Katmai Bears

 

Flying home from Afognak on Friday I learned that there were still seats available for a Katmai coast bear tour.  I've been on these tours a few times in the past (click here, here, here, and here). So I jumped on the opportunity, and, yesterday, away Stuey and I went to the Alaska Peninsula for a bear tour.

The Katmai Coast of the Alaska Peninsula is drop dead gorgeous and very different from Kodiak Island.  In my opinion it would be totally worth it to spend a morning over there walking around on the beach even if there were absolutely no bears.  I might even prefer it without bears because then I could've done some beach combing and looked for glass balls. 

But the bears are pretty amazing, and you learn so much about bear behavior and bear body language.  As Stuey put it, 'This is the coolest thing I'll do all year'.  

Patrick

A week at Lipsett Point

 

Stuey and I just got back from spending a week at Lipsett Point on Afognak Island.  Our arrival coincided with the beginning of a big storm, and we were basically tent bound for the first three days of the trip.  It was a pretty bad storm and I gather that in town it rained 6 inches.  At Lipsett Point the wind picked up and the waves got HUGE.  But we were happy in the teepee by the wood stove.  It was an extended bout of teepee time!  In the first three days we each read 3 books, and by the end of the trip we were swapping books.

But the sun did come out and we did some hiking and kayaking.  But mostly we hung out on the beach.  We lit a fire and cooked brats.  Stuey does not like hotdogs so we brought lots of brats.  All and all a relaxing trip on the beach at Afognak! 

More to come in subsequent posts.

Patrick

Time to go home - just when it gets really nice

brats on the beach

brats on the woodstove in the teepee

teepee time by wood stove

gooseneck barnacles on a piece of driftwood

Skiing in June

 

It is now June, but the hills are still mostly brown and the skiing is still better than it was back in December and even January.  Actually might even be better than it was in February!  I love summer skiing.  The corn snow is always fast and consistent, there is no ice, and rocks are easy to avoid.  It is also generally T-shirt weather with plenty of sunlight.

The downside is that you have to hike up from the road to get to the good skiing.  And this hike is getting longer, and longer, and longer as the snow melts.  Yesterday with Stuey we still managed to ski to the copse of trees in the jibber bowl at about 1200 feet elevation.  But pretty soon the snow line will be at 1500 feet.

Anyway, yesterday Stuey decided he wanted to join me and the dogs for the daily ski.  So rather than the usual up and down - we did a run down into the North Bowl.  We went way down there and into the big ravine that we call the 'half pipe'.  Then we skinned back up and skied back down to the car.  

There is still plenty of snow - we'll be skiing for a few more weeks!

Patrick

Dismal Spring Weather

 

Ever since last Tuesday and that glorious ski with the dogs (click here for post) it has been raining and windy.  On multiple days we have had inches of rain. Pretty dismal.  On some days rather than go skiing I took a nap.

Rather than skiing I also took the dogs to Buskin Beach.  Late afternoon has coincided with low tides, and I have enjoyed the waves that go forever across the low tide flats.  The water goes both ways - in with the new waves and out as wave backwash.  The water movement creates all sorts of refraction and deflection waves.  I walked along in 6 inches of water and watched the show all around me.  And of course the dogs raced back and forth across the flats.

I've also still gone skiing.  Yesterday Stuey and I went and it was pouring and very wind.  With a misery index more akin to an epic big mountain expedition than to an afternoon ski on Pyramid.  But we had fun, and both agreed that the skiing was excellent.  When I got home I took a very hot shower.

Patrick

Green Blueberries and Orange Peppers

 

The last couple of days it has been raining, and I took the dogs for a walk under the trees in Abercrombie for the first time in weeks.  I found that the blueberries are now in full flower, and that some of the plants already have little baby blueberries on them.  I not only missed the first blueberry blossoms, but I caught it so late that we are now at the tail end of it.  There are a lot of blossoms and it looks like come late July we ought to have plenty of berries.

At home my windowsill Jalapeño pepper plant has produced 2 more ripe peppers.  This plant grew from a seed that somehow fell into a spider plant pot. Last summer it produced peppers that got ripe. The plant did not die, but instead had more flowers and produced more peppers - admittedly not many! I know I'd be better off buying peppers at the store.  

So tonight I am going to make a deer meat stir fry and add our windowsill peppers to the mix.  I might even save a few seeds and put them with another spider plant on my windowsill. And also maybe the old plant will produce a third crop!

Patrick