Weeks 6 & 7

Here is a shot from the bottom line of a helicopter unit that I was working in.  You can kind of see a blue-green speck in the lower left quarter of the picture.  That speck is our work truck. 

While working in one of our units we realized that we were almost at the top of one of the mountains so during a break we climbed the rest of the way up and it looked out into a valley and Lindenburg Moutain.  This picture is looking at Lindenburg Mountain.  There is a radio repeater at the top but I was not able to get it to come into focus and it kept disappearing in the clouds. 

We have been having some incredibly nice weather lately.  Over the past few weeks we have had only one or two days of rain per work week.  Near the center of this photo you can see a sharp pointed mountain that is kind of being framed by clouds.  That mountain is Devil's Thumb.  It is on the US and Canadian border and stands a little over 9000 ft. 

With how wet the forest is here there is moss growing everywhere and even mushrooms growing out of the moss.

I had to go to the top of a mountain to measure a temporary road that will spur off the road in the picture and this muskeg was at the top.  It looks like a park with these small trees and plants around this small pool and the grass looked well taken care of.

This is another shot from the top of the mountain with the muskeg.  The water in the background is Duncan Canal. 

Like I said earlier, we have been having some great weather.  Devil's Thumb is visible again here.  It is the loner peak just left of the center. 

Here is a sea lion that hangs out at one of the public docks.  This thing is huge.  All day is just sits here and either eats herring that are swimming by or it waits for people to clean their catch and toss in the scraps.  I have seen up to three sea lions swimming around together in this spot at one time.  I was originally trying to take a video of this one so I was sitting on a bench just a few feet away from it and it was just floating there staring at me.  After about two or three minutes it swam away and I realized that I had never pressed record.  

Same sea lion, another angle.

There is lupine all over up here, all of it is purple unlike the variety that we have in Minnesota.

Near the airport there is a hiking trail called Raven's Roost that leads to a USFS cabin that can be rented out.  The trail is 4 miles long and ends at the top of a mountain that is 1,745 feet.  I hiked it with one other person and the trails here are slightly different than those at home.  There are a lot of boardwalks like this which can be nice but with how wet everything is and how shaded the forest floor is they were a little slick.  I ended up wearing my work boots since they have spiked bottoms.

Near the top of the mountain we came across some of remaining snow and ice.

Here is the cabin.  It has a table, oil heating stove, and a loft that can fit up to eight people, although I think that would have been a little tight.  There is a ladder on the far side of the cabin that leads to a hatch that goes directly into the loft and supposedly this is needed in winter because it may be the only way in. 

Here is the view out of the hatch in the loft. 

While we were sitting at the cabin the southbound jet came by.  It is coming from Juneau and stops in Petersburg before heading toward Seattle.  We found out the next day one of our supervisors was on this plane coming back from Idaho.

This is the view from the cabin looking northwest at Kupreanof Island, which is the island that I work on.  Petersburg is located on Mitkof Island.

This is another shot looking across the Wrangell Narrows at Kupreanof Island.  This shot is looking southwest. 

On the way back down from the cabin I realized that you can see town in the distance here.  It is in the center of the page between the trees.

This is another picture from the walk back down.  This is looking into Frederick Sound which lies northeast of town.  The two islands in the sound are the Sukoi Islands.  One a clear day there are a few glaciers that can be seen from up here and because of how some of the landscape is shaped it is possible to see into Thomas Bay.  I will hopefully get to do some work up there in a few weeks and while we are there we may get a chance to walk on a glacier that comes into the bay.

We see porcupines everyday at work.  Here is a small one that was running in front of our truck.  This one was funny to watch, it seemed confused about what to do and then it stepped into a puddle, stopped and looked at its foot and then tried to figure out a way around the puddle.

We see a bears every once and a while but usually they are running across the road pretty fast or in one instance it was running down the road in front of our truck.  This bear was pretty patient with me.  I had time to get out of the truck to grab my camera from my back in the back.  I took a few pictures while driving toward it and we were getting pretty close but when we hit the brakes the sound of the gravel spooked the bear and it ran off.  The day I saw this one I had also seen a lot of grouse, deer, porcupines, and even two wolves.  We hear wolves howling in the woods but it is really rare to actually see them.

I went fishing after work to catch herring for pickling but we had no luck catching what we were going for.  Actually, I have yet to catch something that i was actually trying to catch.  Here I am with a small halibut.  It is a very small one compared to what most people are catching but I cannot complain too much, at least I caught something.

Ketchikan

Sunrise in Petersburg from the ferry.  This is around 4 am.

Bear Claw Mountain, across the narrows from Petersburg.

The back deck of the ferry had a solarium.  It was open with these lounge chairs and heat lamps. 

 

This is the ferry we took to Ketchikan, the Matanuska.  This boat rammed a cannery in Petersburg a couple of months ago and while the boat was not damaged the cannery is not able to process fish this year.  The ferry ride south was almost 12 hours long.

Chief Johnson totem in Ketchikan.

Here is a creek running through part of Ketchikan.  There is a hatchery up this stream and it runs down into the harbor. 

This shot is looking the opposite way from the previous photo.  To the left is Creek Street.  Most if not all of these structures were brothels that operated as recently as the 1950s. 

This is the entrance to Saxman totem park.  Saxman is a native community south of Ketchikan.  We came down here to see a totem raising. 

One of the totems at the entrance to the park.

These folks are working on the totem that was going to be raised.  The ceremony was supposed to start at 1:30 but they were a little behind schedule.  There were people drying the paint with hair dryers to try speeding this along. 

Here is another totem that is just starting to be carved.

The guy here in the black sweatshirt is a local artist named Ray Troll.  He seems to be pretty popular around SE Alaska since most of his work revolves around fish.  His website is http://www.trollart.com

This is the clan house at Saxman.

Another totem at the park.  This tells the story of how Alaska got its three different types of bears, brown, black, and polar. 

This is the stage inside of the clan house.  During the winter there are talents shows put on here once a month or so. 

Back to the carving.  They are a lot closer to the finished product now. 

The man in the background with the silver hair is Nathan Jackson.  He is a very well known totem artist and while he was not the lead on this totem he supposedly designed an image on the lower part of the totem.

When the paint was finally dry they began getting everyone ready to carry the totem out.  Anyone was welcome to help out. 

The totem is almost in place now.  They are installing two raven poles at the entrance to the clan house.  They are just replacing some that have gotten a little old and worn.

This is Nathan Jackson again and the guy on the right with the glasses and the red beard is the one who was commissioned with the carving. 

This is supposedly the portion that Nathan Jackson designed.  The rest was by Donny Varnell.

This picture and the next one are from the solarium on the Columbia, which is the boat we took back north.  This boat started in Bellingham, WA and was destined for Juneau.  Anyone is allowed to put up a tent on the ferry and most of these people had been on the boat for two days already and had one more to go before they reached their destination.  My ride was only around 9 hours. 

Here is a bed and breakfast in Wrangell, AK.  Who wouldn't want to stay here?

This is either a house or a cabin in the distance.  It is really in the middle of nowhere.

This just a shot of the boat going through the Wrangell Narrows.  It can get pretty narrow at certain points.