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Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Pyramid without snow


Tomorrow school starts, and today it is misty and rainy.  But yesterday it was beautiful. The last sunny week day before school.  Nora and I took advantage of the weather and opportunity and went for a hike up Pyramid Mountain with the doggies.

It's not often that Nora and I climb Pyramid when there is no snow! We checked out slopes that are usually covered in snow.  We also looked for rocks to avoid when we do finally get snow but the snow pack is thin.  Picking our lines pre snow so to speak.  

It was also drop dead gorgeous up there.  Maybe I should climb Pyramid more often when there is no snow!

Patrick















Third time the charm?



Sunday Jordan helped me on another attempt to get my road system buck.  And like my last attempt with Mike S we failed (click for post).  I'm a little worried I've lost my hunting mojo. Two hunts in prime big buck habitat and I come home with nothing for the freezer twice?  I've always thought of myself as a good hunter and generally every time I go hunting I like to think I come home with a mature 3 pointer (3X3 with eye guards).  But not lately.

Am I guilty of hubris - have the Gods clipped my wings like with Icarus?  Or am I getting too old - the mangy old lion who can't quite make the kill? I'm not sure, but I sure do hope that the next time I go hunting we get a big old buck. Here's to the third time being the charm!

I do know that on this last hunt - like the first hunt - we did our due diligence.  We worked for it, but we also got a little unlucky.  On arrival in the alpine we started to glass the bowls and there were no deer.  Then we saw another hunting glassing the same bowl!  Someone had hiked in and camped where we wanted to hunt. And so we went to plan B - we hiked to another mountain.

There we did find a bachelor group of big bucks.  And we did find a BIG buck too.  We were actually in position waiting for a buck to show himself when one did suddenly appear (see last photo).  Only he had already winded us and was on his way out of Dodge.

So the long trek back to the car yet again without meat on the pack.  And to make matters worse - some world class bushwhacking.

Here's to the third try.

Patrick







Some recent hikes


It's the last day of August, and as Nora put it on a hike yesterday, 'the hills are starting to turn red'.  Yesterday I even noticed some red fireweed leaves.  Mostly though I think the red color is from the amazing amounts of red bunchberries and their leaves.  This year there seem to be more bunchberries than I can ever remember.  

I also recently checked on the alpine berries.  Weirdly enough the alpine blueberries are already mushy.  Did we actually have a frost on high?  But the lingonberries are still not quite ripe.  This year I plan on picking a lot of lingonberries.  And crowberries too.

Patrick










I took this at a low shutter speed to catch the leaves moving on a windy day in Abercrombie


 

Monday, August 30, 2021

More Blueberries

 


It's a good year for blueberries.  On Saturday the kids and I picked another 6 pounds of blueberries - that's 12 cups!  I've noticed that we really only get good blueberries about every other year. This year I have noticed a lot of other people picking them too.  So I was pleasantly surprised to find that there are still plenty of blueberries out there to pick.

Patrick








Saturday, August 28, 2021

The new 'A' team

 


This is the final blog post from the Karluk Lake excavation, and this one features the crew.  This was one of my best field crews of all time.  Right up there with Horseshoe Cove 2004, Olga Lakes 2007, Penguk 2010, and Old Harbor 2013.  At Karluk Lake we moved a lot of dirt, learned a lot and had fun doing it.  At the end of the dig Keith even asked, 'Are all excavations this much fun?'
Patrick

This is my favorite crew photo - sitting on the bench in the excavated main room of the Qasgiq

Time to go home - loading the plane on the last day


First day departure - we are all so clean!

Arrival at Karluk Lake

Last day formal crew photo

Crew 'album cover' picture


digging under the tarp on a rainy day - I had to do all the buckets on this day

lunch tent prior to our daily nap

leaving site at end of day