Equinox Sunrise and Moonset

While camping we saw some pretty amazing sunsets and sunrises.  As usual with a full moon I noticed it set at about the same time as the sun came up.  But what I had never noticed before is that it set in the exact same place on the horizon that the sun had set the evening before.  It got me wondering does this only occur near the equinox?  Is everything perfectly proportional only on the equinox?

I also got to thinking that we ought to put a big stone where we had our camp. Create our own mini Stonehenge.   I loved how the full moon set perfectly into the notch between 2 hills when viewed from our camp.  I wonder where it sets on the solstice?

Patrick

Hand held zoom picture of the full moon!

Sunset the night before

Exploring the Refugium

I spent the last week with my friend Mike S on a hunting/hiking camping trip down on Kodiak's south end.  This is the part of Kodiak that was never glaciated during the last glacial maximum.  Hence, it is known as the 'Refugium' because it was supposedly a 'refuge' for various plants and animals to survive the glaciation and then subsequently repopulate the island ecosystem.  It was basically a huge ice-dammed lake.  It is certainly a unique place and it looks totally different than anywhere else on Kodiak.  The wide open swamp flats are basically the old lake bottoms and the hills would have been islands sticking up out of the lakes.

The trip is sort of an annual event except that we usually do it with our friend Ray and generally float down a river.  This year we decided to park in one place, make a comfortable base camp, and do our hikes from there.  Of course while hiking the mountains we were also hunting.  We also did a little archaeology and found 2 new village sites where Alutiiq people fished for spawning red salmon in the fall.

This year the theme of the trip was spawning red salmon and the reds and yellows of the fall colors.  It is gorgeous down there!  I particularly liked to see all the spawning red salmon - now I know why people went to these inland lakes in the fall.  And the highest concentrations of spawning fish were generally right in front of old village sites.  Of course these are the areas where bears also like to fish.

More to come. ..

Patrick

Doggies on the Go

Some pictures from the last few weeks of 'doggies on the go'.  Pictures from my daily dog walks.  The landscape is no longer green but has turned yellow and is getting darker by the day.  Pretty soon I hope we'll have some hard frosts.  And I can't wait for snow.  Fall is definitely in the air.  Patrick

No Bears

This past weekend was grey with drizzle.  Twice we decided to drive out the road and look for bears at Salonie Creek and twice we failed to find bears.  Funnily enough every time I have gone out there NOT looking for bears the bears have been there.  Last week I saw four at once fishing in the creek.  But this weekend nothing.

Still it was very cool to look down into the river and watch all the fish.  Thousands of spawning salmon.  There were some big salmon down in there too.  My favorite are the huge dog salmon with the zebra stripes on their sides.  Patrick

Fog

Yesterday, like it has been for the last 2 weeks, it was sunny and hot.  I took the dogs for a walk in the park and I had to move slowly to keep from getting too sweaty.  On the road back to the house I was talking to a neighbor and happened to glance out to sea.  I mentioned what I saw, 'Look!  A fog bank far out at sea'.  I continued on home and was planning on lighting the fire pit.

And then the fog arrived - huge wisps rising up off the water to cover the trees.  Suddenly it was cool and dark and the sunshine gone. Too cold for a fire pit deck party!  So we decided to go to a friend's pizza party.

On the way to the party we drove up to the top of Pillar Mountain to check out the fog.  Half way up the mountain we broke out of the fog and it was sunny and warm again.  No wind and all the windmills just hanging there motionless.  And far below a blanket of white fog covering everything.

We continued on to the party and returned to the cool fogbound lowlands.  Town was completely socked in.  It was very hard to believe that just a few hundred feet above our heads it was still bright and sunny.
Patrick

Sunrises and Rats in the Potatoes

Kodiak of late has had an incredible run of weather - sunny hot day after sunny hot day.  It seems every morning there has been a colorful sunrise to enjoy.  I have also noticed that the sun rises a bit more to the right each day, and that yesterday, for the first time this Fall, it rose up from behind land at the tip of Spruce Cape rather than directly out of the ocean.  So despite the warm, clear and sunny days, it is Fall.  My Mill Bay/Spruce Cape seasonal sundial tells me so!

In the last week I also started to harvest the potatoes and finished harvesting the garlic.  I discovered that rats and slugs had devastated the potato patch.  Lots of  tunnels and chewed potatoes - and once chewed often 'goo'ed' and finished off by slugs.  YUCK!  In the first couple of rows that I harvested I had lost most of the potatoes.  I decided that I had probably better harvest them all before it got worse.

The second day of harvesting went far, far better - barely any rat or slug loss.  So it looks like the damage was fairly localized.  The wheelbarrow in the bottom photo shows about 1/3 of the potato crop.  I have since filled the wheelbarrow to the top, and estimate I still have enough left to harvest to fill an additional 2 five gallon buckets.  So phewwwww and fingers crossed I still have a decent crop of potatoes.  Patrick

Dating Qik'rtangcuk

Peter collecting charcoal from the site to be radiocarbon dated

A short while ago we got back the radiocarbon dating results for the Qik'rtangcuk Site.  We had collected charcoal from the lowest level of the site, and I had secretly hoped that it might well come back as one of the earliest dates from the archipelago (click here for last summer's post).  We just had to beat 7500 (calibrated) years old.

Below are the results of the radiocarbon analysis.  It looks like we came close, but missed by a couple hundred years.  Radiocarbon dating is based on probabilities and does not yield an exact date - you have to examine the calibration curve to see the various possibilities.  Our calibrated results show that the bottom of the site could date anywhere from between 7050 to 7300 years ago, but that it most likely dates to around 7200 years ago.

That's pretty old!  And we did get the earliest date ever for Near Island.  Just not the oldest for the archipelago.  Still the date is about what I expected it to be, and it matches up pretty well with what we found - a specialized gathering stop on the seasonal round from the earliest colonists to the archipelago.  That's pretty cool.  Patrick

Another quick hike

A small, secret lake near the top of Sharatin - much less visited than Shelly Lake

Last Sunday I followed up Saturday's 14 mile 'quick' hike with a 10 mile trek over the top of Sharatin.   We started up through the spruce forest on the Small Creek trail, climbed the ridge to the top, then hiked out via the bowl on the Southeast side of the mountain and the Red Cloud trail. Then once at the road back to Small Creek via the road on a stashed bike.  But on this hike we stopped and did a lot more exploring than had been the case on Saturday.

Ate lunch in the sunshine by a small lake near the top, sat and watched bears feeding on dog salmon far below in Elbow Creek at the head of Sharatin Bay, glassed mountain goats, and then on the way down examined the 'blue room' from above.  The 'blue room' is a canyon and waterfall that turns blue with ice in the winter.  It is a favorite with ice climbers.

Best of all, I found that Philip had brushed out the lower portion of the trail on the way back to the road.  So no bushwhacking!  All and All another glorious day in the sunshine.
Patrick

Shelly Lake and Kizhuyak Bay

The Red Cloud Bowl on Sheratin - the trail home

Quick Hike

Descending from the top of 4rth of July - those white dots to my left are goats

This past weekend the weather was gorgeous and I did a lot of hiking.  Almost 25 miles over the course of 11 hours.  On Saturday I hiked a 'quick' 14 mile loop behind Bells Flats with Philip.  We started at Little Kosovo and hiked up to the top of 4rth of July and then followed the ridge back to the plateau beside Cope Mountain and then back down to Sargent Creek and the car.  The whole hike took us about 5 1/2 hours - that's quick!

I had never done that particular hike before, and it was an unexpected surprise.  It was so simple to start and end such a big loop from the exact same spot - No need to ferry cars. There were some scary spots, but in general, for such big and gnarly mountains, the topography was quite forgiving and hiker friendly.  And even the scary spots could easily have been avoided.  And Philip did not even think there were any scary spots!

A beautiful hike in the sunshine.

Patrick

I was relieved to be done with the steep section behind me - REALLY relieved

Cottonwoods and the creek at the start of the hike

4rth of July from the East

The bowl to the south of 4rth of July

That's 4rth of July summit on the left and the ridge we'll hike in the distance

View back towards town from the top of 4rth of July

Every time I paused to take a picture Philip got way ahead

That's Cope Mountain center right and the plateau to the car

Pillar Ridge and the Pass

Last week I did a couple of evening hikes with Nora.  Nora suggested the hikes, and if Nora suggests how can I refuse?  So we left Stuey at home with the house guests (he likes house guests) and off we went.

The first hike was totally Nora's idea.  She directed me to drive my car to the last windmill on Pillar Mountain and park the car there.  We then hiked the ridge for a couple of miles.  The next evening we went up to the Pass and hiked about a mile up to the top of the hill behind the ski chalet.

Nora likes hikes.  So do the doggies, and so do I!

Patrick

Keeping Score

Stuey and I played A LOT of cards out on Afognak.  We'd been playing some games with house guests at home and he was excited to play more on Afognak.  He even brought along a book of rules for various card games, and insisted that I bring cards, backgammon and the cribbage board.  On Afognak we were ready to go.

The first evening I was super impressed with how quickly he picked up gin.  I had told him that it was too complicated of a game for us to begin with, and then he promptly caught me twice with gins.  The next day we migrated up to rummy 500.  The game where you can take the pile if you use the bottom card.  He quickly learned about 'salting the pile' or what he termed as 'bait'.  As in 'awww dad you stole my bait' - this when I unexpectedly took the whole pile.

On the second day of the trip I think we played for 7 hours.  We played by the wood stove in the teepee, on the beach and even out on the rocks by the point.  Good times.  Cards in the sunshine with glorious vistas in all directions!
Patrick

By the time we finished this sheet was half filled up

Our cave by the tide pool out on the point - guess who also had the 4 and 6 of spades