Afognak with the Boys

Monday night I got back from a long weekend with Stuey and his friend Marcel on Afognak.  It was just me and the boys.  Stuey and Marcel were always up to something - catching sculpins in tide pools, lighting the beach fire for hotdogs, sawing wood, and slingshots - lots and lots of slingshots.  They did the usual pine cone wars with the slingshots.  Except on this trip they discovered elk poop.  Elk poop is round, large and soft - perfect for slingshot wars.  So they ran around in the trees shooting poop at each other.

Since it was just the 3 of us, we did not bring the usual HUGE teepee but opted instead for the smaller teepee I used on archaeological surveys.  Cozy but easier to heat and bombproof if it got windy.  But the weather was perfect - it never really got all that windy and only sprinkled a few times.

Ahhhhh - an Afognak re charge.

Patrick

Buskin Beach and Kids on the Roof

Really not much to this post!  Just some pictures of rainy day dog walks to Buskin Beach and some photos of kids on the roof.

I'll start with the kids.  Last weekend we had a fire pit cookout and Stuey and Nora each had friends over.  Earlier when I got home Stuey admitted that he and Elias had climbed up on the roof.  I think they expected me to be angry.  And maybe I should have been angry.  But I remember climbing the roof when I was a kid.  We were super sneaky about it and did NOT tell the parents.  I remember being told that 'the shingles would split' or something if we walked on them too much.  But I also realize that climbing around on the roof is sort of harmless.  I figure it is a fun activity - way better than video games.

And so all during the party the kids climbed on the roof.  They got a HUGE kick out of it.  And it is harmless, right?  Also the next day when Stuey and a friend were on the roof I paid them to sweep off the pine needles and clean out the gutters!

As regards dog walks to Buskin Beach.  It has become one of my favorite places to take the dogs.  I generally walk along the beach and scramble my way around the base of the cliffs if it is high tide.  Then I make a loop out of it by going inland and getting back to the car via one of the old military roads.  That way the dogs and I get both beach and forest time!
Patrick

GREEN hike

Blueberry bush with green berries!

Yesterday after work the weather was too dismal to climb a mountain or mountain bike. So Instead I went for a hike in the woods with the dogs.  Rather than Termination Point we hiked on the trail that goes towards Ouzinkie for a couple of miles and then took a sharp right to the coast.  From there I hiked to Azimuth Point and along the coast back to the Termination Point trail.  It is a great loop and the trail along the coast is very good.  This is the same hike I did last spring while on the Leisnoi archaeological land survey (click here).

On the hike I was stuck by the new spring green.  All the new foliage is a bright, almost neon green.  In particular, the cottonwoods and blueberry bushes are so green!  I also noticed that instead of flowers on the blueberry bushes there are now ripening berries. Blueberry picking season is just around the corner.
Patrick

Azimuth Point

Devilsclub

Cottonwood tree - this one is in my yard

Tiny Island Picnic

Yesterday Stuey, Nora, Elias and I took the inflatable kayaks out to a small island in the bay and had a picnic.  It was Nora's idea.  I had ambitious plans to take the whaler out to Long Island, but Nora did not like the idea.  As she put, 'it is hard to watch you struggle with launching the whaler and getting it all packed - let's just pick up subway sandwiches and kayak somewhere close to eat them'.  Good idea Nora - keep it simple!

And so we drove across the bridge to Near Island and launched our kayaks in Trident Basin.  It's a great place to kayak with lots of little islands and beaches, a convoluted coastline and lots of wildlife.  It's remarkable that such an amazing place is so close to town!

And so we paddled out to a tiny little island and climbed up on top to eat our subway sandwiches.  And then we explored the island.  On one corner there was a nesting pair of bald eagles in a tree.  They flew around our heads and said 'stay away'.  So we avoided that corner of the island.  Big cliffs and spectacular views.

Picnic over we paddled back to the car.  We explored on the way.  Great day for a kayak!

Patrick

Nora's on to High School

It does not seem all that long ago that Nora was standing on the lawn in her St Mary's uniform ready for her first day of school.  This past Wednesday she graduated from St Mary's - wow where did the time go?  She started kindergarten at St Mary's in August 2011 so I guess it has been almost 9 years!

St Mary's has been very good to Nora.  At her graduation every student gave a speech about their St Mary's experience. Nora talked about learning to read, the opportunity to help take care of the younger students at recess, and problem solving with her latest teacher.  It was such a good speech and I am so proud.  She has come a long way since that late summer day in 2011.

And this fall she is off on another adventure - Kodiak High School!
Patrick

Nora finds her locker on her first day of school way back in 2011

North Sister with Stuey

Wednesday afternoon after Stuey finished school for the year and I finished work for the day.  And so we went for a quick hike up the North Sister.  Kind of weird weather - sunny but with banks of fog coming off of Monashka Bay.  Very atmospheric.

On the climb up I noticed that with the lack of snow and recent rain that many of the streams have already run dry.  Wow!  this does not usually happen until late July.  It is going to be a dry summer in the alpine.

We also saw a big old billy goat.  He just sat on a ledge on watched us going up the mountain and then watched us climb down. He did not seem to care about us all that much.

Stuey commented, 'it is so beautiful up here'.  'I think I'd prefer to be a mountain goat than a human - they just lie around and eat'.  Then I pointed out that they have a really hard time finding food during the winter, and Stuey said, 'so I want to be a mountain goat but only in summer'.

Up in the alpine I Stuey we admired the blooming pixie-eyed primroses and white anemones and then headed back to the car.
Patrick

Pixie-eyed primrose

White anemone

Fog off of Monashka Bay

Speelunking in Bunkers

The other day Stuey, his friend Elias and I went exploring with the dogs in the Buskin Hill area.  We did the usual check out the old WWII bunkers and admire the graffiti thing.  Except this time when we were in the darkest part of the deepest bunker - Tank and Brewster started to bark in a separate room.  SUPER SPOOKY.

After we checked out the big Army Headquarters bunker, we checked on a couple 'elephant' bunkers.  I was informed that they are not dark enough to be scary and, hence, boring.

On the way back to the car we checked out the beach and I realized that I had lost my lens cap.  Back tracked up the trail looking for it.  It seemed hopeless but I found it!
Patrick