Impromptu Helicopter Survey

Last Saturday I went on an archaeological survey in Viekoda Bay.  It was very much a last second sort of thing.  I was not supposed to go, but circumstances dictated that I really had no choice.  I had planned on going skiing with Nora.  Instead I got a helicopter ride to Viekoda Bay.

The kids were sad to see me go - so to partially make up for my absence I got them a quick ride in the helicopter.  They loved it!  Keller the pilot really wanted them to like the trip and for 15 minutes he  showed them an amazing time.  We landed on a mountaintop, looked down on houses, zoomed low over a beach, it was a helicopter ride at its best!

Then it was off to work for Molly and I in the helicopter to Viekoda Bay.  We had to survey a short section of coastline and document the sites a bit better than we do on our usual surveys.  This meant we had to dig test pits into the sites to figure out the depth and character of the site deposits.  Keller helped us with the test pits.

We also found 2 previously undiscovered sites.  One looked like a 500 year-old winter village while the other looked like a seasonal 'cod' camp.  I liked it because on this trip Molly took all the notes.  I got to explore and find stuff while Molly had to do all the thinking!
Patrick

Our Camp

The good thing about surveying from kayaks that can carry a lot is that you can transport a very Cush camp.  We had our teepee and wood stove, canned food, pots and pans, vegetables, and even carried split wood into the field.  We'd put our stove wood into buckets with lids to keep it dry between camps.  We basically set up a new camp at the end of every day.  We did use a couple of camps twice, but in general when it got to be around 5 PM we would start looking for a good place to camp.  Philip was very picky about where we camped and every camp was in a flat soft place (though one of them was pretty wet!).

The cushy camp was nice because we had some nasty weather with high winds and rain.  We stayed in the first camp for 2 nights because the weather was too adverse for kayaking.  Nothing like a wood stove for drying out gear after a day spent hiking in the rain!  And then later in the trip when it got sunny the nights turned cold. It frosted pretty hard two nights in a row.  Nothing like a stove to melt the frost on a cold morning!

Wood stoves are really good for cooking real food.  No freeze dried yuk for us!  We had pasta and red beans and rice type meals.  Slow cooked at medium heat on the wood stove.  We used the jet boil type stove for boiling water.  Patrick

Surveying in a kayak

This year I have already used a variety of transportation types for archaeological surveys - helicopters, cars, planes, boats, on foot. And I'll admit that my favorite is a helicopter (but also pretty pricey!).  But I think the best and most efficient method is by inflatable kayak.

Last week Philip and I would carry our entire camp along with us in. inflatable kayaks as we surveyed the coastline.  And the deflated kayaks are very compact and fit into the cargo hold of the floatplane for the trip out into the field.  This is a very important consideration for remote surveys.

On survey I'd get out and walk promising sections of coastline while Philip towed my kayak and gear.  Also inflatable kayaks are more rugged and easier to get in and out of than regular kayaks.  Barnacles and sharp rocks do not damage the bottoms.

Best of all, when surveying from a kayak one sees the shore in the same way as the Alutiiq people saw the coastline in the past.  You gain an appreciation for why some places have sites while others do not.  One night it was low tide and Philip and I realized that an entire section of shoreline had such a long muddy flat in front of it that it was pretty much useless for a camp.  It was inaccessible.  And guess what?  No sites on that coastline either.
Patrick

South End Scenics

The scenery for our kayak survey in Alitak Bay was quite dramatic.  At the beginning of the trip it was all windswept tundra and cliff bound coast with pencil thin sea stacks.  At the end there was more alder, bushes and tall grass.  The weather also changed - from 'Mordor' like clouds, grey and rain to sunshine and blue skies.  Dramatic and always changing.  Patrick

Aliulik Wildlife

We saw a lot of wildlife on our Aliulik Peninsula survey.  We expected to see lots and lots of bears but actually saw relatively few - like 10 total.  We mostly saw foxes and bald eagles.  They were everywhere.

The most spectacular and scary (for me) was the pod of killer whales that showed up all around us while we were kayaking along the coast.  I immediately made a bee line for the shore - those things are BIG!  Philip assured me that I had nothing to fear - they never attack kayakers.  But I just thought a little too much about what they could do and headed for shore.

Philip also taught me the difference between Tanner and King crabs.  King crab have the nasty looking spines with the black tips.  I had never seen the 2 species side-by-side and sort of thought of all crabs with long legs as 'tanner/kings'.  Now I know the difference.  I also know that tanner crab is the better bargain when it comes to eating crabs!
Patrick

From left to right - King, Dungeness, Tanner and Helmet crab parts

Fresh bear, deer and fox tracks on the beach by camp

King Crab carapice

Dungeness crab

Sand flea - this time of the year bears love to eat these and one day on the beach we even saw a sow and 3 cubs gorging on them 

bear skull

Sea urchins

Aliulik Peninsula

Earlier this week I got back from a remote, 8-day archaeological survey to the south end of Kodiak.  We travelled by inflatable kayak, camping along the way, and surveyed around 100K of shoreline.  We found over 30 new archaeological sites. This section of coastline had never been surveyed before and rarely gets visited.  On the first day I even found a glass ball - a true indication that the beach does not get visited all that often!

We would kayak along the coastline and I would go ashore anywhere that looked like a good spot for someone to camp or build a village.  This meant I had to get in and out of the kayak a lot.  At times my companion Philip would tow my kayak while I walked long sections of the coastline.

When I found a site I would create a sketch map in my notebook, and describe the site conditions.  The survey was for the USF&WS and they are not only interested in where the sites on their land are located but most importantly their condition.  Are they eroding, are people digging into them,  getting damaged by animals?  These are just some of the answers I need to check off for every site I checked on.

It is a glorious place and I took over 1000 photographs - so definitely more to come here on the blog.
Patrick

A severely eroding site - those are smoke processing pits in profile (probably for drying cod)