More photos from our survey and one more to follow. Top photo is a view of camp with O'Malley Creek in the background. Second photo is of the crew on a Sunday hike up a nearby mountain with Karluk Lake in the background. I was surprised to see quite a few mountain goats on the mountains by the lake. Third photo is Mark and I conferring over the map about where on the lake we will be surveying. We paddled about 5 miles up one shore, crossed over to the other side (about a mile) and paddled back to camp along the far shore. The next photo is of Rose and Chase hiking across the snow on the way up the mountain we climbed. Finally the last photo is of me with an Arctic Char. We ate char that we caught practically every day. I asked my neighbor Len Schwarz what we were catching and he told me that all the Dolly Varden trout have already left the lake for the ocean and that we were probably catching nothing but Arctic Char.
On our survey we did not find as many archaeological sites as we expected. In similar settings in past surveys we have found literally hundreds of housepits that needed to be mapped. This year we only mapped one big village and found just 6 new sites. We found two 1000 year old villages and one large 500 year old village. Most of the other sites we found were late 19th century hunting/fishing camps.
The most exciting thing about our survey was the bears. There were a lot of them! Every time we left camp we generally saw 2-3 bears. Bears grazing on grass, bears catching sticklebacks in the creek, bears digging, and walking across the snow - even in one instance we saw a big boar trying to chase down and kill a cub while the mother and another cub watched from a snow field up high. Boars kill and eat cubs so that the sow will go into heat. Bears were literally everywhere.
The area is considered critical bear habitat and is closed to humans during the summer. The Refuge wanted to keep people from harassing the bears. Elsewhere the bears are habituated to humans by constant contact. The bears we saw were much more uninhibited. We saw many more big boars than you usually see in areas more frequented by people. Big boars are very shy, and while you may see literally dozens of bears near a weir catching the pooled up fish - you probably will not see a big boar. These bears prefer to stay away from people. We are really lucky to have gotten the chance to hang out with bears in a natural setting - one were the bears made the rules. Patrick
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