We started with a few days in Juneau to explore. Mendenhall Glacier Park was our first stop. We were greeted by this porcupine which quickly scurried away. This is part of the Tongass National Forest which is the largest National Forest in the United States. The Mendenhall Glacier is one of the 38 large glaciers that flow from the 1500 square miles of rock and snow known as the Juneau Ice field. There are 5,000 Glaciers in Alaska.
This is the beautiful visitor's center. It is built into the landscape and made of all natural materials. The educational programs offered are fantastic. I would love to take my class here for a field trip. You do realize we would have to fly to Juneau to have the wonderful class.
Lupins are everywhere in Alaska. The flora love the melting snow in the spring and the 24 hours of sunlight to showcase their beautiful colors.
The glacier is blue because it absorbs all colors of light except blue. This picture was taken from the Visitors Center about 4 miles away. Beth and I walked to the Waterfall which was still about 2 miles away from the waterfall.
This is a rookery for terns. It was mating season so a lot of the walking land was restricted for the terns.
This kayak is 17 feet long to put the size of this iceberg. The berg is so huge and blue.
Beth and I stand at the base of the Nugget Falls. The water temperature was 37 degrees. Too cold for me to wade in the water.
The next day we took the Mount Roberts Tramway up through the rain forest to the viewing area and hiked a bit. We were surprised that there was so much snow still on the trails in June.
the tram is about 3,000 feet long and rises almost 1,800 feet in elevation and it takes about 4 mins. to get to the top. At the top is a restaurant, bird sanctuary, gift shop and many hiking trails. We were greeted by this beautiful eagle. Isn't he spectacular against the beautiful jeweled skies?
Many of the trees have these very curvy trunks. The reason for these unusual curves is the snow fall. As the weight of the snow lands the tree trunk naturally leans downward, the snow melts and the trunk reaches towards the sunny skies. Therefore, curved trunks.
The Tlingit and Haida Indians have carved the trunks of the trees with their respective symbols.
This is the view from the back side of the mountain. I think it could be a picture puzzle.
When we came down the tram the local Tlingit children were performing. His headdress was very ornate but it didn't weigh as much as I was expecting.
Pretty self-explanatory. Beth and I took a tour of the State Capital. I learned quite a bit. Did you know that the capital of Alaska has been in three different cities? (Kodiak, Sitka, Juneau) 39 States have moved their capitals since statehood. Do you know which ones? 17 States have their capitals in the most populated city. Nevada's capital city was decided by a gun shootout. Only one state has a capital in a city that has no roads leading to it. Gee, I wonder which state you have to fly or take a boat to get to? Juneau, AK - yep! The building is not that ornate because the building was put on hold for WWI and then it was finished with the building to be used as the federal government, courthouse, and post office.
Sarah Palin was not touring the capital today. Sean Parnell, the 10th governor of AK, was not available to "chat" with Beth and me. Oh well, maybe next visit.
This is the State Finance Committee Room.
You can address us as the Honorable House Majority.
Tlingit are is displayed all over the building and the town. What Beth and I thought was great is the hall ways were decorated with "student" work from all over the state. All a teacher has to do is call or email and get permission to send the student work and it will be hung until the next set of artwork arrives.
The next day we hikes up one of the many trails. We discovered an old gold mine shaft. I forgot that all mines are about 68 degrees and the breeze blowing out the entrance was chilly! This is another very resourceful Alaskan. This person took his jeep and made it a camper for summer activities. The top was sawed off and a camper topper and vent were added. Ingenuity!
Here is our float plane taking us to Admiralty Island for the week. These float planes hold a lot of cargo. They also need a fairly long lake to take off when fully loaded. This is our crew for the Bear Adventure. Admiralty Island has more brown (grizzly) bears per square mile than any other forest. Yep, we were here for a week with just a sleeping bag, tent, kayak and two guides.
Don, in the brown sweat shirt, is the bear guide. He lives on the island for 6 months a year working with the bears and tourist. Tom, the tall person on the left, was our naturalist guide and kayak guide. The adventure is for teachers and we had George (in red ball cap) from the bush - Bethel, Cat, in middle, and Gary, back behind Don, were from Fairbanks, Beth, Shannon and I from Anchorage, and Ryan, far right, was from Colorado. He reminded me of a young Brad Pitt. He was my kayak partner. Who says David is the only one with an "approved" list?!!
This is the hand washing station. Filled 5 gallon bucket with salt water and a lawn mower syphone to pull the water, quick push on the pump and out comes water.
This is our kitchen for the week. Tom was also the cook. He was not the dishwasher. We all took turns.
This is all we used for a week to feed 9 of us. You rinsed your own dishes in the ocean and then the dishwashing process started. There was chlorox for rinsing.
These two metal containers were are bear proof food cabinets. You can see the two burners (used propane) on top. The cabinet on the right was the "cooking" supplies. The cabinet on the left was our "smelly" products. Bears love to investigate all sort of smells so it was closed and sealed whenever we were not in the kitchen. You can see the most important items were kept in this cabinet (beer and girl scout cookies)!!!
This is our refrigerator for the week. There is a wire between the trees in a shady bear den area. The bags are pulled up in the air by a pulley system. The bags have to be so many feet away from the trunk of the trees because Brown Bears will climb a tree to investigate smells. These bears have also been known to chew through the rope on the pulley system. Not ours! The guides used wire cables. The area stays about 40 degrees and the butter never got soft.
We put our tents, sleeping area, in the bear den. Yep, that is where the guide put us. We noticed these big BIG bear tracks as we walked into the area. The tent on the left is Beth and my tent. We had too much stuff to put in the tent all the time.
A five-striped catepillar was found on one of the tents. I have never seen a 5-striped one before.
This is the solid waste station. Yep that is all there is. I wasn't willing to use it right away. Only solid waste. The boys had it so easy, walk down to the ocean and go. The girls on the other hand were not so lucky. Here I am returning from the "girls" liquid waste station. We had to climb the rocks, if high tide, and get to the other side for a bit of privacy. Think about the early morning treks. Sleepy eyes and high tide. I always wore my boots to the bathroom. No splashing on my feet!!! Just to let you know I broke down and used the solid waste area only to find out that the "goodie" bag had no toilet paper. Just my luck. As I told Tom, our naturalist, he told us how paper products aren't really encouraged. The "rounded rock" is all you are suppose to use. I raised an eyebrow and said, "rounded rock?" Yep, a soft edged rock is used instead of toilet paper. Ouch! not me. Thank goodness I had kleenex in my pocket!
These are bear boxes. They are round so they can't bite them open but they can roll them around until they get bored with them. I took a close up of the top so you can see how tricky it can be. It took me several tries to get the lid back on. First untighten the screws and then push the small button at the top of the box and this flips the lid up.
This was my view I had every morning I woke up. Now you realize it was almost 22 hours of sunlight at the time. I was up my usual time, 5:15 am and sometimes I could stay resting until 5:45. But I had such a beautiful view and listened to the birds, fish, watched the whales and wrote in my journal all before the rest of the campers were awake. It was peaceful.
I think being on this wonderfully beautiful island with no connection to an electronic device was one of the highlights of the week. No phones, radios, computers - nothing. It gave me a lot of time to reflect on my environment and self-reflect on my Alaska adventures. I am so appreciative that I get one last year to teach in Anchorage.
This was my kayak partner, Ryan. He was young and a very experienced kayaker. He did a lot of paddling while I took in the scenery. Actually, I paddled quite a bit especially when George, in the other kayak and his partner, Shannon, dared us to race the last 1/2 mile to camp almost every day. Ryan and I gave it a gallant effort but we only won the last day where the stakes were very high.
We tried to explain it that we knew the stakes were getting higher as the week went on and used the other days as "training".
One of the many eagles that joined us on our journey.
This is one of the humpback whales that swam with us daily. The guides told us this was very rare since they have only seen one whale this close to the island in 10 years. We had at least 3 every day. One day on our longer kayak ride the whales surfaced so close to the kayaks that I was in awe and my camera got drenched in the big wave.
Don is holding a make-shift fishing pole to gather clams and fish. It has a deer skeleton as the spear.
We were treated to this wonderfully old and twisted tree. It was ginormous and a picture doesn't do it justus. Here is Ryan (6'1") sitting in the circle.
This is a video of two of the mating bears. I hope it works. I have had intermittent luck with having it work.
We landed on Pack Creek which is the largest Brown bear viewing in Alaska. We were greeted by a ranger and told the rules of how to act on the "Bear" land. Be on the path - they expect you there. Maintain eye contact and talk sternly to a bear (yah right I will remain calm). Be sure to give a bear plenty of room and the right-of-way. I promise you the bear will have plenty of room from me!
These two bears decided to appear right in front of us to do their business. I asked Don, the bear guide, if it was okay to take pictures and he said yes. He told us he has only seen bears mate one other time on the island in 10 years. We were so lucky to have so many wonderful experiences.
These bears had their time together for about 2 hours. I included the one below only because I think it came out very creative thanks to the lens - not my talents.
After about 2 hours the big grizzly falls on the shore (butt in the water) to rest. He was so funny.
On our way to the other viewing area a mink crossed our path. We saw a handful of mink on this trip. They are so much smaller than I thought. It must take a lot of skins to make a mink coat. I won't wear a mink coat now that I have seen these little fellows in their natural habitat.
This is a chocolate lily. It is pretty shade of deep purple and black. It smells like "poop" so the flies love this flower.
We were fortunate to have mommy bear bring her cubs out to our viewing area. She stayed a bit farther because sometimes male bears will eat the cubs make sure the female will mate again. As Don explained, we were seeing these bears at a very close view because these bears are habitualized. That means they are used to seeing humans and if humans are on the path and don't make sudden movement, all is well between the bear and human. Pack Creek got started because Stan Price and his wife raised several orphaned cubs who stayed in the area and became comfortable with the presence of people. Senator Arthur Pack (as in Pack Creek) was a politician who made Admiralty Island the "bear island" as part of the Forest Service "save the bear campaign".
Almost every day we did some bushwacking. You can see how thick this stuff was. I am much shorter than the rest of the team so I had to keep talking so they wouldn't lose me. I also did it so the bears would know I was there and not eat me. Everytime we entered a very "bear" populated area or thick with forest, Don would say, "Hey Bear, we are here just walking through." So it became our mantra, "Hey Bear, we are here just walking." It worked! we are all safe and sound.
This is a bear snare. They place a stick with barbed wire around it to catch bear hair. Up in the tree is a hidden camera. Only once did a bear see the camera and ate it. They collect these DNA samples to try and keep track of the different bears and the paths and miles they roam. A male bear roams about 40 square miles and knows almost every inch of it by memory. A female bear roams about 12 square miles by memory and knows where to hide her cubs.
Don is trying to locate the "collared bear" PC 1012. Admiralty Island only has 2 collared bears to date. There is quite a controversy over "to collar or not to collar" bears so that is why there are only 2 at this time.
One another island we found these gigantic clam shells. So you think you have eaten some big clams. Look at the size of these clams!
Beth and I ready to kayak to the next adventure. Our blue skirts kept us very dry. The life jacket was a bit big on my and while I rowed it would hike up past my chin. When I got tired I would stop paddling and rest my head on the jacket like a pillow. Sorry Ryan, you had to paddle solo so much.
Jenna, these are your crab pots for Dungenous crabs. Thought you would like to see them close up.
I decided to pose inside the big crab pots that the "Deadliest Catch" boats use. They are quite big.
On our bush wacking hike we found the remains of an eagle. The beak is as long as George's finger. It was pretty impressive to see almost all the bone in the correct anatomical setting.
Here is a cough ball from an eagle. You have heard of cat hair balls, well this is an eagle one.
This is a river otter condominin resort. There are tunnels with caves all over the side of this mountain where they live.
Doesn't this fungus look like a frog? It was about the size of a large softball.
And once again another nap after a full day of activity.
We had campfires nightly to learn a bit more about the wilderness vs a national park vs a forest. Don wanted to make sure our week together wasn't just fun and games. We had quizzes nightly. We talked him into letting us do teams. Teachers can be so persuasive. We learned from the best - our students!
We all took turns going to the cold refridgerator It was a lovely little damn in the fresh spring water flowing from the mountain.
Some of us were a bit creative during the nightly lessons.
This was the nightly sunset. It never got darker than dusk. But it was calming to watch the skies turn soft yellows and orange.
This is the Otter Float plane that picked us up. I got to sit in the co-pilot seat to help me from getting motion sick. It didn't work as well as I planned. Once the plane hit some turbulance and I mistakenly grabbed the pilots arm. Wrong move. He stared at me and then I asked "where are the throw up bags"
I made it to the landing lake with no further episodes. Yeh me!
Beth and I are getting into the ugly green Forest Ranger truck to take us back to our hotel. We were looking forward to a warm and sudsy shower. No showers on the island. I did take a dip and wash my hair two days in the freezing cold spring water. It was about 50 degrees so I didn't linger in the water but my hair was so apprecative for my generous gesture.
This is the load that was going to the ranger station. Do you see all that paper products? We had none of it.
One of our first treats back in town was an ice cream cone. Are these cones not the most cleaver you have ever seen. They tasted good too!
Then off to the closest bar to have a drink. It was nice being served instead of hiking to the water to grab beers out of the very cold spring water. The gentleman next to me was the entertainer for the Red Dog Saloon.
I am back in Memphis and it feels good to be with David and my friends.
David and I have been doing a bit of motorcycling on the days we are in town. We are heading to San Francisco tomorrow and then Gail comes for a visit and then Niki and Nettie arrive, yep Niki from Alaska is coming to Memphis. Then off to Knoxville to plan next year's Motor cycle trip around Europe with Poli and Bruce. A quick visit to Florida to be with mom and then back to Anchorage for my final year. I hope you enjoyed my adventures this year. I have been told more pictures. I hope this blog provided plenty of pictures.
Have a wonderful summer and remember, do what you love and love what you do because life is good.
Until August,
Sheryl the Nanuq of the North.
