Mushrooms

Some more pictures from afternoon dog walks in the park.  After a rainless August ,and still mostly dry early September, we finally got some moisture and the mushrooms sprouted like crazy.  In Abercrombie the angel wing mushrooms are at their peak and it is super easy to harvest enough for dinner in a just a few minutes.

Back home I have been sautéing them in butter with garlic.  Angel wings have a super light flavor and almost taste like sea food.  I think they would be perfect with scallops, but I have just been eating them all by themselves as a side dish.  Patrick

Nora Hike

Sunday afternoon Nora convinced me to hike up to the saddle behind the North Sister.  It seems like just yesterday that Nora and I did the same hike at the end of July just before we started on the 'Adjust your Altitude' Challenge (click here for post).  Looking back at the pictures from that hike in July it looks so GREEN!  Wow.  I remember that that was at the beginning of a long and hot dry spell - we did not get any rain for almost a month.

These days Kodiak is all brown and yellow.  The sun is low in the sky and the sunlight rakes at a low angle across the landscape.  Pretty soon it ought to snow.  Nora even got cold hands on our hike and donned gloves.  My favorite time of the year!
Patrick

More from the Refugium

It has been a week since we got back from our hunting trip to the south end of Kodiak.  Where we were hunting was the part of Kodiak that did not get glaciated during the last glacial epoch.  It may not have been glaciated but 20,000 years ago it looked a lot different than it does today.  There would have been glaciers all around, and the ice would have blocked up all the rivers creating huge lakes.  Basically it was one big lake with lots of little islands where the mountains are today.  Some of what today are big and deep lakes would have had glaciers in them too.

Anyway, it is a very interesting place with it's own unique vegetation and landscape.  Very different from the rest of Kodiak.  Patrick

Spawned out red salmon

We moved camp in our river rafts

Rafts built for river rafting do not like windy conditions on lakes!

Camp in the rain

Long Blueberry Season

Abercrombie Park still has blueberries!

Some pictures from yesterday's dog walk in the park.  What's amazing is that there is still worthwhile blueberry picking to be had in the park.  I picked my first blueberries in the park this summer on June 29th - albeit they were a little on the tart side - and here it is 3 months later and there are still blueberries on the bushes.  And the berries are HUGE.  It seems they have just gotten bigger and bigger as the season has progressed.  I already have something like 10 gallons of berries in my freezer but maybe it is time for one last berry-picking session for the season.  Patrick

Termination Point Hike

Yesterday for work I hiked out Termination Point.  I was finishing up the last part of the museum's archaeological survey of Leisnoi Inc. land.  Last spring we started the survey at Termination Point (click here for post), but we did not have time to get to all the sites.  So yesterday I went back and finished up.

I dropped the kids off at school, picked up the dogs, and away I went.  I got to White Sands beach in time to catch the sunrise and took pictures of the seagulls against the sunrise.  It was a beautiful day for a survey!  Patrick

Living Large Away from Home

I love camping, and I also believe in comfortable, lightweight camping.  One does not have to go heavy to have a comfortable camp.

On our recent trip the 3 of us brought 2 large rafts, firewood, and enough good food for a week away. The total weight was 1050 pounds - including us 3 beefy guys.  It helps that our wood stove and teepee weigh around 5-6 pounds total.

I'm not one to eat freeze dried food either.  I find that rice and pasta meals weigh about the same as freeze dried meals, but are far cheeper and taste oh so much better.  You just need the wood stove to cook them long and slow.  We also brought garlic, beets and carrots from my garden and roasted them on the wood stove.  We eat well when we are camping away from home!

One day it blew and rained hard all day.  We slept around the roaring wood stove and had roasted vegetables for lunch.  Later we cooked up quesadillas with baby bell cheese and wild collected nettles.  Slow day reading and sleeping by the fire while it raged outside.  This is what I call 'teepee time' and it is always a favorite part of any hunt.
Patrick

Back from the South End

I just got back from a camping/hunting trip to the south end of Kodiak Island.  For this hunt we usually do some sort of river float trip, but with the recent lack of rain there was not enough water for us to raft on through our usual haunts.  Instead we did something different - we mostly base camped and did a lot more hiking than is usual.

The south end of Kodiak is gorgeous.  For the most part there are no trees and the brush is pretty minimal.  There are HUGE vistas and the hiking is easy.  We also found plenty of deer and even mountain goats to harvest.  We actually had to exercise caution not to harvest too much and over load  our return flight to Kodiak.  Our self imposed limit was five animals and we ended up harvesting 3 deer and 2 mountain goats.

Of course we also had plenty of 'teepee time' by the wood stove - more to come in future posts!
Patrick