Dog Party on the Snow

"Where are those dogs going? To a dog party! A big dog party!"

Back in the day when I read to the kids every night on of my favorite reads was the book 'Go Dog Go!' by P.D. Eastman.  It is a very surrealistic Kids book.  In the book, my favorite subplot is the female dog who wears the various hats and the male dog who does not like her hats (at least until the very end).  And did anyone ever notice how he stole the feather from her hat in one of the scenes?

Anyway the book ends with a dog party on the top of a tree. 

A dog party!

A big dog party!

Big dogs, little dogs,

red dogs, blue dogs,

yellow dogs, green dogs,

black dogs, and white dogs

are all at a dog party!

What a dog party!

As a dog lover that is one of the greatest scenes in all literature - albeit the picture book drawings add a lot to the interpretation of the scene.

Anyway, whenever I go places with my dogs the 'dog party' has had a huge influence on how I view things.  And today on Pyramid we attended a dog party - A big dog party!

Patrick

Front side of Russian Ridge

Yesterday the kids and I took the dogs exploring along the front side of Russian Ridge.  We hiked  the footpaths on the steep hillside above where we went paddling on Saturday.  The hillside is very steep and looks out over town - it also faces southeast and catches all the sunshine.  By hiking the footpaths on the steep hillside we mostly avoided the rutted out and muddy trails frequented by ATVs.

Mountain bikers have made little bridges across all the little creeks and crossing them added an extra challenge to the hike.  They were often slippery with gaps, and looked VERY rickety.  Tank and Brewster absolutely refused to cross one over a particularly deep creek.

Anyway we scouted out and connected together a loop of the various trails and I am quite sure we will be back!  Patrick

This is the bridge Tank and Brewster refused to cross

 

Paddling the inland waters

The big inflatable canoe and the hard-shell canoe in the foreground

Yesterday I took the kids and met up with Jeremy and his kids to go canoeing on Island Lake.  It was pretty windy out - too windy to go paddling on the ocean. Bill joined us in his kayak, and we paddled around the lake.  The tall spruce trees blocked the wind (for the most part), and it was warm in the sunshine.  We paddled close to the shore and found a couple of land otter dens marked with piles of freshwater mussel shells on the outside.  Stuey tried to tip the canoe over a few times by standing up - and I was tempted to give him a swim.

The highlight was checking out a tiny island in the middle of the lake.  You can't get to it unless you have a boat or the lake is frozen (which hasn't happened for a few years).  Next time we go I'm thinking we'll take the inflatable sea kayaks and each kid will get their own boat.  Maybe wait until the lake waters warm so swimming is an option.  Patrick

Jeremy's canoe

The crew on 'tiny' island

Tiny Island and Bill lurking behind

Doggy Fun in the Snow

Tanky wants to go home

 It froze hard last night so I decided to take the doggies up pyramid with me for my afternoon ski.  I like the snowpack to be firm when I take the doggies up so that they can run along on top of the crust rather than constantly bog down breaking through the crust.  And today the crust was firm, but barely.

At dawn it was sunny and a crisp 30 degrees, but by the time I went skiing it was raining and 42 degrees in town.  But on Pyramid it was still snowing up above 1000 feet elevation.  And very, very windy.  Sheba did not like the blowing snow and would put her head down into old footprint holes so as to give her eyes a rest from the blowing snow.

It turned into a total whiteout with blowing snow and shrieking winds and I think the doggies were a little miffed.  I could sense their thought pattern, 'this is not Abercrombie'.  Also it helped that 2 of the dogs are black.  It gave the whiteout some perspective to see black moving dogs out bounding around in the periphery of the white, white picture.

Up on top Tank sat down right next to me while I took off my climbing skins and got ready to ski on down back to the car.  Sheba and Brewster ran around barking.  Everybody was super excited.  And then we were off - I had to point it and go super fast to stay ahead of Sheba and Brewster.  And then every once in a while stop and let Tank catch up.  I was worried he'd lose sight of us in the whiteout.

Anyway I took a video of the scene just before I removed my climbing skins.  18 seconds of doggie mayhem in a whiteout.  Patrick

 

Sheba wonders why we are up where there is blowing snow

Kodiak Outdoor Film Festival

This Friday (April 8th) at 5:30 at the Harbor Convention Center (by the only stop light in town) the doors open at 5:30 for the Kodiak Outdoor Film Festival.  Then at 6:30 the films begin.  Between 5:30 and 6:30 is when you grab some Big Als Pizza, check out the silent auction items, and get ready for the films. Or, alternatively, you can eat battered cod at the St Mary's Fish Fry, and show up at 6:15 for just the movies.  The event is free for ITN members (click here for link to ITN) and you can become a member at the door.

The films highlight Kodiak and us, the Kodiak people.  At most film festivals you get to see other people's adventures - people who usually live far away.  But not at the Kodiak film festival - you should know some of the people in the films and will definitely recognize some of the places.  The films are all about us!  Patrick

Still from one of the movies that made the cut

South Bowl Ground Ripper

The south bowl avalanche as seen zoomed in from the road

This winter has been weird with the sharp snowline and lots of precipitation.  The steep slopes up high have a lot of snow on them.  Whereas the usual dry powder just sloughs off of them, this year the wet stuff has been sticking.  Then during our rain events these steep slopes have been catastrophically releasing as huge avalanches - right to the ground underneath.  The snowpack gets super heavy with all the water and it just can't hold onto the steep slopes and so releases all the way down to the ground.

This has been happening all winter.  A big one occurred back in January in the bowl behind the antenna field.  And in the last few weeks there have been more in that bowl and everywhere else it seems.  Just look up into the mountains and you'll see the brown stains where the avalanches have slid.  Where they haven't slid you can see huge cracks at the tops of the slopes.  These are called 'glide' cracks and represent the snow pack trying to slide and cracking.  Once the ground on the slope under the snowpack gets 'greased' with water it acts like a lubricant and the avalanche releases.  This happens with glaciers too - once there is unfrozen water on the bottom they speed up.

Anyway for the last couple of weeks there have been huge glide cracks on the face of Pyramid above the south bowl (click here to see them behind me and Stuey).  They looked like gaping knife wounds.  Then last Tuesday when I climbed up Pyramid in the fog I was surprised to see black on the face where ordinarily I see white.  I suspected an avalanche but it was too foggy and misty to tell for sure.  On Friday as I drove up to the pass it was finally clear enough that I could see the avalanche debris.  It was a big one.

Yesterday Lisa and I climbed up to check it out.  WOW!  An avalanche beacon wouldn't help you if you got caught in one of those - you'd be killed instantly not buried.

There is so much dirt and ripped sod that I am worried about increased erosion on the slopes above these bowls.  And what are the bowls going to look like?  Will the wild flowers all be covered with mud?  Patrick

First view of the fracture face as you look over into the south bowl

2 avalanches actually released during last Monday's rain

It looks like no more skiing this year in the south bowl gut

That was one big ground ripper!

Mosquitoes, Icebergs, and Polar bears

Mosquitoes attack - and I am using like 98% DEET on exposed skin

After writing about the Aleutians last week, it piqued my interest to look through my photos from the Canadian Arctic.  In the early 1990s I spent three summers in outer Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island doing archaeology.  Flying up to Iqaluit the first summer I remember looking out the window and seeing that the ocean was totally covered with ice - and this was in early July!  It was a completely different world than I had ever seen.  Temperatures rarely got above 40 degrees, and by late August everything was already starting to freeze up again.

We lived with an Inuit family and pretty much ate seal and caribou every day.  Ooleetua taught me how to butcher a caribou.  He used to make a pack out of the rib cage and carry all the meat inside.  As we'd butcher we'd eat slices of the liver and heart raw.  I remember that on occasion he dipped his pieces in the stomach, but I did not like that particular flavor myself.  For the seal we'd eat the nerve/ligament that goes down the spine, and a particular part of the ear.  It was sort of like chewing gum.  We even ate the tips of the caribou antlers when in velvet.  It was like eating horse-chestnut.

By far the most traumatic event was when the polar bear tried to get in my tent when I was sleeping inside.  That time I was able to pepper spray him in the face and he ran away (with a head dyed bright orange).  But later on that same summer another polar bear came by when I was not in the tent and totally demolished it while rooting around in my sleeping bag looking for me (he destroyed the bag too).  It was dark and I was trying to find my tent and suddenly realized it was gone.  That was when the polar bear stood up on his hind legs from the wreckage of another tent and starting hissing like a cat.  

All ended well except for the bear who got shot by another member of the party.  We even got to eat the bear.  Then more bears started coming in to camp every night to scavenge the first bear's carcass.  It turned into an ugly end of the season with marauding bears almost every night.  It turns out we were on the edge of the ice and the natural jump off place for them to get to land.  Our nickname for on shore sea ice was 'polar bear taxis' - they'd come ashore when the ice was blown to shore and stay away when the ice was blown away off shore.  The crowning low point was when an Inuit crew member died of hypothermia falling into the ocean.  

I remember flying from this straight back to summer in the lower 48.  I think I had a mild case of PTS, and for years I hard a very hard time sleeping alone in tents.

But despite that final week of the last summer I spent on Baffin Island my memories of Baffin are all good.  I was incredibly lucky to be able to experience it.  

Also we generally had no mosquitoes.  The photo above was from when we crossed over to Cumberland Inlet side of the Peninsula to do some work, and were no longer on the open ocean.  With no wind and mostly flat swamp all around the mosquitoes there were the worst I have ever seen - even worse than I later encountered at Penguk on the Alaska Peninsula (click here).  But on Frobisher Bay where it was colder and more exposed mosquitoes were never a problem. Patrick

My tent after getting thrashed by a polar bear - note tie down to boulder with piece of tent still attached

Willows Island Camp - cook tents on right, sleeping tents on left (my tent is furthest upper left)

Dan starting to skin the polar bear that destroyed my tent

That's a BIG paw - polar bears are as big as brown bears and much more athletic

Ooleetua uncovering a caribou liver - best tasting part of the animal

Kiakudla, one of the camp dogs eats the caribou scraps

No pack - no problem

Chef Dan during a quick trip over to the Cumberland Inlet side of things

Frozen Frobisher Bay in mid July - you could have walked across the bay to those distant mountains

Ooleetua processes a ring seal

A true iceberg - I did not take this picture, and such beasts come from ice-fields and glaciers and were rare in Frobisher Bay

Stuey's first Descent Of Pyramid

Stuey with skis at the start of the run - the crowning moment!

 Yesterday after our tide pooling adventures I took Stuey up Pyramid to go skiing while Nora did a box car derby out at the Coast Guard Base with the Girl Scouts.  

At the end of our trip to Alyeska last weekend we bought used downhill gear from the rental shop.  The guys in the shop liked to hear I'd be using the gear to teach my kids to ski without a lift, and gave us a pretty good deal.  As they put it, 'if your kids learn to ski they are more likely to come here'. I like that philosophy - Thank You Alyeska Ski Company!

And having ski gear that fits the kids certainly makes it easier to take them skiing.  So yesterday I took Stuey downhill skiing in the backcountry for the first time.  Last year we tried it on cross country skiis - but that doesn't count (click here for old post).  

It was a perfect day for it.  The snow had frozen up hard the night before and just the top 1/2 inch or so of the crust had thawed out in the sunshine.  I carried Stuey's boots and skis up the mountain and learned why I pay a premium for light backcountry gear - resort downhill gear is HEAVY!

When we arrived at the mountain there was a family with kids a ways up the mountain already.  Stuey saw them up there and raced off to catch up.  Last year I was always waiting for Stuey to catch up - not so this year.  I brought up the rear lugging his gear.  

I think Stuey was impressed with the amount of snow - 'not even any rocks showing', he shouted.  We did one run from the top almost to the bottom of the snow, and then he wanted to do another. That made my day. Those Alyeska ski lessons have certainly paid off.  

Next trip it's Nora's turn.

Patrick

Stuey's Picture of the mountain from the parking lot

Stuey knew some of the other boys on the mountain

It got pretty bright with the sun on the snow

Almost there

And away he goes - he bombed the first part

Stuey does some turns

Climbing back up for another run!

Nudibranches Oh My!

Dorid Nudibranch Montereina nobilis - a 'Sea Lemon'

Yesterday I tried to attend the Democratic caucus - I really did! 

I went down to Fishermen's Hall with the kids in tow and started to wait in line, but the kids were fractious and it was so darn sunny outside.  Too sunny to go into a gloomy hall to discuss gloomy politicians.  Then someone told me the event would take more than an hour, and so we bailed and went to the beach with the dogs instead. 

I know Nora and Stuey think we made the right decision. 

We collected some kelp for seaweed chips, Brewster found and played keep away with a disgusting sculpin head, and we examined the tide pools for various life forms.  One of the cooler animals that we found were a couple of nudibranches.  I'd never noticed these animals before and they are just so weird looking.  Patrick

Red opuntia Opuntialla californica? I could not find this one in the book to my satisfaction

Close up of eggs on a rock - I wonder what animal left these?

Sheba - but if you look close I really like the boat on the horizon

Stuey cliff climbs