Quick Walk In Abercrombie

This Saturday Stuey is off to college in Maine and today I am off on a hunting trip. So today's walk in the park is the last walk with Stuey for a couple of months. It basically means summer is over, and the fall routine begins. I generally like fall and winter more than summer but the transition also makes me sad. Stuey is off to college and no home but me and the dogs.

Patrick

the lone salmonberry in Abercrombie

 

Fall is in the Air

 

The last few days on hikes I noticed that the landscape is starting to turn brown and the berries red. It's still very much green and the fireweed is in full bloom, BUT the Pushkin is dying off and the green is that raggy yellow that precedes fall colors. 

Stuey and I went on a few afternoon hikes, and even an unsuccessful afternoon deer hunting trip. Despite going to a great area we only saw 5 does - but it was the wrong time of day and the weather was not great. We also took the dogs up to the seismic pond a few times. I am quite positive that that is the doggies favorite hike if only because they get to chase sticks into the pond.

Patrick

Bears and more Bears

 

This year's Karluk excavation was literally in the middle of bear country. Our excavation was directly above a shallow spot on Thumb Creek where the salmon pool up. The bears love it because it is an easy place to catch salmon. Needless to say, but this is the same reason that Alutiiq people have camped there and returned to the same spot for the last 5000 years. It is a GREAT place to catch fish.

So we saw lots of bears. There was pretty much always a bear or two fishing in the creek down below us. You'd be digging and hearing the cubs growl and bears splashing after fish. There were two different sows that each had 3 cubs who were pretty much regulars. In the beginning I'd hear splashing while I was digging and would always leap up to watch the show. But by the end I would only occasionally jump up to watch the bears chase fish.

The sows with cubs liked having us around, and also the Kodiak Brown Bear Center guests who are there to watch the bears, because we keep away the scary big boars who kill the cubs. We provide safety. We also came up with a routine and the bears came to know our routine. We did not go down to the creek and they did not come up to our excavation. They also knew the trail we used to go to and fro from camp and they respected our space as we did theirs. That said one young bear did check on our electric fence but that's a part of learning boundaries (LOL).

Patrick

 

Thumb Creek in 2009 and 2026

 

2009 - crew member Rose eating lunch at the exact spot we set up our teepee in 2026

I first visited the site that we excavated this summer back in 2009 (click here for post from back in the day). That year we surveyed and mapped all the sites at Thumb Creek and surveyed the north end of Karluk Lake. On that survey we actually tested a lot of the sites that we re visited to excavate in the last few years. We radiocarbon dated a lot of the samples from those test pits. In addition, it is nice to have an idea before you dig about what might be present. Including this year, our past 4 excavations at Karluk Lake have centered around a test pit from 2009.

The stratigraphy in our test pit 2 in 'HP2' at KOD-1112 in 2009 hinted at a house with roof sods. And a radiocarbon date from the test of around 4700 years before present suggested that it was very old. So in 2026 we very carefully re found our old 2009 site datum and placed our excavation around the 2009 test pit. We wanted to excavate a 4700 year old structure. What's funny is that it turns out the 2009 test pit barely missed the hearth to a circa 1000 BP structure (more on this in a later post) and hit a far older fire pit feature under it. That older feature is what got radiocarbon dated. It was the fire pit that dated to 4700 years old and not the over lying structure!

In any case, looking at the old photos from 2009 got me looking for photos from this year that show the same basic view. I found the top photo of Rose eating a can of salmon for lunch in 2009 at the site of a recently burned cabin. In 2026 we erected our camp at the exact same location. Comparing photos, Rose is practically sitting where our cook tent teepee was located in 2026. If she time travelled to 2026 she would be in our teepee facing the woodstove just like a member of the 2026 crew!

Patrick

Our camp in 2026 at the same locality as above

2009 Aubrey and Mark excavate a test pit

In 2026 we excavate around the same test pit location - even the same elderberry bush!

2009 - Mark digging the test pit

The hole just beyond the rocks is the 2009 test pit - the structure hearth just this side of it

2026 archaeology crew

Into the clouds on Sharatin

 

On Friday I was just back from Karluk Lake and super tired. I had the day from work, and it was sunny. But all I wanted to do was take a nap.  Stuey had to cajole me into going on a hike up Sharatin. I'll admit the sunshine helped. How can one take a nap when it is sunny out?

I was glad I went! It was a beautiful hike and the mountain top was partially shrouded in weather clouds. They were like thunderheads. The dogs were super happy to get the extended walk too.

At the top we Facetimed with Nora, and then we hiked on back down. The clouds came in and by the time we got back to town it was misty with a light rain. But we had made the most of our weather window!

Patrick

Beavers in action!

 

Where we were camping at Thumb Lake there was a HUGE beaver lodge about a 1/4 mile from camp. The beavers would routinely swim past our camp. At one point there were 5 beavers all swimming around in circles in front of our camp. If you walked along the beach they would slap their tails in alarm on the water. We even heard them doing the slap for bears walking along the beach.

Along the shore you could see the remains of willow trees that they had cut down. There were little trails through the grass down to the beach where they dragged the branches they harvested. In the evening we even watched them eating the bark and leaves off of the branches in the shallow waters of the lake. They also seemed to leave a lot in the water for later. In the winter I gather they go back under the ice and find the branches they left there in summer.

Busy little guys!

Patrick

beaver getting ready to SLAP!

beaver cut branches dragged into the shallow water for later consumption

beaver cut willows in the process of getting dragged to lake