Haines to Tok

Greetings from Tok, Alaska. I'm at a RV park that has free wireless so I thought I would do another post.

From Haines I took the Haines Highway over the Haines Summit. The road is very beautiful, especially as it passes through British Columbia. I went through the area a few years ago in the fall and it was really spectacular then. I'm going to try to come back this way again toward the end of August or early September to get some fall color shots.

Kluane National Park, in the Yukon, is another beautiful place along that road. I spent a night at a campground there on Kluane Lake. I got some nice photos the last time I was there and the sky looked like it could be interesting so I staked myself out along the shore.. God blessed me with calm water and beautiful skys so I took a ton of shots as the light and clouds changed. I didn't leave until the sun went at around midnight Yukon time.

I even got some rainbow shots.

I felt kind of funny standing in a ditch with all my camera gear as cars zipped, but I'm pretty happy with the results. The wind made it hard to get a nice sharp shot but kind of like it soft anyway.

Here's the first Grizzly of the trip.

And here's the first Moose.

This morning I plan to go to Tok Baptist Church. It's a little bitty church to go with this little bitty town. I won't have much choice for churches when I'm away from larger towns. That applies to most of Alaska, but I could find larger churches in the Anchorage area and near Fairbanks.

I'm heading for Anchorage next, and I plan to be there next Sunday. I need to be at the airport in Anchorage this Wednesday so I can get on a plane to St. Paul Island, one of the Pribolof Islands. Yes I've gone and spent another bundle of money. I went back and forth on this decision for a long time, but I finally bit the bullet a few days ago. I'm not going to pretend I'm comfortable with the decision. I'm suffering from buyers remorse. I'm already over budget for the trip, but I've wanted to go to the Pribolofs for a years. I guess it could mean going home earlier than expected but oh well... I can't get my money back now. I just hope I can make the most of it. I return to Anchorage on Friday and I should be able to update you this coming weekend. Take care till then.

Steve

Up to Alaska

Here I am in Alaska! I'm afraid I'll have to be quick about this post since I'm paying for my internet access. I'm told that this will be a common situation here in Alaska and I think it will be hard to find any internet access at times, so be prepared to wait longer between posts for a few weeks.


Here's the ship being loaded at Bellingham



A couple of antique car clubs got on here as well.




I didn't get a cabin so I stayed with the other campers out on the deck. I pitched my tent (second from the left) and a lot of people slept on these plastic lounge chairs or on the floor under this "solarium" or covered porch.




The weather was very nice as we set out and since the boat was big and the waves were small I don't know if I even needed the sea sickness patch I had. I'm still glad I had it though.




The first night was a bit windy but not bad. The second night it started to rain and it didn't really stop for the rest of the trip. By the third night all the tents were off the deck and everyone crowded under the solarium. Sadly though, the solarium had many leaks in it too. You had to be very careful about where you put your sleeping bag. There I was crowded in with a bunch of strangers. It made me think about what it must have been like in the Super Dome after Katrina.


Here's another self portrait. My tent is still right there behind me but I had it packed up soon after this. It seems like they could do a better job of waterproofing a tent.




This is the oldest lighthouse structure along the inside passage. There are older lighthouses but the others have been rebuilt at one time or another. this is still the original structure.




This spot is near Haines.




At a stop in the town of Wrangell there were some kids selling Wrangell Garnets that they had collected from a nearby hillside. The last owner of the hillside willed it to the children of Wrangell so they are the only ones that can collect and sell them. They aren't gem quality but they are kind of cool anyway.





We also stopped in the towns of Ketchikan, Petersburg, And Juneau before my stop in Haines.


It raines in haines. It has rained a lot since I've been here, but I managed to get this shot when the mountains could be seen all around the town. Usually you only see clouds.



The next day I decided to hop a ferry to Skagway. It's only 35 minutes away by fast ferry but it's around 360 miles away by road. It's also worlds different form Haines. It's a major destination for Cruise ships and there were four of them in port that day.




The streets were packed with people.


My goal there was to get some shots of Jewel Gardens for my friend Mike. It was a nice little garden and it was on the other side of town from the docks so the crowds were thinner.


Back in Haines I got this shot of the Rainbow Glacier with a waterfall from the melting Ice.




I also spent an hour or two standing on the shore of Chilkoot Lake. The breeze was blowing the mist around and it made for some interesting images. I thought about hanging around until the sky got some color to it but sunset is somewhere around 11:00 around here these days and sunrise is somewhere around 4:00 AM. A man has got to sleep sometime you know!

Now I'm getting ready to leave for the rest of Alaska. Civilization will be harder to come by for a while. Pray extra hard for my safety. you can also pray that I'll make wise decisions with my money since everything is expensive here. Gas is $3.80/gal. Take care till next time.

Steve

Boat to Boat

I'm at a book store in the quaint Fairhaven district of Bellingham, WA. From the window I can see the M/V Columbia that I'll be boarding in just a few hours. I'm hoping that my experience on this ship will be better than better than the one I had on the boat for my seabird tour last Saturday.

It was cold and windy that day and I was a little worried since I've had bouts with nausea on boats before. People told me that the waves were about as bad as any they had seen on one of these tours. The whole way out we had to go crashing into the waves and back down the other side of them only to crash into another one. I held out for an hour or so but I finally ended up feeding the fish. Yes, I leaned over the railing and "cast my breakfast upon the waters". I felt a bit better after that and a lot better after we stopped just past the continental shelf and then started back with the waves. The waves were smaller by then as well, and it had warmed up a bit.

I did add several lifers on the trip and I met a doctor from Spokane who helped set me up with a motion sickness patch for the ferry. Thanks Dr Roger! It will also help that the ferry is much bigger than the little birdwatching boat and I won't be going way out to sea like I did before. Your prayer will help too.

The waves also made it hard to do much photography on the way out. You had to hold on with one hand and shoot with the other. I didn't want get the camera wet in the spray either. I did get the camera out when we stopped, and I got a few shots. I wasn't much in the mood though, and I didn't get many.

Black-footed Albatross

Fork-tailed Storm-petrel

Sooty Shearwater

From there I went back to Mt. Rainier. This time I went to Sunrise on the northern side of the park. I got a few shots there but the light really wasn't that good a lot of the time. I did get a few shots though.

This is a lake in the North Cascades National Park. It's a nice park with some good hikes and some beautiful scenery but it just isn't "great". Not like Olympic NP or Rainier. To be fair, I didn't spend that much time there. You might need more time to appreciate the place.

Mt Baker is right next to North Cascades. I did spent a fair amount of time around there. A lot of that land is National Forest so I found some great free places to camp.

I found this Sapsucker at one of those campsites. Obviously this isn't a great shot but the bird is interesting. I think it's a hybrid between a Red-napped Sapsucker and a Red-breasted Sapsucker. You can get your fieldguides out and see what I mean.

I took this self portrait at one campsite in an effort to satisfy those of you who have been asking for a photo of myself.

This is the beautiful bathroom at that campsite.

This is what the sunset was like.

This is what the hike was like the next morning.

Here's another self portrait. There was snow there but the temperature was in the 90s.

It's about time for me to get going again. Check back in a week or so and I'll let you know how the ferry trip went. Take care.

Steve

Rainier to Olympus

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your comments and prayers. I've been trying to take it easy but I haven't been all that successful. There's just so much to do! To make matters worse I found out that I could get in on a seabird tour. I just had to sign up. It leaves from here, Westport, WA, tomorrow, Saturday, morning. So I'll have one less day to do other things. I guess that's not too bad.

In spite of the busy schedule, I did fit in some relaxation and I do feel better now. I think the bird trip will help too. And I really should be able to relax on the ferry to Alaska. I'm discovering that just a nice little conversation with someone can help a lot too. Hopefully I'll meet a lot of people on the upcoming boat trips.

I was at Mt Rainier in May a few years ago now and not that much has changed. It was good to see the mountain though. It was too cloudy to see it before. This time it rained the first day and then it cleared right up.

The park also has it's fair share of beautiful waterfalls and rivers. This waterfall is called Comet Falls. It takes two miles of steep hiking to get there and It rained a lot along the way but it was worth it.

Near the Paradise Visitor Center I met this family of Foxes. They were very used to people. I'm sure some people have been feeding them. In fact I saw signs warning people not to feed the foxes.

I spent Saturday night in another Walmart parking lot. I don't have to do that much anymore and I'd be glad not to do it at all, but in this case all the nearby campgrounds were full and Walmart was my only good option. I also haven't stayed in a motel for a long time. I decided it would be a good money saving move.

My church choices were strangely limited. I asked at a christian bookstore and a lady told me that that area was one of the most unchurched in the country. I have no idea why. Anyway, I ended up at Evergreen Church which, as it turns out, is an Assemblies of God church. I was a little nervous about it since I'm not used to their style of worship. But, aside from one woman dancing in the isles and a little more background "noise" during the prayers, it was fine.

From there I headed for Olympia National Park. What a great place! It has mountains, rain forests, and seashore. I started on the coast and worked my way north. And surprisingly I never had trouble finding a campsite in the area. Thanks for the prayers on that.

A lot of the beaches have these piles of logs. They get washed down stream, when they get a lot of rain, and then they end up piled in these heaps near the high water mark.

At low tide you can find some great tide pools.

I found that I was able to have the beaches to myself from sunrise to about 8:00 AM. After that I had to deal with the vacationing hoard. You might not be able to make them out very well in this shot but they are all over. I would finally have to give up on getting a shot with no people in it.

As you can see I even resorted to taking some people pictures. She didn't know I was there so it was really like wildlife photography. Her dad saw me taking the pictures and asked me to email some to him.

At the Northwest most corner of the lower 48 states is Cape Flattery. It's actually on an Indian reservation but you can visit it for a small fee. If you get out that way don't miss this spot! It takes a half mile hike to get out to it but it's well worth it. I actually did it three times. I got this shot on my second trip as the sun was going down.

The next morning was wonderfully foggy. I have dozens of shots that I could have posted here but I thought it best to show some restraint.

At one point all the gulls flew off and this eagle came out of the fog. It just kept moving and the gulls came right back.

I also added two lifers at the cape, Tufted Puffins and Heermans Gull. I expected to find the Puffins, but the gulls came as a surprise. I think I'm on the extreme northern edge of their range here.

The viewing area at the cape is pretty small and it got a fair number of visitors. It wasn't bad though since they can't really get into your shot. In situations like this the ranger/naturalist in me tends to come out. I started pointing out birds and things, and pretty soon people are asking me questions, just like that's what I was there for. I actually enjoyed it. It really helped my mood.

From there I went to Hurricane Ridge up in the mountains.

I found it quite easy to find Mountain Goats here. Surprisingly though they are not native to this area. someone brought them in in the 1920s. Now they're trying to get rid of them because of the damage they can do.

This bear, number 21, turned up along the road. I talked to a ranger about it and she was surprised to hear that it didn't have a cub with it. It looks like mother finally sent her cub off on it's own.

Since I'll be out on the water all day tomorrow I have to take care of some of my Saturday things today. I've got my blog updated and I'm now off to do my laundry. Yippee! I'll have to take care of some relaxation while the wash is going. OK so maybe that isn't quality relaxation. Anyway... take care and keep praying. I'll try to get in one more post before I get on the ferry but I might not get to it until I get to Alaska. Take care.

Steve