Blueberry Pie

The other night our house guest Julia and Nora baked a blueberry and raspberry pie.  Julia taught Nora how to make 'a lattice' crust and they decorated it with leaves and flowers shaped from the dough.  Once it was done everyone had a slice, and Stuey declared it, 'the best pie I ever tasted'.  High praise indeed!
Patrick

Traipsing

We did a lot of hiking on our alpine hunt.  It was probably less than 18 miles total, but the miles were HARD.  Where we were there are no trail and the ground was often very uneven.  And then there were the serious ups and downs, and occasional patch of bushwhacking.  A six mile day in that terrain is seriously exhausting.  And Glorious!  We were mostly in the high alpine looking out over coastal fjords and glacially sculpted terrain.

Ironically we had such good hiking because the deer hunting was not all that great.  In years' past there were big bucks everywhere, and we never had to hike very far before we found a deer to harvest.  It seems our lake has been discovered and is seeing hunting pressure.  There are still deer everywhere and plenty of spikes and forks, but to find the bachelor groups of big bucks you have to hike a long ways from camp.  We only found 2 such groups and one of them busted us and ran away before we were ready.  So we did a lot of hiking in the glorious alpine!  Patrick

Goat first

Our alpine hunt was in an area where you need to enter a lottery to win the right to hunt a goat.  All three of us had entered the lottery last December, but only Jonathan had won one of the coveted 'goat tags'.  In years past we never had goat tags and just admired the goats as we hunted deer.  Always in the backs of our minds was the thought, 'if only we had a goat tag. ...'

So this year we had a goat tag and the pressure was on.  I was sort of worried that now that we actually had the goat tag that this would be the year we would see no goats.  But I need not have worried - the first thing we saw on waking the first morning was a goat.  A goat on the mountain right behind camp.  Perfect!

And as far as goats go it did end up as a pretty 'easy' goat hunt.  We climbed up and there he was.  And we did get back to camp by early afternoon with goat meat on our backs.  BUT in the meantime the goat did die on top of a spire with cliffs all around and we had to get him down to flat ground.  I do not have a head for heights and I could not watch while Jonathan and Ray climbed down to the goat and slid him down a scree slope to flat ground.  He did tumble a bit and got a little beat up but the meat was not bruised or damaged.    Phweeeeeew!

With the goat out of the way it was time to relax and hunt deer!

Patrick

Not a place for the faint hearted

The little spire way up there is where the goat died

Old Womens

Yesterday after work I hiked up Old Womens Mountain with Stuey, the dogs and cousin Leo.  I had planned on spending the afternoon cutting up the final deer quarter from the weekend hunting trip, but Stuey asked if I wanted to climb a mountain.  And then he asked cousin Leo if he wanted to go to - and so, after a quick lunch stop at Subway, we were on our way.

During the hike we met relatively few other hikers.  Generally, on a sunny day that particular trail is packed with other hikers.  I think that the Adjust Your Altitude challenge has drawn hikers away from the hiking trails that are not part of the the challenge.  I bet we would have run into more hikers if we had climbed up the much more difficult Barometer Mountain trail that is a part of the challenge.  And that's pretty ironic.  

We enjoyed the uncrowded conditions and meandered about the tundra on top of the low mountain.  With all the dry hot weather this summer it seems that Fall has arrived a little early.  Everything is already turning red and brown.  During the hike we decided that on the next hike we will go swimming!

Patrick

Three days with Jonathan and Ray

Sunday night I got back from a whirlwind alpine goat/deer hunt with my friends Jonathan and Ray.  We were in the field less than 70 hours total and we made the most of it! Every day we got up before dawn and hiked up to the tops of the mountains.  We hiked around 18 miles total and harvested 3 deer and a goat.  And then once we got back we processed the meat and took care of the gear for the next 24 hours - so really a 4 day whirlwind.  I'm exhausted!

We saw the goat immediately on stepping outside the teepee the first morning.  He was the first thing I saw through my binoculars on the trip!  And we had him back in camp by early afternoon. It was very much a relief to get the goat out of the way.

With the goat out of the way we could relax, enjoy the view, and explore the area.  We ended up doing a huge figure eight that encompassed the whole of the immediate area.  I had been there before, but on this trip I finally got to explore the entire area.  More to come in future posts!
Patrick

Jonathan got his Goat - In a VERY scary place

The goat came from WAY up there - from on top of the little pinnacle

More Abercrombie

A few more pictures from last week at Abercrombie State Park.  Swimming with Stuey and the dogs and hikes in the woods.  I played some more with the filters on the new camera.  You can pick a color and only that color will show up in the picture - all the rest is black and white.

Today and yesterday we finally got some rain.  Just sprinkles but it is much needed moisture!  I wonder if my lawn will start growing again?
Patrick

Bring your kid to work day

Last week I took Stuey on a boat-based archaeological survey of Broad Point.  Molly's husband Ryan gave us our ride in their family skiff.  We spent the day landing at likely beaches and looking for evidence of old villages and processing sites.  We also checked on the condition of a couple of known sites.  At the known sites we made sketch maps, and assessed whether they were eroding or not, or threatened by anything.

We are finding that most sites are actually in much better shape than they were 20 years ago - the land has rebounded out of the sea since the 1964 earthquake and, as a consequence, sites are not eroding as badly anymore.  However, we did discover that one site that was severely eroding in 1997 seems to have eroded away completely in the last 20 years.

For the most part Stuey did enjoy his time on the job with dad - but it was a long day!  By the time we were done everybody was pretty tired.  Another day in the sun doing archaeology.  Patrick

Monday

Long Island paddle boarding

These pictures are from over a week ago when we took the whaler out to Long Island without the dogs and went swimming in the lake at the south end.  We brought paddle boards and an inflatable kayak and just sort of played around in the water - it was very warm.  Nothing beats messing around in boats, and on the way home Stuey steered the whaler the whole way home.  Patrick