Category: Life in Alaska
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Tracks in the Snow
We have a new friend this year. It’s nice to watch a snowshoe hare hop about first thing in the morning while one relieves oneself in the privy. This morning it was snowing when I got up and the dusting of fresh snow added interest to the tracks on my walk. Notice the fresh snow…
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Day 16 Arrived in Healy Spring 2025
After 4085 miles of driving plus 3 lovely days on the Alaska Marine Highway ferry, we have arrived! The snow isn’t deep, and our little dry cabin is warming up at a reasonable pace. Top priority tomorrow is to drive 20 minutes to get water. Our 6-gallon aquatainers are completely empty (if we had left…
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Sockeye II Part 2 AND Coho Count I
During the latter half of our 6-day “Sockeye II, 2024” I finally caught my first sockeye salmon by flossing. Three of the four in the photo below are mine. It was a lot of work and in a crowd, so I am still not a fan of this type of fishing. July 29 we fished…
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Info on Riley Fire
This fire near the Denali National Park entrance is keeping C busy. One of the “especially effective” helicopters mentioned in the July 1 post at 4:45 is the one he manages.
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Birds
I have been spending a lot of time birding now that I am retired. I rarely write about it as I doubt most people are interested, and I rarely have decent photos. My highlight this week was definitely the gorgeous breeding plumage Long-tailed Ducks at Otto Lake. I don’t have a photo, so Google them…
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Dry Cabin Daily Rhythm
Yesterday we arose early and spent 8 hours looking for wildlife. Unlike last weekend’s phenomenal day, we saw few animals (primarily 6 caribou and 1 porcupine). Today I am shifting gears to a theme I put off while writing about more exciting things. 2 a.m., South bedroom window If we had indoor plumbing, I…
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Aurora V, from Denali National Park
Astronomical twilight (the darkest it gets this time of year) started at 12:06 early this morning. Since it was a clear night I had set my alarm for 12:20 am. I wasn’t expecting much as the forecast kp index was only a 3. To my surprise, there was some color in the sky, dramatically obvious…
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Denali and Wildlife, Healy Week One 2024
We have been back in Healy one week and have gone into Denali as far as Mountain Vista 3 times. We saw The Mountain (and lots of beautiful lesser mountains). Yesterday we watched a mostly white Ptarmigan walk along a gravel bar, and saw a moose grazing then lie down. Today we saw fresh tracks…
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Aurora IV, April 2024
Our third night at our dry cabin in Healy, and we’ve already been blessed with the Aurora Borealis. It was relatively faint but beautiful! The dancing northern lights were all around us again – north, south, west, and a bit to the east. My new cell phone has a night setting on the camera. Now…
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March 2023 Recap
As I was writing my annual holiday letter I decided to share some of it via this blog as well. Last year’s letter had several questions about what 2023 would bring (travel questions in bold below). I have been having technical difficulties with this post, hopefully it works out! What is the coldest temp on…
Me & C 