More Karluk Photos

Mountains around Karluk Lake

The Koniag cabin and yurt at Portage

Patrick, Mark, and Mary waving goodbye to me last Wednesday while they went off to work and I waited to be picked up

I've been back in town for five days now. My hands are almost better - the swelling is almost gone and most of the blisters and healing. I could definitely travel now, but my ticket back to Seattle isn't until Wednesday. I looked into changing it to fly home early but it was way too expensive to consider. Even more of a bummer because Ryan got home from his fieldwork last night. I might have a chance to put the net out for reds with my dad and John at the mouth of the Buskin tomorrow though - something to look forward to. I'm just hoping the weather will be nice.


The rest of the crew got home last night. They finished a day early and were able to come home. I went into town and met them. They were amazed at how much better my hands were. I was anxious to hear about the rest of the survey. They found lots of new archaeological sites but they also had a lot of rain. I'm still sad that I had to leave early, but I do know I made the right decision because my hands healed so slowly and I would have been miserable moving camp every couple of days (it was really hard for me to pack my things with my hands all swollen and blistered).


In hindsight I am very glad that we were staying in the Koniag yurt and cabin when my hands were really bad. At least I had a comfortable bed to sleep in, comfortable chairs to lounge in during the day when I couldn't work, and heaters to keep us warm. It would have been difficult for me to deal with zipping up a tent and climbing in and out all the time.


It is amazing that Mary, Mark, and Patrick finished the survey a day early. They recorded a lot of sites in a short time! Especially when you consider that we got started almost two days late due to bad weather and they still got done early!

Archaeology on the Karluk River

Mary holding a ground slate ulu

The remains of the walls of a sod house with two wooden posts still sticking up

Mary in a particularly deep test pit in the midden

Me in the test pit that gave me pushki burns (notice I had taken my gloves off, I will never be doing that again!!)

Mary standing in a side room of Koniag period multi-room house

 Even though I only got to participate in half of the Karluk River Survey, I  still saw a lot of really cool archaeology. I've always heard about the big villages along the Karluk River and was very excited when this opportunity came along. The Alutiiq Museum likes to do their surveys in the spring before the vegetation comes up very much. It is so much easier to see the house pits and other surface features when the vegetation is down! Most of the house pits are clear as day. It makes me think back to the other places I have surveyed in July and August in other parts of Alaska and Russia and how difficult it was to find the house pits until you literally step or fall into them.

The first village we surveyed was huge - I can't remember how many house pits it had, but it was a lot. Perhaps a couple of hundred people had lived there at some point in time. We found that there had been two periods of occupation at the site. One older Kachemak occupation (probably around 1000 years ago) and one Koniag occupation (probably between 800 and 300 years ago). We were able to see different styles of house construction for the two periods: the Kachemak houses were usually smaller and had roof sods and the Koniag houses were generally larger and did not have roof sods. We did find one large Koniag-looking multi room house that did have roof sods though - a bit of a puzzle for us. We are especially interested to get a radiocarbon date from that house to see how old it is. Perhaps it represents a transition from the roof sod to no roof sod construction between the Kachemak and Koniag periods.

One of the other villages we surveyed had house depressions with wooden posts still sticking out of the ground all around. It was really cool to see just how much wood was needed to frame up these houses. The wooden posts seem to have mostly turned to moss now.

We also found preserved faunal middens at some of these sites so we got a glimpse into what sort of animals people were eating. We of course saw tons of salmon bones, but also cod and a variety of marine shellfish such as clams, mussels, snails, and cockles. People carried these marine products all the way up  the river to consume later. We also saw some sea mammal bone, bear bone, and either dog or fox bone.

After all these years of working in coastal Alaska, it was very cool for me to see what some of these same people were doing inland on Kodiak Island. We have our suspicions that people were living on Karluk Lake and River in the fall and winter - when there are fish up there, the mosquitos aren't bad, and the ground is frozen and easy to hike around on. Hopefully we will be able to test some of our hypotheses in the future.

Floating the Karluk River

Two inflatable canoes and 1000 lbs of gear including four archaeologists.

Packed up to move camp

Patrick paddling us down river

Mary and Mark

Patrick and I

Mary and Mark, looking toward the mountains around Karluk Lake

We were lucky to have some great weather in the first week of our survey. We were also lucky that it had rained  right before we flew out there. The river was really high and we were able to float straight through sections that are usually so shallow you have to get out and drag your raft. The floating was so much fun that it really should not be called work!


Patrick has these two inflatable canoes that he uses for archaeological river surveys and I think he also uses them while hunting. Rolled up they each weigh 50 lbs. They are easily inflatable with a foot pump and can hold a lot of weight. We loaded them up with 1000 lbs of gear and people. They are definitely sturdy, but not really very maneuverable when heavy. Luckily the Karluk River is mostly very mellow.


On the first day we floated from the outlet of Karluk Lake just around the first bend in the river where we camped for 5 days. After that we floated several miles to Portage, surveying three sites along the way. That was a long day of floating but we had amazing weather. I also had a particularly awesome time because I didn't have a paddle. Patrick did all the padding for our raft! My official job was to take pictures. =) I even experimented with the underwater video mode on my camera. You can how shallow the river is!

Getting a flight out of Portage

The outlet of Karluk Lake

Mary and I digging on the first day

The Karluk River

Once we made the decision that I needed to go back to town if at all possible, it proved to be a lot harder than I expected to get on a flight. It wouldn't have been a total disaster if I'd had to stay out there - I just would have been completely useless and very uncomfortable. The first thing we did was call my mom on the satellite phone and have her try to find me a seat fare on a float plane coming back from somewhere near Portage where I was staying on the Karluk River. My mom called all the local flying services and they all said the same thing: they had no seats available for several days. My last option was to call my friend Keller who flies for Island Air. I had to have my mom go find my iPhone at home, turn it on, and read me his cell number. I was so relieved that Keller answered his phone! When I told him what was going on, he didn't hesitate for a second. He said of course he would come pick me up; he'd be on the south end of Kodiak in a couple of hours and would have an extra seat. I am so lucky to have a friend like Keller who is willing to go out of his way to help out because Island Air had just told my mom a few minutes earlier that they had no seats!

Rain and fog set in shortly after I talked to Keller though and it was apparently even worse in town; he didn't make it out that night. He said he would be trying first thing the next morning though. I called him again at 8:30am the next morning and he told me he'd be leaving town at 9 and should be at Portage to pick me up around 10:30. The plane that showed up to get me wasn't Keller though, it was a Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge plane. The pilot said he had an extra seat and Keller had asked him to pick me up. I didn't ask too many questions, relieved just to be heading back to town.

When I got to town I called Keller to thank him. He told me that just before he was about to take off at 9am, the Island Air office told him that someone had called and said I didn't need a pick up anymore. Thank goodness Keller immediately knew that wasn't right because he had just talked to me 30 minutes earlier. Island Air told him that Andrew Air was picking me up on a charter. So Keller took matters into his own hands and called Andrew Air while he was taxiing in the float plane! Andrew Air had no idea  what he was talking about so Keller was determined to still come get me at Portage. Island Air, however, was going to charge the Alutiiq Museum an arm and a leg for my flight. On one of his stops on the south end of the island, Keller ran into the Wildlife Refuge pilot and arranged for him to pick me up, knowing I wouldn't be charged a fare. Between Keller, my mom, the Alutiiq Museum, and I, we are still not sure what happened with the arrangement to have me picked up. Apparently some wires got crossed somewhere and Island Air thought I worked for Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game or something and would be picked up by a charter. All I know for sure is that I am very grateful to Keller for not giving up on getting me out of Portage and to the Refuge pilot, Kevin for agreeing to pick me up on very short notice!! Between those two pilots and the doctor who agreed to see me after hours, I am very glad to be from a small town.

Home early with bad pushki burns

WARNING: There are some disgusting photos of my pushki burns at the end of this post, if you think they might gross you out, don't look!!

Well, I'm back from the field...five days early to due the worst pushki burns on my hands that I have ever seen. It was a total bummer to have to make the decision to go home early but I know it was the right decision because my hands are no better today than they were yesterday.

Those of you who have worked with Patrick and I in the field probably know that we both react to pushki pretty severely. Pushki is a plant that grows in coastal regions of the North Pacific. It happens to grow particularly well in Kodiak though. It produces a juice that can cause a chemical burn when it comes in contact with skin and sunlight. A lot of people seem to be under the impression that it needs to be sunny for a burn to occur, but I am quite certain that is not true; there just needs to be UV rays. Some people don't react to pushki and some only get a minor rash. People like Patrick and I get pretty nasty blisters and swelling though.

The pushki plants are just starting to come up this time of year so I mistakenly thought I was relatively safe. Unfortunately I now think that the roots produce a more "juice" than the stalks and leaves. I certainly never touched any leaves or stalks on this trip; I know better than that. I think I got burned on our third day of work. I was digging a test pit and took my gloves off for just a little while to pick out small pieces of charcoal. The roots must have gotten me. People also say that if you wash your hands right away, you can stop the reaction. For me that is definitely not true either because I did wash my hands several times that day while I was digging. By that night my hands were starting to feel a little itchy. The next morning I had what looked like a rash on both of my hands and wrists. The thing about pushki burns is that they continue to get worse over about a week and a half before they start to get better.  Because mine always start out just looking like a rash, it's hard to tell how bad they're going to get. So, last week I had no idea that this was going to be by far the worst reaction I've ever had.

As the swelling amd blisters got worse, I was able to do less and less work.  At first I was still able to help dig, then I could still take notes and photos, but by three days ago I was pretty useless. That was a mostly a rest day though so it didn't really matter. The nights were particularly rough though and I would frequently be awake many times during the night trying not to itch. This time my hands actually felt like they were burning too, rather than just itching. The best relief I could get was to put my hands in the cold river water. The day before yesterday was a particularly rough night and when I woke up the blisters and swelling were so bad that I could barely move my hands. I told Patrick I wouldn't be able to work that day and as soon as he saw my hands he agreed. I stayed in camp for the first part of the day alternating between soaking my hands in the river and reading to a good book to keep my mind off the itching. By the early afternoon I had realized that my hands were going to continue to get worse before they got better and I wasn't going to be able to work again before our project was over. Patrick, Mark, and Mary were also thinking that it was time for me to fly home and get to a clinic. I made some calls on the satellite phone and with quite a bit of trouble, my friend Keller, a pilot, was able to arrange a flight home for me (that's a story for another blog post).

I arrived in Kodiak yesterday afternoon. My mom called the clinic to make me an appointment but there were none available. One very nice doctor agreed to see me after his last appointment. I am so grateful to him! He prescribed me an oral steroid and a new antihistamine to help with the itching (I can't take benadryl because it makes me stay awake). My blisters aren't any better today, but this is the first day they aren't worse so I'm taking that as a sign the steroids are working.

Other than all that, I had an amazing time on the Karluk River. I added the two photos at the top to show that we had great weather and I did have an amazing time. No need to feel too bad for me please!

These are some photos from three days ago. The blisters are much worse now but I don't think anyone should see them at the moment; they are really disgusting!

back of my left hand - this entire hand is really swollen

palm of my left hand

back of my right hand

Rain Rain Rain

Dad and I relaxing in the new recliners

I'm not convinced the Rapture isn't happening in Kodiak; it's time to prepare the ark. It's been raining so hard since last night that the entire yard is a puddle as you can see. I did make it into Kodiak though, as did everyone else on our crew. Now our problem is going to be getting out of Kodiak and down to Karluk Lake in a Beaver (float plane). We were supposed to leave at 11 this morning, but that is definitely not happening. We're supposed to call the pilot again at 1 for a check-in, but I am sure we won't be leaving today, and probably not tomorrow either. It's disappointing to be stuck in town, but on the other hand, it would not be fun to be camping and working in this weather.

The good thing about all this rain is that the rivers and really high. The Karluk River is a pretty shallow river, and even though we'll be going down it with two inflatable canoes over the next two weeks, we've heard that most of the time it is so shallow you have to pull your rafts. Hopefully the water will be high enough now that we'll actually be able to float.

The only break in the doom and gloom forecast isn't until Friday. Hopefully we make it out of here before then!

The mind-numbing parts of archaeology

I've been feeling a bit uninspired to write over the last couple of weeks. I can't wait to be in the field. It's been a long school year and I am ready to get outside. Because it's almost summer, I've also been working especially long hours to make some major progress on the faunal analysis for my dissertation. That basically consists of sorting and counting tiny fragments of shell and bone and then identifying them. It's extremely boring, to say the least. And it hurts my back. We won't get into the ergonomic disaster that is the "lab" they assign archaeology grad students to, but we'll just say it's not comfortable. So, I go to school, do my usual boring grad school stuff for about 12 hours, relax for a little while when I get home, sleep, and repeat six days a week. It doesn't leave much time for fun and excitement, which is what I would prefer to write about here. I suppose this is life though and if this blog is about my life, sometimes it's just going to have to be boring.

I've been analyzing the Early Kachemak (3400 years old) bulk samples of midden I collected from Mitks'qaaq Angayuk last summer in Kodiak. I put the samples through 1/2", 1/4", and 1/8" nested screens. I then separate the shell from the bone (mostly fish), identify and count the shell fragments (that's the mind-numbing but easy part) and then I try to identify as much of the fish as I can. In the top photo I'm sorting the 1/8" midden fraction. If you look at each white tray clockwise from left to right, they contain unidentified shell, chiton, sea urchin, fish, mussel, and pebbles. In the middle is the unsorted midden. The second photo is of fish bones waiting to be identified (these are mostly cod). It is boring, but it does feel good to be getting it done.

Ebey's Landing

I love the "super macro" feature on our point and shoot camera!

Ryan testing out his new backpack (a bit overkill for this hike)

Jay and I descending the bluff

Things are getting extra busy for us as the field season starts up. Ryan leaves tomorrow for two weeks in Maryland and I leave next Sunday for two weeks in Kodiak. We managed to fit in one short hike on Whidbey Island at Ebey's Landing today with some friends though. It was a perfect easy hike with a beautiful view of Puget Sound. The weather was even on the nice side and it supposedly hit 60 degrees. We are still having the coldest spring on record though, in case you were wondering.

Unfortunately for the blog and all the readers, I think posts are going to be fewer and shorter as the field season gets going. I doubt Ryan will have much time to write while he's in the field and I will definitely not have internet when I'm on the Karluk River surveying in a week! We will post when we can, but apologize in advance for the lack of updates. =)

It's Bike to Work Month!

What my parents pay in Kodiak to fill up their full-size pickup truck.

May is bike to work month! Given the price of gas, maybe more people are participating this year! Gas is over $4/gallon here and every time I drive by a gas station I wince. Luckily we don't use our car very often so we only have to fill up once a month (when it's not ski season). When I was in Kodiak last month though it cost $92 to fill up my parents full size pickup. Ouch! Even the price of gas in most of Alaska is nothing compared to Iceland or many other parts of the world.

I've been a little bit of slacker on riding my bike this winter. I'd do a week of riding and then give up for a month, and then repeat. I have to stick to it this month though because I'm on a bike to work team! I biked 36 miles this week (three round trips). This week I should do at least four round trips. My team (the Bipedal Foragers) was a few miles behind the other archaeology team on Friday so I biked into work yesterday to put us up by 5 miles, yeah!

The art of taking good cuisine photos and why we don't have many

"Bleu Salad"

Every time we post about food, I wish we had better photos. I see tons of beautiful cuisine photos on other blogs. Ours just never quite seem to be in the same league despite the fact that we have a good camera and are able to occasionally take lovely photos of other subjects. I believe the key that we are missing is natural daylight.

We do nearly all of our cooking and baking late in the evening and by the time we finish whatever is on the menu for dinner, it's dark. Even on the weekends we tend to cook and bake late into the evening since my Saturdays are almost always spent at school and on Sundays we like to do something fun outside. This type of schedule obviously works for us, but it is not conducive to taking nice photos with natural light. Unfortunately there isn't much we can do about it so everyone who reads this blog will just have to continue to look at mediocre food photos. Sorry!

I did get this one nice salad shot recently on a rare Saturday lunch spent at home. I love this salad. It's a version of the "Bleu Salad" I had at the Westmark Hotel in Fairbanks when I was there for the aaa's in March. It's just lettuce, red grapes, nuts, crumbled bleu cheese, and bleu cheese dressing. Simple and yummy!