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Wildlife Babies IV, Week 17 in Healy
On the road near home we saw a Ptarmigan and 5 chicks. We think it was a Ptarmigan as the adult clearly had feathered feet. The mother was not happy to have chicks on both sides of the road. They would run or fly from one side to the other, but didn’t seem interested in…
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Arctic Ground Squirrels
I saw about 20 Arctic Ground Squirrels on Savage Alpine Trail. I often see them on Savage Loop Trail as well. I sometimes heard their alarm call before I saw them. Then I would often see one perched on a rock calling out a warning. In the Savage area of Denali National Park the Arctic…
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Savage Alpine Trail
On July 4th C needed to work and I hiked the steep 4 mile Savage Alpine Trail. I hadn’t expected the variety of habitats and wildflowers. So many different species were blooming. My labels are a decent guess. I dawdled, looking at flowers and mountains and hoping to see a pika or marmot. Most of…
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Persistence, Week 16 in Healy
We have done a lot of fishing so far in 2023 to catch four fish and keep two! We have fished in ice and in mosquitoes. We have fished raging rivers, tiny streams, ponds and lakes. We fished near the Arctic Circle and down on the Kenai Peninsula. If all that mattered were fish to…
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Cousins on the Kenai, Week 16 in Alaska
We had a great time with our cousins on the second half of our long weekend off. The weather was gorgeous and they took us out on the Kenai River in their boat. It was a lovely time! C caught a dolly varden and I caught a trout. Between the 4 of us we caught…
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Sockeye and Bears
We wore ourselves out fishing for hours on the Kenai River (at the fishermen’s ferry). Thousands of casts resulted in no fish. Most people weren’t having much luck, though a few savvy people had nice stringers. Three great things about the Kenai – the color of the water, friendly summer resident David who gave us…
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Russian River and Cooper Creek
It has been rainy and C got an extra day off so going further afield to fish for sockeye this weekend. Very few mosquitoes or potholes so far! We drove an extra 100 miles to the Kenai Peninsula. With the good roads it wasn’t that much extra driving time compared to last week. During the…
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Potholes and Mosquitoes, Week 15 in Healy
Alaska is not all sunshine, rainbows and wildlife. At times the wildlife hides. There are a lot of potholes and frost heaves on Alaska roads. And there are even more mosquitoes than potholes. If we had caught even one fish last weekend this post might have a different title. When C found out at 9:30…
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Utqiagvik, Part 4
We didn’t see any live whales due to the ice. Once it melts they see bowhead, grey, orca and beluga whales. Residents showed us photos they had taken on their phones, some right from town. The pressure ridges in the ice grew during our 47 hours in town. The “pyramid” in the photo is just…
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Utqiagvik, Part 3 Midnight Sun
The sun rose in Utqiagvik on May 10 and will not set again until August 2. Our last night we stayed up until 2 to watch the sun circle around the horizon. C stood in the exact same place and you can use the tops of the containers to see how far the sun moved…
Me & C
Roaming: Shenandoah River to the Alaska Range
Me & C 