperture setting, and short depth of field.  I was ecstatic about the new camera.

And then we got home and I promptly deleted half the photos by accident.  Nora was sad that I deleted the ones she took.  I was sad that I lost the beach photos.  Oh well, at least I did not delete ALL the photos.  And next time I'll wait before re formatting the camera memory card.  Patrick

New Camera

In the old days iPhones never used to take very good pictures.  But sometime around 5 years ago they suddenly did.  I first realized this in 2012 when after an elk hunt I decided to retire my old waterproof Pentax WP point and shoot.  Somebody's iPhone on the hunt had taken better pictures.

The new Olympus Tough point and shoot that I got stayed ahead of the iPhones for another 5 years, but this summer I noticed that my friends' iPhones had significantly closed the gap.  Time to get another waterproof camera upgrade.

Problem is - iPhones are now basically on par with most compact point and shoots.  My active lifestyle also demands a tough waterproof camera, and I've found that unless my camera is handy I don't tend to take pictures.  So I needed something both compact and waterproof.

So this time to get something better than an iPhone I had to go high end.  My new waterproof camera has a full sized sensor and is compact. Take that iPhone!  Patrick

Little Things

Here are pictures of some of the little things from our recent alpine hunting trip.  The pair of semi palmated plovers - really tiny little birds - who lived near the outlet of the lake.  A purple fleabane (aster) with dew on it.  There were so many of these flowers that I was wondering if we should collect them too.

But I think the coolest discovery was dolly Varden trout in the lake.  The lake is up at over 1100 feet in elevation and has HUGE waterfalls down lower on the creek that drains it.  How did they get into the lake?  I have seen sticklebacks in these alpine lakes, and at first I thought that this was what we had in the lake. But clearly, as you can see in the photo, these are salmonids of some sort.  A friend tells me they are dollies.  Patrick

Look carefully and you'll see the dollies

Exploring and Glassing

Now that was ugly - at the top of the bushwhack from hell

For our alpine hunting trip we went to an area none of us had ever been to before.  It was a completely new area to explore.  The hardest part was finding routes up from the lake through the brush to the high alpine.  One trail worked out, but another attempt ended up as the bushwhack to hell.  There were little ravines and plateaus that we had not seen from the bottom.  But that's all part of learning about a new area.

We also had to learn where the deer hang out - how to hunt the new area.  We are used to hunting places with more wide open bowls.  Places where you go to the top and move from bowl to bowl stopping to glass each one thoroughly for deer as you go.  But here the topography was much more rolling and the deer were not concentrated in any one particular place.  We found that deer could be found anywhere and everywhere. The rolling topography made it hard to see 'everything' from any one spot.  So we had to glass continually on the go.

Of course when we did see deer the rolling topography also made it very easy to sneak up on the deer.  What hid the deer could also hide us! Patrick

Lisa and Gregg sneaking up on deer - they got to within 30 yards or so!

Hanging by the Stove

We arrived at our alpine lake Saturday afternoon in broken sunshine, but even before we had camp set up it had started to sprinkle.  We rushed to get the meat shelter set up while the ground was still dry - better to keep any meat we harvested dry.  We also collected a lot of firewood.  The lake actually  had a lot of beaver chewed driftwood along the shore.  And it is a good thing we did collect a lot of dry wood because it rained hard all the next day.

We used the down day to scout and clear a trail to the high alpine, but mostly spent the day by the wood stove in the teepee.  Tentbound - quesadillas, books, tea, Lisa art, and naps all accompanied by the constant pitter patter of rain on the tent.  This is when I LOVE a hot wood stove.  The stove stayed lit for a solid 56 hours and the weather did not break until Monday afternoon.  I was kind of amazed at how the wood stove banked itself and stayed lit all night long.

But the weather did break and we were ready for it.  We had actually climbed up the mountain in the rain Monday afternoon and caught it clearing off from on high.  Clear skies - time to hunt deer!
Patrick

Lisa and I had beers once we had camp set up on arrival - the grass inside the tent later got beaten down

Showing off trophies - Rolan thinks the arrowleaf ragwort is the real prize!

Arnica for Aches and Pains

Deer hunting can be hard on the body.  All the heavy loads, steep climbs, and bushwhacking leave you tired and achy by the end of a trip.  Usually this is time for vitamin 'I' right?  But not for us! We gathered our own pain medication during some down time on the trip.

 I've always known that arnica flowers are supposed to help relieve pain and bruises, and I have always wanted to find out how you make something out of them.  Then this past winter I attended a Munartet workshop where I learned how to infuse oil with arnica and yarrow to make an ointment (click here for post).  At the workshop we used dried arnica flowers from Switzerland!  So suitably inspired I vowed to gather my own 'local, organic and source-based' arnica flowers and make an ointment just like I'd been taught.  It is actually amazingly easy - basically just add flowers to oil.

So one morning after carrying 2 deer back to camp we were too exhausted to do another hunt.  But it was such a sunny day.  Too sunny to hang out in camp.  And so all three of us gathered arnica flowers in the sunshine along the lakeshore.  A perfect afternoon activity.

The bumble bees seemed to love arnica too, and we tried not to gather too many flowers in any one place.  We wanted to leave some for the bees.  And they did their part and did not sting us when we gathered them by mistake.  This actually happened a couple of times - you'd feel a weird fluttering in your hand and would open it to release the bee.  My kids would not like gathering arnica!

In what seemed like no time at all we had gathered a game bag full of arnica flowers.  Once back home from the trip I filled 2 jars with flowers and oil to make my ointment, and I froze the rest.  We now have a supply arnica to keep us pain free all winter!  Patrick

Be careful not to mix the blue with the yellow - that blue flower is poison! (monkshood)

Arnica flowers in the meat shelter - we were true hunter gatherers on this trip!

Arnica flowers infusing in oil

Alpine Camping

Camp

Yesterday I returned from a fly out, alpine deer hunt with Lisa and Gregg.  Basically we chartered a plane and flew to an alpine lake for a camping trip.  Today I was telling someone about the trip and they related that they 'had never gone on a hunting trip before'.  I tried to explain that the alpine hunt was not so much of a hunting as a camping trip.  Hunting is just a glorious excuse to go camping and to hike in the alpine.

And it is true.

The 'hunting' aspect just gets you up early in the morning and gets you up into the alpine looking for deer.  And because we are hunting it intensifies how closely we examine the landscape - we are looking for deer after all.  The hunting makes it primal but in the end the part that I enjoy most is simply camping in an awesome place in August.  Up in Kodiak's gorgeous alpine.

All that said, catching a deer or two is good too.
Patrick

'He looks like a big one'

Gregg and Lisa with her deer

My deer was harvested in a very dramatic setting

Returning to camp with meat

Garden Update

Last night I served some visiting archaeologists another 'Kodiak Local' meal.  Deer steaks, boiled new potatoes with butter and kale (instead of parsley), and roasted beet and garlic cloves with the greens added at the end.  These days the garden is seriously producing and it is hard to keep up with all the greens.  The kale actually went quite well with the potatoes and I will do it again.  The garlic was harvested too soon, and is still not ready so I will leave the rest of the plants in the ground.  The individual cloves lacked skins (which made them easier to prepare).  And they sure were tasty with the beets.  The 'new' garlic matched the 'new' potatoes!

unripe salmonberry - will they ever get ripe?