Category: Life in Alaska
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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 Ptarmagin 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…
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What is Next
We are in Virginia until we return to Alaska next spring. C set up a camera that sends us photos of the cabin until the cold drains the battery. We left Alaska just in time to avoid plowing and shoveling snow! Snow was falling as we packed on September 21. Snow was sticking to the…
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Upholstery, Week 27 in Healy
When we visited our relatives on the Kenai back in July, our kind hostess offered a variety of enticing activities. C laughingly told her what he really wanted was to sit in their living room recliner for awhile. Ahhhh, upholstery! Now that we are leaving soon, we have been mentioning some things we have been…
Me & C 