Stuey's first trip up Pyramid

Stuey begins his first hike up Pyramid

This weekend Steuy climbed Pyramid Mountain for the very first time.  Leaving the house the goal had been to 'see our tub on the beach at Afognak' and to 'look for deer like we were hunting'.  We had promised Nora we would take a picture through the spotting scope of the tub on the beach.  And I bet we might have done it, but goals changed when we got to Pyramid and it was totally socked in with fog.

So the goal of the hike changed to 'touching a cloud'.  Stuey wanted to feel a cloud with his hands.  When we started out we could see the start of the cloud right at the top of the first climb.  This goal turned out to be easily accomplished - Stuey got to feel the cloud on his hands, face, and it even got his pants wet.  Stuey described walking inside of the cloud as 'spooky'.

Another goal of the trip was to climb higher than the only other mountain Stuey has climbed - Old Womens Mountain.  So our progress was all in relation to our elevation versus that mountain.  Halfway up became the 'point' of Old Womens and the top - way higher than Old Womens.

Anyway, Stuey climbed up pretty quickly without any stops, and then as we started down he made my day by asking, 'Daddy, pretty soon we can go skiing here right?'

Of course when we got back to the parking lot the mountains broke out of the clouds and it got beautiful.  But I'm hopeful that Stuey will eventually 'get to see Afognak' from the top of Pyramid.  I'm hopeful he'll see the top of Pyramid in all sorts of weather - in blizzards, past sunset, icy, in the rain.  I get the feeling (fingers crossed) we'll be climbing Pyramid a lot.  Patrick

Kinda foggy - it looks like we may not be able to see Afognak from up on top as promised

Hey at least the sun is sort of breaking through

Stuey taking pictures - it's still a long way down to the car!

Red, Red fireweed

Of course it clears off and gets beautiful once we get back to the car

That's where we were - it's a long way up there (WAY higher than Old Womens)

Stuey's picture of the road when we were almost 1/2 way back down

That's me leading the way - knocking the water off of the grass with the ski poles

Leading the Brownies~Year 2

I"m beginning year two as a girl scout leader and the year is off to a smooth start.  This year I have 10 girls in my troop, as well as lots of helpful parents to support us. The girls were excited at their first gathering, a mix of returning and new 2nd and 3rd graders. There were 3 new girls to the troop and my Brownies are from all different schools. 

The girls ran ahead in the sun-lit trees on the path to Spruce Cape. A smaller pack of us brought up the back and I had a chance to talk with one of the other parents about Girl Scouts. She shared with me her experience of scouting as a child.  Girl scouts provided opportunities to do things that her family didn't have time to do with her. She was one of 8 children and she went on hikes and camping adventures with her troop, which proved so memorable to her. She was glad for her little Brownie to have the same opportunity.

Coming into this year, my mission is similiar to last year, "Keep the Outing in Scouting". At this first meeting several girls had a chance to strike a match for the first time. My hope is for lots more firsts, including hikes, cooking, map/trail skills, survival skills...

And there may be some patches given out along the way and some Girl Scout Journey awards as well, but my focus is going to be to provide opportunities for adventure and learning and supporting eachother along the way.

Zoya

Shot at redemption

Yesterday a short while after dawn, rifle and ski poles in hand, I was scrambling up the last bit of a steep mountain slope.  A group of deer, spikes and does, was watching me warily from off to the side on a slope of scree.  The rising sun was lighting up the mountain tops all around, but I was only looking for one particular deer.  10 minutes earlier I had missed a shot at a big deer and I feared that that was that.  I was probably going to go home with no deer and no meat on my back.  I'd blown it.

Gregg and I had spotted the big buck up on the slope above us as we started up the steep final ridge to the mountain top.  He was standing broadside but his body language told us that he had already seen us and was about to run away.  There was no time to use our laser range finder and determine the exact distance - I just had time to lie down, put the rifle over the pack and get the scope cross hairs on him.  Then I shot and missed (actually more than once), and the deer turned and trotted out of view.

With the deer gone we got out our range finder and determined to my chagrin that the deer had been a lot further away than I had thought.  My bullets had probably hit a full meter below him.  So off I went to climb the mountain as quickly as I could and see if I could find the deer on the other side.  I did not have high hopes.  Deer are pretty smart and once they hear gun shots they generally run away and hide in the brush.

I got to the mountain top and looked down into the bowl on the other side and no big buck.  By this time the deer on the scree slope were also trotting away.  Maybe they would skedaddle to the same place where the big buck had gone?  And so I looked, and there, in the enlarged view of my binoculars, was the buck looking right back at me from the ridge on the far side of the bowl.  I used the range finder and it was the exact same distance, to the yard, as the earlier missed shots.  I could not believe the coincidence and checked again with the range finder.  It was a shot at redemption!  That almost never happens when you are hunting.  And this time I did not miss.  Patrick

My new Paradox back pack from Seek Outside carried the weight of the meat very comfortably

Bears Being Bears

This is when you wished you had a bit more of a camera than a point-and-shoot

A big part of my job when doing archaeological surveys is assessing the conditions of the sites.  The best case scenario is nothing to note - the site is totally stable.  But generally I find that most sites are getting damaged in one way or another whether by the elements, animals, or humans.  The most common site disturbance is erosion with either a flowing river or the ocean cutting into the site.   In an earlier post (click here) I showed how the Karluk One archaeological site was completely destroyed over the course of 30 years by the river cutting into the site.

In other parts of Alaska global climate change has resulted in increased storminess and rising sea levels and archaeological sites situated on the coast are disappearing at an alarming rate (click here and here for some articles that highlight this issue).

One site disturbance that is fairly unique to Kodiak is 'bear turbation' (click here for an earlier post on the subject).  This is when bears dig into archaeological sites.  On Kodiak's salmon streams bears and humans tend to focus on the best places to catch fish.  In addition bears are attracted to archaeological sites because they are the first places to green up in the spring, and bears love to graze on spring greens.  For the most part grazing and digging for roots does not do too much damage to sites.  What damages the sites are bear trails up and down the fronts of sites to the river and, most of all, bear beds.  This is when bears dig fairly substantial holes for their 'beds'.  Often they like to put their beds where they can watch the river. and this just so happens to be where prehistoric people also built their houses.  At some village sites the bears have done so much digging that they have destroyed the house depressions - the sites are pretty much worthless to archaeologists to excavate because the bears have already dug them all up!

Yesterday when I went to the outlet to Karluk Lake we were surprised by the number of bears we saw.  Lately less people have been using the river and less people means more bears.  The bears aren't getting chased off by people fishing or rafting the river.  And the bears seem to know there are less people around, and this year the outlet to Karluk Lake is a very busy place for the local bear population.  Ironically, less people and more bears means the archaeological sites are taking a beating.

This year I saw a totally new type of bear damage - the bear 'otter slide'.  I saw three of them, and basically they are mud slide tunnels down into the river.  Up on top there would be a bedding area in the grass and then a tunnel that the bears were using to slide down to the river.  Whoo hoooo the 'Karluk River Water Park' - or maybe 'Bouncing Bears Karluk'.  Patrick

Bear Fishing

Bear beds dug into an archaeological site

Matt checks out a bear 'otter' slide

Torn apart salmon bodies, feeding bears,  seagulls crying and the murmur of the river

Approaching squall coming down the lake

Life Cycle

Outlet to Karluk Lake

Some days I really love my job.  Today I got to re visit an area I know well to check on archaeological site conditions and help the landowner plan future activities in the area.  Basically I was showing everybody where the archaeological sites are located so that they could be protected.

While I know the area well, I had never been there in fall.  All my visits have been in the spring when the vegetation is low and it is easier to investigate and map archaeological sites.  I've never been there when the river was choked with salmon and bears lined the bank to feed on them.  This is when prehistoric Alutiiq people probably visited the area and you can still see the stone weirs they built to catch fish. Seeing all the salmon and bears totally changed my perception of the place.

It also was a strong reminder of the cycle of life.  Sort of like the medieval painting where the guy is gazing upon a skull - memento mori. All these salmon have come up the river to die, the bears are eating them, and their rotting bodies are providing nutrients to the ecosystem.  Whoa!  That's as basic as it gets.

And it makes you wonder exactly what those salmon are thinking.  Do they know they are going to die? And do they care?

Patrick

Red salmon getting ready to spawn

Underwater picture of the rocks that make up a prehistoric fishing weir - note shy salmon in background

Spawned out reds partially eaten by bears

Underwater photo of rotting fish parts - a major source of nutrients for the ecosystem

My traveling companions Matt and Nate (our pilot Keller not pictured)

Book Review~My Other Ex:Women's True Stories of Losing and Leaving Friends

Have you ever had the heart ache of a lost friend? Where your paths parted? 

Time to talk about  life cycles of another sort…friendships that have run their course :(

I recently stumbled upon a post about a book on one of my recent favorite Facebook sites called "Literary Mama". The book is called "The Other Ex: Women's True Stories of Losing and Leaving Friends"by Jessica Smock and Stephanie Sprenger.

Its is a collection of non-fiction stories about women and breakups with woman friends in their lives. I immediately downloaded it to my kindle and have read over 1/2 of it with piqued interest.

The subject matter appealed to me because over the past several years, I have parted ways with several girl friends and found myself floundering around wondering how to recover. Having a break up with a close female friend is an experience that isn't talked or written about much in mainstream literature. And it can leave the parties in the friendship feeling discouraged, let down, disappointed that things didn't work out better.

Ever more, There is a sense that you "did something wrong" if a female friendship doesn't work out. And a societal expectation of sorts that as women we should nurture and care for everyone. But the reality is that just isn't true. There are some friendships which aren't positive, or don't help us become better people. Or they just expire and have run their course. And in the past several years I've experienced a dose of all of those and have been able to step away and realize its best to not put wasted energies into those relationships.  There is no shame in that. It was very validating to read the stories of women and their heartbreaks with friendships.

Heres to good friendships which fuel the soul!
And knowing when to surrender  in friendships when one person is holding on out of a sense of obligation. Letting go can be a very good thing…

Zoya

Spruce Cape Hike

Yesterday it was supposed to be sunny in the morning and then raining in the afternoon.  So I got up in the dark and went hunting with a friend.  As I was leaving the house on the way to the car I spotted Orion and his Belt on high and thought it would be a great day hunting.  By dawn I was high in the mountains and there were deer everywhere (I even passed on a spike) - and then the fog socked in and it started to rain - HARD.  Cursing the weather, we hiked back to the car with no deer meat.

However, once we got back to the car it cleared up and the sun came out.  And it stayed beautiful for the rest of the day.  Another typical Kodiak weather forecast gone wrong!

The lesson here is that on Kodiak one should always react to the weather outside and not the forecasted weather.  So yesterday afternoon when it was supposed to be raining our family took advantage of the sunny sky and went for a hike out Spruce Cape.

Clips in Hair

Making Red Currant Jam with Patrick

Nora has blossomed.

There is a  confidence to her long-legged steps; a lightness to her smile. And in the morning Nora places barrettes in her hair  so carefully along the crown of her hairline. I catch her posing in the mirror, angling her head to look at her hair design more closely.

I believe I've never enjoyed parenting as much as I am now.

It could be too soon to say, but I think perhaps a very hard time is behind me. Hard times where she would try to push beyond my parental boundaries of "No=No." Frusturation, hopelessness.
Wondering why everything had to feel so hard and why other kids didn't struggle like my Nora. It hasn't been easy. The unexplainable outbursts, crying, intense mood.

These moments are the very real, challenge of motherhood which all of us moms face in one way or another.

                                                                      ~

"No, Nora…we don't have any oreos left because I finished them all off" Nora says with a smile on her face today, imitating me as she comes into the kitchen after school today.

I laugh and reply, "oh, yeah…that would be me.  There were only two left...That's pretty funny Nora!"

Nora's got her groove on.

                                                                     ~

I"m not going to over think it and ponder the elements which came into place to see this switch. I'm just going to enjoy her and soak her in every chance I have.


For years Nora didn't care about her hair and she didn't appreciate that I cared about it. So I gave up caring and knew that with time, when the time was right, SHE would come around to caring.

And that moment is now.

Zoya

Our Black Pack! What sweet dogs they are. 

Harvesting Local

Campfire on the beach

Fall is in the air and here on Kodiak we are trying to fill our freezers before winter sets in.  Deer, goat, salmon, elk, potatoes, carrots, berries, mushrooms are all available and ripe for the picking.  It is the time of plenty before Alaska shuts down for winter.

Recently I read an article about how eating meat equates with a higher 'carbon footprint' than eating vegetables and grains.  And I bet this is true if the meat you eat is farm raised and brought to a city by truck and airplane.  But here on Kodiak local protein is abundant while vegetables and grains tend to be brought in from outside by plane and barge.

In my opinion it was a silly article because it was trying to generalize for everyone in the world when in reality everyone's particular circumstances are different.  How about trying to gather whatever you can locally regardless of whether it is a plant or animal?

I certainly know that eating locally harvested deer meat is better for the planet than eating tofu bought at a store and made from soy beans genetically modified by Monsanto ('A sustainable agricultural company' according to their website).  Patrick

Silver salmon for canning

Stuey and Lars casting for salmon

Canning the days catch - 3 1/2 fish fit into one load and we ate the rest of the fourth fish for dinner

Our canning set up - pressure cooker and crab cooker burner

Salmon leftovers from the canner on the fire for dinner

Hedgehog mushrooms collected near camp by Ray

Ray cooks up the hedgehog mushrooms

Our carrots won first place at the local Kodiak State Fair!

Collecting raspberries in Old Afognak Village

Ray and the deer he harvested

A packload of tasty mountain goat meat - But watch out Brooks those horns and hide will not be good eating

More Mountain Goat

Another view of the photogenic goat

The scenery where we went goat hunting was spectacular.  Fall is in the air and the vegetation is starting to change colors.  On day one it was bright and sunny and hot and the photos I took came out a little washed out.  It clouded up a bit on day 2 and the atmospheric conditions made for better photographs.  But it seems I had a dirt smudge on the lens that I did not wipe off until I took pictures of Brooks' goat - note ghost of brown at the top of the images.  Oh well, I'm sure if I tried I could fix them in photoshop or iphoto.  Patrick

Looking back towards the ocean at the start of the climb to the alpine - there are lots of bears down there!

Fog forming in the valleys as a front moves in on day 2 of the hunt

Brooks picture of me glassing for mountain goats

Back in the day, these are places where I used to summer ski