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.