Denali Fall Colors

Our view leaving the park

There are a few more photos worth sharing from our Denali trip. The drive home was so spectacular it is really hard to complain about the foggy weather we had on our lottery day in the park. We also got to be there at the height of the fall colors (I know it's not exactly New England, but the brushy tundra colors are something special in their own right).

I really do think we hit the absolute height of the fall colors spot-on because on our last night it frosted. It 26 degrees when we left the campground at about 9 in the morning, so it had probably gotten down in the low 20's during the night. A lot of the leaves of the dwarf birch and willow had fallen off by the time we drove out in the mid-morning.

Kelly near Polychrome (I think)

Blueberry bushes

Alex and Kelly with our first view of Denali on Friday night

frosty morning

Caribou and Fall Colors

On our way back to Teklanika we stopped to take some scenery photos and while we were parked on the side of the road, Alex spotted several sheet up on a mountain slope just at the base of the fog. While we were all taking turns watching them with the binoculars, I turned around and just happened to catch these two caribou silhouetted on top of a hill. Just a moment later they ran down the ridge toward us and then disappeared over the other side.

As we drove through the park we stopped every once in a while to glass for animals. In one place, Kristin noticed a lone fireweed still in bloom on the side of the road. We both jumped out to take photos. As other cars drove by they'd slow down to see what we were looking at hoping it was wildlife. No such luck!

The game of stopping to see what other people might be seeing gets pretty comical at times. At one point we stopped behind a line-up of several cars and Ann Marie got out to ask what they were looking at. She was told that someone heard from someone else that there had been a bear chasing a caribou near the road a little while earlier. Nobody there had actually seen anything - they were just at the end of a long game of wildlife telephone, all hoping to see something exciting!

Another caribou mother and baby near Wonder Lake

View of Denali leaving the park on Sunday

A lone fireweed still in bloom

fall colors as we left the park

Ann Marie on a little backcountry hike

Denali National Park Road Lottery

My cousin was lucky-enough to win a ticket to the road lottery in Denali National Park this weekend. The park road is usually closed to private vehicles (buses only), but during the second weekend in September after the buses have stopped running they have a lottery and 1200 private vehicles get to drive into the park. Ann Marie's ticket was for Saturday and my sister and brother-in-law just happened to be in town. We rented a minivan along with one of Ann Marie's friends and were able to camp at Teklanika Campground 30 miles inside the park on both Friday and Saturday night.

On Friday night just as we were getting to the park it cleared and we got to see the mountain on the drive into Teklanika. On Saturday it was pretty cloudy and in some places very foggy so we didn't see many mountains, but we did see four bears, four caribou, and several sheep. It was also the height of the fall colors in the park - they were stunning. Today was a blue bird day. The people who had lottery tickets for Sunday certainly lucked out. We did enjoy the view as we left the park and drove south.

 

 

 

Santa Barbara Wedding

Keefer and Ryan watching the sunset above Santa Barbara at the Lizard's Mouth

We spent the holiday weekend in Santa Barbara attending our friends Megan and Grant's wedding. An escape to California just as fall is setting in here was fantastic. And, in addition to seeing a bunch of our old Seattle friends (who have now also moved away), we got to spend a lot of time with Grant and Megan after the wedding and before they left on their honeymoon. I know weddings are busy times for the bride and groom and it's hard to visit with many people over one weekend, so I feel pretty spoiled to have spent so much time with them.

On Sunday Grant, Megan, and some of our other friends showed us around Isla Vista where UCSB is located and where they all went to college. The beach/college town scene is pretty much the complete opposite of the college scene Ryan and I had in Fairbanks!

Megan and I

Kayla's daughter's sippy cup made it in a lot of photos even though little Ellis had left the party hours earlier!

Cocktail hour! (thanks for the photo Karlene!)

Megan and I in Isla Vista

Strolling along the bluff in Isla Vista

Last days of summer

We are feeling pretty moved in to our house, at least downstairs where we finally hung some photos on the walls. We've done a couple more little projects but mostly we've been busy with work and with my parents visit last weekend. Here are a few pictures from the last week:

Ryan's blueberry cinnamon swirl bread, aka a cinnamon roll with blueberries

 

Yum!

After 40 years in Alaska, my parents finally made it to state fair!

A selection of the giant vegetables, check out the 68 lb rutabaga! (we were there before the pumpkin and cabbage weigh-offs so didn't see the really huge stuff)

 

 

We picked high bush cranberries at the entrance to our street today - this spot has the densest cranberries I've ever seen.

1/2 gallon in 1/2 hour

Today I noticed fresh snow on the mountains in the back of Eagle River Valley. The weather has been so warm I had almost forgotten that fall can start at the end of August in Alaska!

One day survey in Valdez

I'm not sure there such a thing as a one day survey in marine geophysics but we tried to pull it off in Valdez this week.  The reality was three very long days.  It's over 250 miles from Palmer to Valdez so a good portion of that time was spent driving there and back.

Driving to Valdez is one of the most scenic drives in Alaska but towing 10,000 lbs of boat and trailer doesn't always allow you to take in the views.  Fortunately two of us were able to trade off driving.  Surveying in Valdez would have been equally scenic if we had been able to see past the fog.  Most of our time in the water was spent driving around with virtual no visibility.  We relied heavily on the GPS and electronic charts for navigation.  The up side to the fog was the flat calm water.  We certainly appreciated the lack of wind while towing the side scan sonar.

The sonar was towed nearly 400 ft below us, fairly impressive when working from a 28 foot boat.  We had our fair share of normal equipment problems but in the end we were able to find what we were looking for on the sea floor and position it within about 10 feet.

Now it's onto the next job which will be in St. George in the remote Pribilof Islands!

Truck and boat (Latent Sea) at a rest area west of Glennallen.

More blueberries

I think the blueberry patches on the Mt Magnificent trail are going to become a regular destination for us in August. This are is so close to our house there is really no legitimate reason for us not to go! It did rain earlier today, but it was still worth it to head up there with rain gear to get some berries. We picked for a solid couple of hours and took a break to cook top ramen on in the jet boil.

Even though it was cloudy the views were still stunning. It was neat to watch the fog fill the valley and roll in and out of the saddle we were in.

Canning Season

Now that we're feeling settled in our house and I'm back from the field, I'm feeling the pressure to can as much as I can put up while the produce looks good. I bought a couple moderately late zucchinis at the Saturday Market in Anchorage yesterday, but they are nothing compared to this honker:

The zucchinis are going in zucchini relish (from http://www.jessieknadler.com/tartsweet.html)this afternoon. I also made some refrigerator dill pickles (http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/75145/spicy-refrigerator-dill-pickles) yesterday and have bread and butter pickles (from http://foodinjars.com/the-cookbook/) are on the schedule for today. 

And here are some serious blueberry cinnamon pancakes from The Joy of Blueberries:

Mt. Magnificent Blueberries

I'm tempted to name all my blog posts from here on out "This is what I missed about Alaska," because, well, this quick little blueberry-picking hike with stunning views that we did last night is what I missed about Alaska. After work we headed up the Mt. Magnificent Trail and after a 10 min drive and 20 min of huffing and puffing up the steep trail, we broke out into the meadow in the saddle above. We only went to the top of the first peak to the right, but another mile would take you to Mt. Magnificent itself.

We picked blueberries on the right side of the saddle (on your way up). They were decent there, not particularly thick, but for our first time out foraging we certainly can't complain. We saw people on the left side picking so we'll probably look there next time.

For a day that was forecasted to rain and blow, it certainly turned out nicely! And if you're planning to hike here, FYI, we did see a black bear so be prepared!

Looking down at our house - we live on the far right side down by the river (where the houses are packed in very tighly!)

Kotzebue to Kodiak: A GPR Survey Tour

While Molly has been in Angoon, I have been doing a bit of fieldwork myself.  First it was back to Kotzebue for another round of ground penetrating radar surveys.  The field work went quite well and it was nice to be going back to the same place to work.  On the first trip to Kotzebue there was a lot of uncertainly in how well the GPR would work and what the site conditions would be like.

With the GPR in state I saw an opportunity to demonstrate its capability at the Alutiiq Museum's community archaeology dig in Kodiak which was just moving into its second week.  I have often volunteered at this dig and Molly has worked there several time.

The effectiveness of GPR can vary widely depending on a number of factors including soil properties, vegetation cover, and the features you are seeking to detect.  This seemed like a great opportunity to test the GPR in Kodiak and demonstrate its effectiveness and limitations to the Alutiiq Museum's archaeologist and the volunteers working at the site.  The rental company Northwest Geophysical donated the equipment use for three additional days.

With the help of my friend John we were able to survey two areas with the GPR, one of which was directly adjacent to the active dig site.  By comparing the GPR data to the adjacent excavation and to multiple soil probes we were able to interpret the features seen in the data.  The GPR seem to be effective at mapping late prehistoric house pits that have been filled with Katmai volcanic ash, but is unable to detect horizons below the ash and above the glacial till.  It also appears that the GPR can detect fire hearths although I did not see one in the second house pit we surveyed so perhaps it was small or we just didn't detect that one.  Hopefully the museum will excavate one of features we surveyed next year allowing us to better ground truth the GPR data.

John packing in much of the GPR to the survey area

Partially excavated house pit can be seen in the side wall of the archaeological excavation

GPR ready to survey adjacent to the excavation

GPR data overlaid on an oblique photograph

GPR radiogram with my interpretation of the stratigraphic horizons.