Alaska Amateur Wanderings and Thoughts

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Rediscovery of Winter

This has been one of the most strange falls that I have experienced up here in Alaska. Meaning that it is November and winter has just come to the Peninsula. Usually fall takes a few weeks to work to completion.

Some say "Good!" We could use a little less winter around here. I say thank goodness we have some snow. I fall into a bit of a rut during the Spring and Fall around here. I find I am not out exploring and that the weather proves to be rainy and boggy. I know it shouldn't keep me indoors, but it does. I do not like freezing rain, but frozen snow ok.

So these last few weeks we have had some snow and the weather has dipped below freezing. Most of our lakes are frozen over, and the cross country ski's are out.

This trip is from a Monday's labors on Seven Lakes Trail off Skilak Road. It is an easy trail, but the snow is not quite deep enough for snow shoes, and its too rocky for cross country skis (again perhaps not enough snow). Engineer lake is frozen, and that might afford some nice laps, if one was so inclined. I decided to mush to the half-way point on this trail- Hidden Lake's backside. One can continue on at an easy pace and connect to Kelly-Peterson Lakes on the other side of this trail where you could have access to the Sterling Highway. I was all by my lonesome (minus Yogi) so I turned around at Hidden Lake. From the Engineer Lake parking lot to Hidden Lake, you pass about 2.65 miles. The next time Im on this trail, I might cut off some time and ski along the banks of Engineer lake, and connect with the trail farther north. The trail itself is mild and soft. Only a small amount of elevation is gained. Its probably rated as an Easy hike for terrain and grade to Moderate for length if you make it all the way to the other lake systems. I am still wondering why they call this trail Seven Lakes Trail. I can count only 5. Kelly, Peterson, Hiker's Lake, Hidden, and Engineer. Thats a mystery.

Winter hath arrived

Hidden Lake partially Frozen

New circular lens polarizer seems to have worked well on this shot

The road to Hidden Lake's backside

Self Portrait

How did he get back?

I like the long shadows

Heading to climates untold

Frosty Yogi

Engineer Lake

Engineer Lake is completely frozen- it should be it was -14

Future Christmas Tree

This is what Seven Lakes Trail looks like in the winter

Trail head for Seven Lakes Trail

Dog wheel drive

Sled dogs in training on Skilak Road

Check that team out!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Cabbage Rolls

Ok, well I thought I would experiment with this blog site and write about these last few days off.

I am kind of beside myself, as I really just focused in on "mature" things to occupy my time. You know cleaning the house, cooking dinner, listening to folk music, PLANNING for another dinner. I really must be getting older and tamer. Rewind me back to when I was 24 and I had two days off and I guarantee you that I would not have a clue what I would be eating that second day. Furthermore, I had to have these cabbage rolls thought out and planned for for MORE than two days in advance. Reallly, the recipe calls for all that time!

So, I was stewing on those thoughts and actions, wondering if I should put some Ben Gay on a joint or two for prophylaxis when I decided to get the hell out of Dodge. I only get so many days off and why should I be cleaning and cooking when I could be rafting! So I conceived a solo run down Crescent Creek. I got my gear all packed up. I was ready to go. Time for some adventure come morning. Well morning arrived and with it rains. Sadly, I took off my rafting gloves and donned rubber cleaning ones...

I am kind of glad that I stopped myself. After the days toils were over and no adventure was had, I started thinking about day two of my R&R. Why not do the run tomorrow. I had a good forcast! So I decided thats what I was going to do, but I happened to do a search on that particular creek. I wanted to see what others had done on this trip. The account I read indicated a fun little jaunt, but they labeled the route "extremely dangerous and challenging" Nothing was going my way. I decided that a solo route would not be prudent, and begged off my rafting. Plan B was biking.

I headed off for the Russian River and a little bike trip. Pretty tame, but Yogi liked it, and I wasn't risking my life. Construction workers happened to be replacing culverts. I went to the falls where there still are salmon spawning and making their runs, and then I doubled back and headed up to Barber Cabin. This cabin has received a lot of work and its really nice. I intend to rent it this winter, and see what the area is like for cross country!

Sigh, I made it out in plenty of time to make my cabbage rolls and watch Discovery before my bedtime....

Friday, October 9, 2009

Black Mariahs and Prince Williams Sound

"We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds." Aristotle Onassis
"The only safe ship in a storm is leadership" Fay Wattleton

So this is the second strait year that I have been on a John Thies special with motor malfunctions. Second strait year that I journeyed out into the Prince William Sound in search of the elusive Black Tail deer. Second strait year no tasty freezer treats. I do feel like a bit of a black Mariah.

This years trip to PWS was on John's beautiful 28 ft. landing craft. He just got this vessel this Indian summer (if Alaska has Indian summers), and I was grateful at another shot at a hunting trip. I was prepared for the little suckers this time. I sighted the old 243 in. I had the water proof boots. I had the water proof slicks. Nothing could stop me from cutting through that wet Alaskan underbrush to get the good shot. Nothing except for an engine malfunction.

The day was Friday, and the weather in the sound was phenomenal. Mid 40's. Sun shining. Knight Passage was as flat as a kitchen table. We were getting in too late for hunting that day, but just in time to catch the tide for a try at some halibut or ling cod. We just settled in on on some nice hits, and John had just pulled a baby ling cod to the boat, when we decided to re-position. Or at least attempt to reposition.

John's boat suffered its first trial of its hopefully very successful life! Her main engine's wouldn't fire. After looking at the problem for a about an hour we attributed the problem to be electronic in nature. This shiny brand new diesel engine would turn over, but we didn't think that the computer was completing the communication process somewhere and they wouldn't light up. The new technology kind of left John bereft of immediate answers, and, of course my diesel skills could fit in tea cup. So we had to make an executive decision. Find a nice anchorage here on Knight Island, or get over to the other side of the sound were they maybe more traffic.

Since the weather was good, we decided to get across the passage. We would be really stuck out there on Knight island if the weather set in on us. At least Main Bay offered us higher boater traffic and there were even a few fishermen's cabins there that might have some insight on the problem. So Main Bay it was! We started off using the boats kicker engine, and we noticed some design flaws with the steering apparatus. The control lever required some tremendous pushing or pulling to initiate a turn, and when you did make the turn you would often overcorrect! Lets just say John was a little ticked off at Rogue Boats Inc..,

So with the steering impaired as it was John decided to disconnect the engineered steering system on the kicker. Using his best plays from MacGyver he engineered a new steering apparatus directly at the back of the boat using two Sierra Mist soda cans (full), two empty MGD cans (crushed), duck tape, and two oars. (check the picture out if you want a clearer idea of the arrangement!)

We eventually made Main Bay and our floating dock anchorage for the night. The time was 9:00PM and we were just finishing dinner and going over contingency plans for the following day. The first order of business was to look at the engine again and see if we could get it running. If that failed we'd get into radio range and phone Rogue's mechanic via satellite. If that didn't work, we would try to get a tow.

I had resigned to a long weekend of just getting back home, which was A.O.K in my book. Really, I had already crossed Knight Island, in the middle of Prince Williams Sound, using a kicker, on a beautiful Alaskan fall evening. What could I have been doing on a Friday night better? This situation was fine- merely testing in our capabilities! After dinner though, we noticed another light moving in on us from further out in the bay. A Bayliner had previous knowledge of our platform and wanted to dock here, as well, for the evening. We obliged them, and after he was secured we explained our situation. He respond back, "well, I'm a diesel mechanic" I almost fell over! I'd say that was pretty good luck.

John and Bryan (the other's boats mechanic) got the boat running the following morning, and decided that we could probably limp around these bays since we were already this far out in the sound. Why waste a trip, but John didn't want to go to much farther because the kicker engine (backup) was a serious pain in the butt right now. We headed off for Eshamy bay scouting for black bears. We were not having any luck, but we did stop by the Fish and Game cabin. The strange little building photographed is a sauna right over a creek bed. Very ingenuitive.

We didn't hang around this bay to long, the tide was getting right for fishing, but we were noticing the weather was severely decentralizing. The PWS gods were not with us on this trip! Waves were getting up passed the 4-6 ft. size, and I think there might have been a few 10 footers with rain. We high-tailed it back to our safe anchorage in Main Bay. The weather didn't stabilize until the next day.

So the evening passed uneventfully. The sound of the rain and wind just rattled off of John's boat, and when the morning came, we had better weather to contend with. The skies weren't clear, but the wind had subsided, so we started back to Whittier. We had some time to do a little more fishing, but obviously this was not the week for slamming the fish. We were successful in catching only a few Irish Lords and one dinky little halibut.