A Short Bear Story

 "The life of man [in a state of nature] is solitary, nasty, brutish, and short.  ~  Thomas Hobbes

This will be a short story.  It happened yesterday after we got off the boat.  We met a nice couple from Wisconsin who talked about seeing Salmon still spawning in the Portage River at the Williwaw Fish Viewing Platform.  

This platform is on the way out of Whittier and Ann wanted to see the Salmon so we watched for the sign and pulled into the nice parking lot. 

The platform is a very short distance from the parking lot and sure enough, we looked down and saw  Salmon holding position in the stream right under the water.  There were a lot of them. 

 

This totally unprofessional video shows what we saw.

Right across the bank from the viewing platform was a grassy area that was all flattened out and had salmony fishy parts strewn all over it.  I took a picture....but I ain't posting it.  If you want to see fish parts that had been left behind by a sated bear, let me know. I'll email them.  

We also walked up a path under the road bridge and saw many more salmon and some dead whole salmon carcasses laying on the shore.  

We got back in the car and as we drove over the bridge to leave Ann looked right up the stream and yelled, "There's a bear!"  I looked quickly and saw a brown bear rump disappearing into the dense underbrush that lines the stream.  It was probably 50' or so from where we had just been standing around looking at dead fish like dumb tourists.  

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad / Geoff

Turnagain and the Glacier Cruise

Some more quick pictures and no real story.

We got up early this morning and drove up the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet.  Then we drove down the Portage Valley and through the Anton Anderson Tunnel to Whittier, AK to take a 5 hour glacier cruise.

As we left town we paralleled the railroad truck and passed the train taking people to Whittier for the same cruise.  We got far enough out in front to take this picture.

This was just slightly before sunrise and I'm happy the picture is a good as it is.

Further up the Turnagain, we passed the Bore Tide and found a place to get these videos of it.  This one is just before the bore tide passed.

 

And this one is the Bore Tide passing.

It was a rainy day and we had to wait for the 10:30 tunnel car open time.  When the tunnel opened we entered it here.

In Whittier, we got on this ship.

The cruise is long and we saw lot's of stuff despite the heavy rain all day long.  Here Ann is looking at 30 or so Steller Seals on Perry Island.  The Seals are in the light brown area at the far left of the picture.

Here is Ann enjoying the Surprise Glacier.

The glacier was actively calving and we saw several BIG stacks of ice fall into the fjord.  One significantly rocked the boat.  We were even lucky enough to see a big block of ice break loose from under the water (as deep as 300 feet) and come shooting up to the surface.  Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera out.

Here are Ann and I in front of Cascade Glacier.

The ship docked at 17:30 and we took the 18:00 tunnel back over to Girdwood.  We had a really great dinner at the Double Musky. 

We finished just before sunset and saw this nice vista near Bird Point. 

We are back in the Ilona's Bed & Breakfast and it's late.  It's beddy bye time.

I remain,

Dad / Geoff

North to Alaska

It's been a while.  This is going to be quick.  I'm not going to tell a story just show some pictures.  Remember you can click the pictures to make them bigger.

We finally found a good time for Ann to come up here to Alaska with  me.  I had two weeks off and a trip that starts next Fri the 13th....

We just got here Saturday and spend most of Sunday messing around downtown Anchorage at all the tourist trap stores and art galleries.

Today we drove up north along the Knick Arm of Cook Inlet and went up to the Eagle River Nature Center and a short hike.  Here's Ann.  There is a really fun little observation deck down on the river designed to see the Salmon swimming up.  It's past season.  No Salmon.

 

That's Eagle Peak in the background.

 After that we drove up to Eklutna Lake and hiked up the Twin Peaks trail.  We climbed about 700' above the lake and about 3 miles.  

Here I am on the trail up.  Bond Peak in the background.

Ann was enthralled by all the mushrooms that grow on Mother Nature's Forest Floor.  This was the best one.

Tomorrow we drive down to Whittier, Ak and take a the 26 Glacier Cruise.

On that happy note, I remain, 

Dad / Geoff

Ice

 "I rang for ice, but this is ridiculous." ~ John Jacob Astor, RMS Titanic

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

The xkcd website is one of my favorites.  He is a polymath science and mathematics guy who has a new cartoon each Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Here is the latest one.

The chart speaks for itself and I have nothing to add.  I have to assume that the thickness of the glaciers over my home was roughly the equivalent of the Chicago area. 

If you are interested, there is more here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacial_history_of_Minnesota

On that note, I remain,

Dad/Geoff

The Earth Day Snowstorms

The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind.  ~ Nigel Calder, 1975

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones, 

He was right!  On Apr 18th, I took this video out on my deck.

 

Four days later, on Earthday, Monday, Apr 22, all that snow had melted away - almost completely gone. The grass was greenish and the trees bare. 

It started snowing again last night.  Ann, Velvet and I had a nice walk in the snow.  We woke this morning to this.

Deck View

 

Velvet says, "Hi Five Reff!  I ruv row!" 

High Five!

 

On that note, I remain,

Dad / Geoff

Winner of the Sweet Sistine

     "Why is there anything?  Every religious, business, and governmental  question has the single derivative:  'Who will exercise the power?'  Alliances, combines, complexes, they all chase mirages unless they go for  the power.  All else is nonsense."   ~            Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

Our daughter, Katie - I could not be prouder of her - is studying this semester in Rome.  She called us this afternoon after the Vatican announced "Habemus Papem!"  I'd been thinking of her.  I knew that her dormitory and school adjunct was not far from the Vatican.

She said, "Dad, can you hear them?" and stuck her phone out the window.  Sure enough, I could hear the cheers.  Sounded just like the cable news shows.  Then before I could answer, I heard a girlish discussion in the background that ended in squeals and "Let's go!" and "Dad, we are going to see it!" and a click.

Later, I got this picture. 

Habemus Papem

Her short note attached said, "I never knew a 1 inch tall guy could be so cool."

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad / Geoff

Riding Sleds on Valentine's Day

 "Health, Money, and Love, and time to enjoy them."  ~ Anonymous toast

Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

It's been some time since that last time I posted.  Not because I haven't done anything worth writing about because I have.  I've just been lazy.  Here's to start trying to catch up.  Please remember that you can click on the blue links for more information and the pictures to make them larger.

Ann and I spent Valentine's Day at the cabin in Wisconsin riding the 'sleds'.    This is something that a decade ago, I'd have thought you'd lost your mind if you told me I'd look forward to doing. Certainly, it's not a traditional Valentine's Day activity.  We rode about 107 miles and spent just short of 6 hours in roughly 25° F weather.  Romance is where you find it....

We rode over into Minnesota's St Croix State Park - a park that welcomes sledders.

To get there we had to cross the St Croix River which is the boundary of Wisconsin and Minnesota.  The old railroad bridge has been converted to a snowmobile, bicycle, ATV bridge.  This is a picture of Ann on the 'Gandy Dancer' bridge looking north towards Danbury, Wi.  Note the open water on the east side of the river and the sled tracks on the west.   We did not go down on the river and I'm not sure that the riders who did were wise.....

Ann looks north on the Gandy Dance Bridge

 The park sits about 25 miles to the west of the cabin on the eastern border of MN.  Several big rivers flow through the Park.  The second biggest river is the Kettle River.   Here are pictures of me when we stopped to enjoy the Kettle River crossing.  The sign you see next to the trail certifies that the ice is 20" thick and safe to cross. 

Geoff on the Kettle River crossing

 Here's the sleds looking ready to cross.  This was the farthest west we went.  We just crossed the river to say we did and then turned around and came back. 
 

Skidoos waiting to cross Kettle River

That was Thursday.  We had a short ride on Friday and had to go back down home for a family event.  Now it is Saturday and something pretty interesting happened today.  In the frozen north the snowmobile trails are usually maintained by clubs.  The Lakes and Pines Club maintains a lot of the trails in the area of the cabin.  They also publish the trails maps using advertising money from the businesses that serve along the trails and user contributionss.

Today they had the 21st Annual Barrens Chicken BBQ and Money Raffle as a money raising event to support the groomers and trail maintainers.  Ann and I left home this morning and drove back up in time to have a tasty meal in the beautiful, clear 16° F weather.  I turned on my GPS tracker on my phone and this is the track over to the BBQ.

View 2013-02-16 @ 14-27-25.kmz in a larger map

Here is a picture of Ann and and I chowing down.

Mmm, good stuff

Note that at my left elbow in this picture is a TV in a box.  It was one of the prizes raffled off.  They convinced us to put $5 at risk.  We didn't win.

Ann, Sleds Lakes and Pines Barrens BBQ

Here is Ann right after we arrived.  Note the crowd around the clubhouse in the background.

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad / Geoff