I'm Done....

OK, that's it. I'm getting cable TV to occupy my time. I went to the glacier today to hike one of the trails - get there and the trail's closed for maintenance. I was all psyched for a nice hike - absolutely gorgeous day. I walked all around the glacier instead - closest I could get to it and a grand waterfall. There were more tourists at the Glacier then I've seen yet. I bushwhacked uphill just a little bit to sit beside a rocky stream for a while and look for gold. About 20 min later, I hear a woman yell "Bear! There's a bear coming right at you!" I look up and sure enough there's a bear not 15 feet away coming right at me - not intimidated at all. I freaked - couldn't say a word, just flew down the rocky stream channel to the area by the water. I was terrified. I left stuff next to the creek but was too afraid to get it later. I might try to drag Sadie with me there tomorrow to retrieve my book. When I got to the path, the woman told me that the bear followed me as I came down the hill. They say you're not supposed to run from a bear, but are supposed to yell at it. I did the exact opposite - I couldn't open my mouth and wanted to run like hell but I did manage to try to go slower than a terrified run. I thanked the woman for alerting me. Like I said... I'll watch nature shows on cable T.V. like the rest of the sane world.

BEAR UPDATE

ok...me & sade standing in the kitchen - lots of huge windows look out the back yard and Sade screams"Yeah and there's a bear in our backyard", and sure enough a black bear is 6 feet from the window sniffin around. hmmm. Bit unnerving.

CHECK OUT MY NEW CRAIGS LIST AD

1984 GMC Pickup Sale or Trade - $600 (Juneau)
Reply to:mailto:sale-srq4u-1182848081@craigslist.org?subject=1984%20GMC%20Pickup%20Sale%20or%20Trade%20-%20%24600%20(Juneau) [Errors when replying to ads?]Date: 2009-05-21, 4:48PM AKDT

For Sale or Trade: Dependable 1984 GMC S15 4WD Standard Pick Up Truck with Cap, rebuilt engine. Good Tires. Will trade for boat/canoe, salmon fishing poles & equipment, decent piano or $ Best Offer. Must sell by June 5.

Location: Juneau
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

I'm actually getting to like Rusty, hate to get rid of it, but if I can get a boat.....

Shadow Art

On the way back we walked along the gravel floodplain of the river. Sadie was taking pictures of her shadow. That girl certainly has an eye for unusual photo-taking - she sees the world in a way unlike many of us I think. For most of the walk, she was so paranoid of bears and didn't get more than 10 feet away from me. When she was taking pics of her shadows she was so into it - mesmerized - that I got so far away from her and she never noticed.

MORE BACK YARD....

The ponds back there reflect the mountains oh so cool! We were having a blast taking pictures and trying to figure out what was up and what was down.

OUR BACK YARD

We went for our first big hike in our new back yard yesterday. Yup, we moved into our new house. It's a big nice house with not much in it. I went to a bunch of garage sales and scored - a book case for $1.50, 1 cup, 2 forks, 2 nice framed duck prints, a gold-panning pan. I'm drinking a cup of coffee which is disgusting - microwaved instant coffee. There's one important thing in the a.m. and that's a decent cup of coffee. Anyway, the house backs up to the Tongass Nat'l Forest, if you look at google maps satellite photo, from the back loop road going east, you can go for a billion miles through mountains, forests, glaciers, ice fields, etc. and die of old age before you find civilization. Pretty cool, eh? There's a lot of ponds back there with beavers and beaver-chewed trees everywhere (great source of wood if i ever get a woodstove). We bought a bear-bell and Sadie was throwing it everywhere - acting like she was playing with it, but I know she was trying to make as much noise as possible, and of course it broke. You can get a sense of direction from learning the mountains - McGinnis Mtn to the northwest...Glacier due north... Bullard Mtn to the northeast (In the photo here - I call this one Mountain Goat Mountain because I always see Mountain Goats on it. They are much easier to see now that the snow's mostly gone and their white bodies show up against the dark mountain side. It's amazing the steep slopes they hang out on - I wonder if they ever go tumbling...I'd be a nervous wreck if I was a mother Mountain Goat - talk about survival of the fittest!), and Thunder Mountain to the southeast. At least if I stay in that valley, if I did get lost - I should eventually be able to work my way out. It reminds me of when I lived in NYC and coming out of the subways and looking around for the Twin Towers to see which way was South. I bet a lot of people did this. Now they're gone and what buildings do people use now?

Some more sights....

A pic of Herbert Glacier as seen from our whale-watching trip; a Coast Guard ship at Auke Bay Marina; and the float-plane basin at the airport.

More Whale Watching...

We saw Steller Sea Lions dozing on a buoy,

... and a pod of Orca's, including a mother and her baby. We also saw a harbor porpoise, but no pic of him. This trip gave me a lot more reasons to purchase a good camera with telephoto lens. It was a great day - beautiful weather, and new birds for the list.

Happy Mother's Day Whale Watching!

We went on a great 3-hour whale watch today - Mother's day special fundraiser for the Juneau Jumpers - a jump-roping team. I saw a poster for it hanging on the bulletin board. We saw humpback whales (that photo on the right is the fin of the humpback - even tho it looks like a little dolphin).

"Miss Sadie"

Well, look at the name on this old boat!

The Bear

We went back to the Glacier yesterday a.m. The bear was still hanging around and we got to watch him for a long time up close and get better photos!


No, this is not a bear.



But this is...

(OK, now I've gotta decide $ priorities... boat? or better camera? Hey Laura (my professional photographer friend :), you got an extra camera you want to sell me? or at least recommend a good one with what kind of telephoto ?)

Pics of Mendenhall Lake

The Glacier (see the little people in the foreground?)


Mendenhall Lake - the ice cover is melting fast.

Saw another porcupine today - they have the prettiest long fur with yellow highlights at the ends.

My First Bear!!!

Today was a great day! Dave & I went to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor's Center to see a lecture from Robert Armstrong. He is a biologist who has written a number of books on Alaska Birds and natural history. He just came out with a new book The Mendenhall Wetlands - a globally recognized Important Bird Area, and gave the lecture as part of International Migratory Bird Day. It was standing room only and a great lecture! He's a wonderful old conservationist. It was a very inspiring presentation and I chatted with him afterwards and he signed 2 books of his I brought with me (Birds of Alaska and The Nature of Southeast Alaska), and my new copy of his wetlands book. I also won a cool t-shirt with a native Alaskan/bird design on it! After the lecture we went outside and there was a bear in a tree! She was about 25 feet up in it breaking off pretty big branches and eating the spring buds. It was terribly exciting for me - I felt like a kid. I've never seen a bear before - tried like hell - been to Denali Nat'l Park twice, Yellowstone twice, all over the Catskills and this was the first time I've seen one! I stayed there a long time watching through the binos until my fingers were frozen (it's cold up by the glacier!). How cool - Juneau is definitely a biologist's dream-town to live in and work in.

Pretty Pics

Sunset, obv.

The prettiest skunk cabbage I've ever seen!

XTRATUFS

Ok, this is weird, everyone here wears "XTRATUFs are American-made neoprene boots that provide 100% waterproof protection with all-day comfort for the most severe fishing, farming, and work conditions." rubber boots. You can tell the outta-towners by looking at their feet. No one varies in the color or brand. I think I'll have to change that... I want some black ones with polar bear designs on them.

First Site Inspections

Wow, first three site inspections - 3 for 3 -

all non-compliances.

Gonna be fun - challenges ahead.

It's a whole new world.

REDOUBT VOLCANO

May 5:

Redoubt update Per the Alaska Volcano Observatory: Current activity at Redoubt volcano suggests that a significant explosive event is likely, though not certain, in the coming days. This event could occur at any time with little or no warning. Since about May 2 shallow earthquake activity beneath the actively growing lava dome of Redoubt volcanohas been slowly increasing. The growing lava dome is becoming increasinglyunstable. Should a significant explosion occur, the event will likely produce high altitude (>30,000 ft ASL) ash plumes, trace to minor ash fall in parts of south-central Alaska, lahars in the Drift River Valley, and pyroclastic flows in the immediate vicinity of the volcano. AVO continues 24/7 operations and is monitoring the situation closely. AVO will provide frequent updates of the volcano's status and the earliest possible warning of significant explosive activity and other hazardous phenomena.

Check out their webcam

http://www.avo.alaska.edu/webcam/Redoubt_-_Hut.php

Birds 1

Birds seen so far:
Mallards
Barrows Goldeneye
Canada Geese
Bald Eagles
Great Blue Heron
Gyrfalcon
Crow
Raven
Robin
White crowned sparrow
Chestnut Backed Chickadee
Junco - Dark eyed & Oregon subspecies
Common Merganser
Arctic Tern
Varied Thrush (that's the bird that "buzzes" in the woods. Listen to it at Cornell's Lab of O website)

Audubon's subspecies of Yellow-rumped Warbler

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Bonaparte's Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull
Harlequin Duck (very cool looking ducks!)

Tree Swallow

Steller's Jay

Magpie (Anchorage)

Rufous Hummingbird (at my feeder!)

Dipper

Pigeon Guillemot

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Yellow Warbler

Trumpeter Swan (Anchorage)

I need my good binoculars & spotting scope - not here yet, so it's hard to make out the shore birds, gulls & terns. The ravens are wonderful - they're everywhere and the sounds they make are many! I hear them gurgling, chatting and imitating everything they hear. They are so funny! So many times I hear a new bird sound and look to see what it is and once again it's a raven!

Gold Creek

So, after trying to hike Herbert Trail yesterday, and deciding there was too much snow, we drove Rusty to downtown Juneau and looked for the Perserverence Trail. This trail starts at the ruins of an old gold mine up a valley from downtown. There are mining ruins and slag piles all over - and an old mining shaft entrance. There was really really cold air coming out of the shaft!

In the picture with the wooden bridge crossing Gold Creek you can see the mountain in the background - we watched some pretty cool snow slides happening. The sun was heating up the snow big time at the top of the mountain and every once in a while a slide would come down - it was cool. We actually heard the rumbling and it was a little creepy. You realized that these slides were probably much bigger than it looked from down in the valley. We ended up playing around in the old mining area and looking for gold in the creek and never started hiking the trail. It was weird the way you'd feel a breeze of cold air then warm air walking around. I guess depending on which way the breeze was blowing - I must say I've never experienced anything like that before. As we were walking around the brush along the creek edge I said to Dave "Oh Look!" He kinda jumped - I think he expected to see a bear - but it was the cutest porcupine sound asleep in a tree. I snuck up to him pretty close, and he didn't wake up till Dave accidentally kicked a rock. I took a pic of the porcupine when he was looking at me with this look of "gee thanks for waking me up, I was in a deep sleep." He was more brown than the porcupines I'm used to seeing on the east coast - which are black. We left and I watched him curl up and go back to sleep. The sun was beginning to set, so we drove back into town along the somewhat scary road and ate Russian Dumplings at a funky little retaurant. It was a nice day. This morning is warm and more humid - you can see that we're in for a change in the weather from the clear sunny skies we've had for a week - maybe try to do the Perserverence Trail today....

"Rusty"

Meant to mention - when I first got here I had no car. I rented a car but that cost almost $300 a week! Too much and I won't get my car from NY until I go back in June and get it and drive it here. There are good buses here, but it's hard to rely on bus transportation (I don't think the buses travel "up the road" at all). I've been checking Craig's list and saw a 1984 GMC 4WD, 5 speed stick, advertised for $500. I called at 9:45 p.m.and spoke with the owner who is a State biologist here who studies sea lion behavior - we chatted about sea lions for a while, and he said the truck was good - just had a few quirks: Battery is held in with ropes so it wont fall thru the rust, the only way to close the tail gate is "just like this with this tire iron", and when the engine's cold, pump it three times, and when it's hot - don't give it any gas or it floods bad and wont start. Other than that, it's a great car. How can I not trust a 60 yr oldish biologist and his archaeologist girlfriend?? I bought the truck! Registered it at AK DMV the next day - no safety inspection! (I was wondering why i saw so many cars with cracked windshields driving around here). It took me 1-2 days of cussing and walking to figure out how to not flood it - drove it all over today and it was great! A true Alaskan vehicle - built in the days when Detroit knew how to build vehicles! Rock solid. (hope i dint just jinx myself). Now I have a place to store my moose antlers.

Hiking Trail to Herbert Glacier

The weather here has been spectacular! Sunny and 60-70 degrees every day. The snow is melting fast. It is about 35-45 degrees at night and one night there was a fresh coating of snow on the mountains - it was cool because the snow only came to about a 1/3 of the way down the trees from treeline and below that elevation it did not snow - so there was a band of white trees. Hard to describe.

Today Sadie, Dave (a guy I work with) & I planned to hike to Herbert Glacier, which is up near Eagle River. There was a lot of snow on the trail and it made it too hard for walking. There were places where the snow was still easily a foot deep. We stopped and played along Herbert River before giving up and heading back. It's definitely a different feeling walking in the woods here versus NY for two main reasons: In NY it is hard to get lost - there is usually some kind of road within an hour or two in any direction. Here you can easily walk for hundreds of miles, some places close to many hundreds of miles, and not hit civilization of any kind. So I rarely had a fear of getting lost in NY - but here, I think I will try to always stay on the marked National Forest Trails and get into the habit of carrying minimal safety stuff - like coat, matches, compass. The second big difference is BEARS. Again, in NY I was never afraid of the woods, or cautious, but here there are so many brown and black bears and so many warning signs that it is a little nerve wracking walking in the woods. There are suggestions on how to avoid problems with bears - like make noise when walking and don't run away from a bear. But I really want to see a bear! Dave & Sadie were making all kinds of noise and I was trying to be quiet. No bear yet though! There is some bird makes a funny buzzing sound in the woods - I have yet to figure it out but I hear it a lot. I think I'll start keeping separate posts here to track the birds I'm seeing.

Oh, and Dean, you warned me about Devil's Club - the winter stalks are not nice - I accidently grabbed one when I lost my footing in the snow - Ouch!!! That will not happen again. They are all over!

Out the Road

We drove as far up the road as we could, which was not all the way because they stopped plowing not too far north of a beautiful area called Eagle Beach. This is where Eagle River empties into the ocean. It is a great area to walk around on the beach. You can see the amazing mountains of the Chilkat Range, which is directly east of, and adjoining Glacier Bay National Park. I need to get better binoculars!! Eagle Beach is about 10 miles south of the end of the road. At the end of the Road is Echo Cove - so we'll have to save that trip for another time when the road is clear. Walking the sandy beach, I noticed that there seemed very little evidence of animal life other than the birds. There were very few shells, and no evidence of invertebrate life. This is different from walking the beaches along the Atlantic - even up to Maine where there are lots of shells, washed up crabs, seaweed pieces, and little burrow holes in the sand. And on the Atlantic beaches you can see all sorts of shorebirds pulling little creatures in the sand to eat. That was not the case here. The beach seems relatively sterile. I'm not sure why this is - is t because it's too early in the season - or is it just less supportive of beach life? I'll have to investigate that further.