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By Ron Day, August 23, 2010 2:18 pm

Fishing in Prince William Sound

Last weekend Dr. James Martin and Cindi of Valley Chiropractic in Wasilla took their staff and a couple of lucky spouses (myself included) on a chartered fishing trip out of Whitter, Alaska.

And it was a wonderful weekend, too. Although it rained much of the time our spirits were never dampened. The 2-hour boat ride from the Whittier Harbor out to the fishing grounds on the charter boat ”Eye Of The Storm” was scenic and pleasant. None of us had gotten much sleep the previous night, but most stayed awake for the ride anyway. We fished hard all day long, caught many fish, laughed and visited with each other, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery that surrounded us. Returning to Whittier at the end of the day, about 8 p.m., we were a tired crew, but I think each of us felt very fortunate to have been able to spend time with each other in the magnificent outdoors of our home state, Alaska. 

I took many, many pictures, of course. Originally I had planned to write a little story about our trip and add a picture or two wherever they might fit in to the narrative. But, I ended up with too many pictures for that idea so I think I’m just going to post all of them, hoping the captions will give my readers some sort of an idea of our good times and adventures.

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Becky, Sherry, Cindi and I travelled to Whittier together in Cindi’s motor home. When we reached the entrance to the 2.5 mile long  tunnel which leads to the city of Whittier we found that a stalled vehicle inside the single lane tunnel was causing a  delay. As a result it was an additional two hours before we could reach our destination, We just sat inside of the motor home, listening to music, reading, or visiting.

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Chery spent the time reading, occasionally glancing out the window at the landscape, and at others who were also waiting for the tunnel to open.

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When at last we reached Whittier and got the motor home situated it was nearly dark. But we were still hungry so we walked to the Anchor Inn for a nice prime rib dinner. It was pretty tasty, too, but I later wished I’d eaten something a bit lighter since the heavy meal kept me awake much of the night.

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Dr. Martin and Cindi after our prime rib dinner at Whittier’s Anchor Inn.

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On our walk back to the motor home Cindi wanted to show me yet another tunnel, this one a pedestrian tunnel leading down towards the harbor underneath the railroad tracks, so she and I and Chery did a little exploring. While we were in the tunnel she received a phone call from other members of our party who had just arrived in Whittier and wanted to know where to find us.

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This street scene in Whittier show the commercial area of the small community, with fish processing plants and city buildings. The processing plants were still operating at this time of night, but the streets were pretty quiet nonetheless.

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This is Begich Tower. At 14 stories it is the tallest and most prominent building in Whitter. It is also home to nearly all of  Whittier’s 287 residents.

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Becky and Cindi during our walk back to the motor home after dinner. When we first arrived swarms of mosquitoes, made it nearly impossible to be outside, but by the time we left the restaurant the cooling temperature had driven the bugs away, making our short rather pleasant.

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The girls all wanted to watch a movie after dinner and settled comfortably on the couches. I was all for getting some sleep, myself, but I snapped this picture before climbing into my bunk. From left to right: Chery, Becky and Danielle.

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Morning came much too quickly, it seemed like. Before we knew it the 5:30 alarm went off and it was time to get up and go fishing, but not before a breakfast of scrambled eggs and waffles, prepared by Cindi. Here a sleepy eyed Danielle seems amazed that I would even think of taking her picture this early in the morning, while behind her Dr. Martin and Chery enjoy their hurried breakfast.

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More wide awake now, Sarah and Danielle load up the trunk of their car with supplies and gear we will take to the dock to load onto our charter boat. The rest of us will walk, taking the pedestrian tunnel under the train tracks.

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While waiting for our boat to be readied I took a stroll around the harbor and snapped this early morning scene. Prince William sound lies on the far side of the rock jetty in the distance.

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Now that Danielle is more wide awake, she becomes a willing subject for my camera lens. Here she replays a scene from the movie “Titanic” as we leave the Whittier harbor on our charter boat named”Eye Of The Storm”.

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As we travel further into Prince William Sound many of us gather in the aft section of the boat to enjoy the fresh air and beautiful Alaska scenery. Here Laurie smile for my camera as we pass near a small island.

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Bill, too, preferred fresh and scenery air to a nice warm cabin. He and his wife, Dawn, didn’t spend the night in Whitter, but instead  left very early in the morning to make the two hour drive from their home in Wasilla.

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Bill’s lovely wife Dawn, on the other hand, much preferred catching up on some sleep on our journey into Prince William Sound, finding a comfortable spot inside of the boat to rest her head and eyes for a while. 

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Sarah and Danielle, spent some time both inside of the boat, and outside of it. Danielle will deliver her baby, a son, in November.

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Sarah clowns with the camera as she warms up a little before going back outside to stand in the rain while watching the scenery pass by.

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It wasn’t really warm on our fishing trip, far from it, I guess, and we were all bundled up accordingly. But that didn’t stop us from having fun. Chery stands with the wind in her face and a row of halibut fishing rods at her back as we pass through yet more small islands in Prince William Sound.

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Danielle, after leaving the warmth of the cabin, enjoys some camaraderie and clowning around with Cindi.

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The waters of Prince William Sound were far from being with boats on Sunday but we did see a few others besides ours. Here a commercial fishing boat heads towards the small island in the distance. 

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Sarah enjoys fresh ocean breeze, giving one of her co-workers a nice smile as they converse on the rear deck of the Eye Of The Storm.

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This is Scott, our deck hand for the day. This isn’t Scott’s normal job. In real life he’s the Public Works Director for the city of Whittier. He was only helping out on Sunday because Captain Dave’s grandson, the usual deck hand, wanted a day off.

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Our normal rigging for Halibut fishing on Sunday. A colorful jig with a very large hook, two or three pounds of lead weight, a nice sized Herring, and a whole Squid. Not for the squeamish, I guess, but luckily none of our party was squeamish, not even the women.

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Jeff looks pretty serious as he fishes for halibut off the bow of the Eye Of The storm. Rain gear was the item of the day since it rained nearly the entire time we were on the water. And gloves, too, since it tended to be a bit chilly if the wind picked up.

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After Dawn awakened from her nap she became a bit troubled by motion sickness, but that only lasted a short while and before long she was outside, ready to take on the fish, the waves and the weather.

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My pretty wife Becky, still smiling even though she too was having some motion sickness issues. It turned out to be nothing real serious however,  and she ended up having a fun day right along with the rest of us. 

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Cindi fished from the back of the boat much of the time. Here she is trying to land a nice halibut with a light weight fishing rod. Try as she might though she couldn’t get the critter much closer than 40 feet from the surface. Eventually she asked Bill to remove the tip portion of the rod and was able to finally land the fish using only the butt portion.

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Becky took this picture of me as I reeled in my only halibut of the day, a small one. I caught several other species of fish, however. By the time I went to be on Sunday night my left shoulder pretty sore from reeling in line from 200 plus feet and jigging with 2 and three pound weights.

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Laurie had a heck of a time hooking a fish if she had a bite. No matter what she did it seemed the fish always threw the hook and stole her bait. Finally though, she did everything right and landed this nice yellow eye. Needless to say she was very excited about landing her first fish and you can see it in her eyes here.

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Dr. Martin jigs for halibut during a rain squall. He is a expert fisherman but on Sunday his main concern was for his staff and making sure they were all having fun even when weren’t catching fish.

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Cindi dangles her green fishing jig over the side of the boat for a few minutes as shes enjoys a lollipop. Now that I think back over yesterday’s events it seems to me that every time I looked at her she had one of the suckers in her hand or in her mouth. 

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Because the weather was looking a little bad, Captain Dave decided to stop at a small lodge to pick up a little more fuel for the boat. This unexpected delay turned out to be one of the highlights of our day. The lodge is located on an island with beautiful surroundings and lush green forest.

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Sarah and Dawn return from a tour of the lodge, which is in the process of being remodeled. Far below them Danielle, Cind and Jeff investigate a large school of pink salmon close by the shore line. Thousands of migrating fish come here every year to receive food as they travel towards their final destinations. 

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Laurie and Bill stand by as Dr. Martin  chats with the owner of the lodge.

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This old boat shed near the lodge was originally built in the mid-1800′s to as part of a nearby salmon cannery. In this photo a pink salmon leaps out of the water in its reflection. 

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Danielle, Cindi and Jeff enjoy viewing the large school of pink salmon gathered in the water near their feet. If you look closely you’ll be able to see the backs and fins of the salmon.

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Another view of Danielle, Cindi, and Jeff standing near the feeding salmon, whose fins are easier to see in this picture. Not only are there salmon here, but the lodge owner said there are six or seven black bears who come daily to the waters edge to catch salmon.

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 Danielle and Sarah in the stern of our boat for the day “The Eye Of The Storm. A very nice and comfortable boat powered by (3) three-hundred horsepower outboard motors. We were all very pleased with our charter and would recommend Eye Of  The Storm and Captain Dave to any of our friends.

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Dawn and Bill pose for a photo at the lodge just before we board the boat for just just a little more fishing before heading back to Whittier. In the background to the right is the old boathouse and fur further back is another lodge which I am not familiar with and, unfortunately, did not take the time to inquire about.

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Chery looks through a rain covered window of our boat while it’s tied to the dock at the lodge. Soon we will all board and our return trip to Whittier.

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As we departed I managed to get this one shot of the lodge and the beautiful forest covered hillside it sits on.

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Nearby the lodge sits this interesting old pier and dilapidated building. I’m assuming that these too were once a part of the Salmon Canning industry in Alaska.

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Before we made our final run back to Whittier we stopped once more to fish, and to give Dave and Scott time to fillet and bag our fish, some of which can be seen here as they lie in the fish box built into the deck.

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Almost finished, Captain Dave makes the finishing cuts on a rockfish before putting the fillet into a plastic bag. He and Scott made quick work of this messy job, leaving us only to place the bags on ice before we returned to Wasilla.

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Since Chery caught the biggest halibut she received the honor of having her picture taken with it. It was a bit heavier than she could lift so Scott was more than willing to help her out.

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When we reached Whittier we had only 18 minutes to make it back to the single lane tunnel for the 8 p.m. exit. While Cindi ran back to the campground to get the motor home the rest of us carried our gear and fish up from the boat, placing it beside the road so we could quickly load it up when Cindi arrived. As we waited Becky got a little chilly so Dr. Martin wrapped his raincoat over her shoulders to help keep her warm and they clowned around a bit while I took pictures. Cindi at last came into view and we quickly threw everything inside the motor home, driving quickly towards the tunnel entrance. We made it with  one minute and thirty-seven seconds to spare…an exciting end to and exciting and beautiful day.

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Here are a few links to subjects mentioned in the above  photo story:

Valley Chiropractic – Wasilla, Alaska

Whittier, Alaska

Whittier Tunnel

The Anchor Inn

Eye Of The Storm Charter Boat

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Please click here if you’d like to leave a comment about this story.

Comments (7)

By Ron Day, August 10, 2010 2:10 pm

A little war in my potato patch

A few days ago, as I was checking out my potato plants, I noticed that many of them were severely damaged. Leaves had been eaten away as well as stems. It honestly looked as though they had been raped and pillaged by a wandering band of vikings.

I was pretty upset. I’d grown those potato plants from seed spuds and I’d been kind of proud of how good they were doing out in my little garden. And now they were looking devastated and destroyed, almost lifeless.

When I told Becky about my problem she went right to Home Depot looking for a solution. The lady who helped her seemed to know exactly what was destroying my plants…and what to do about it.

“Thrips!” she said. Central Alaska has had an invasion of  Thirps this year and they’re hitting everyone who likes to grow things. She said to spray everything with soapy water and that should get rid of the Thirps.

Well, Becky brought home a bottle of Dawn dishwashing soap & I immediately mixed up a nice batch of soapy water then sprayed the dickens out of anything that was green and growing.

“There! That oughta take care of there there little Thirps!” I told Becky when I went back inside for the evening.

But the next morning, when I went outside, my potato plants looked even worse, even more or their leaves were missing…important parts, too.

“What the heck!” I muttered to myself.

So I hurried into my studio & looked up Thirps on the Internet. They were ornery little rascal OK.  And they sure could do damage to plants by the looks of the pictures I was looking at.

Trouble was, the damage they did just didn’t look anything like the damage being done to my plants.

Hmmmmm, something wasn’t right here.

I went back out to my garden, got down on my knees, and looked very, very closely at my potato plants, looking for the culprit who was eating them.

But I found nothing. I didn’t even see a spider. Not even a mosquito.

So this morning I got out of bed at 5 a.m., just before sunrise, & went out there with a little flashlight, thinking maybe the damage was being done at night, as I slept.

Bending over, peering at that little circle of light through sleepy eyes, I was startled by what I saw. 

It was one of those rare ”Ah Haa” moments for me.

“Ah Haa!” I shouted out.

Slugs!! All over my potatoe plants. Dozens, maybe hundred of them.

“You little buggers! I’ll fix you!” I said, running back to the house for a salt shaker.

I killed a lot of them in the next few minutes, but I was pretty  sure the war was far from over. I still had work to do and battle plans to make.

Putting first things first I spent the remainder of the morning weeding and cleaning up the garden, trying to make it less hospitable for slugs.

Now I have a really nice looking potato patch, if you don’t look to closely, & try to ignore the plants that have slug damage. But I think, if I was a slug, it wouldn’t look too inviting anymore. It’s too clean, with not enough places to hide out during the daylight hours.

I know I’ve not completely won the war against slugs, yet, and that more of them will come, continuing their attacks on my potatoes, but at least I know now who the enemy is and what he looks like, and I’ll be out in my garden early every morning from now on.

Salt shaker in hand. 

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This is what those stupid slugs did to my precious potato plants as I slept at night. Hopefully, now that I know what to fight against, new leaves will form to replace the damaged ones.

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My potato plants after I’d finished weeding and cleaning the area up. Well, almost finished. The lawn wasn’t quite mowed when I took this. The boards are there to fool slugs. They will suppose it is a safe place to hide during the day. But I will know better than them because I am smarter. I will just lift the boards and squash them!

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There was some encouragement for me as I fought the slug war this morning. I really got excited when I accidentally unearthed these beauties as I was weeding. Aren’t they purty, though! We’re gonna have potatoes yet. I just know it.

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Comments (2)

By Ron Day, August 8, 2010 7:43 am

A photo shoot with my grandsons

I knew the grand kids were spending Saturday night with us (all except Destiny who is feeling well), so I spent the day planning out a picture I wanted to take of Dalton and Brylan in my studio. I had a great pose in mind, one I thought would be easy for them to pull off together, and in my minds eye I could see it being a wonderful portrait of them, showing the wonderful brotherly love that they share with each other.

I had my light and background all set up by the time they arrived and I had already spent some time making sure my exposure was correct. Everything was well planned out, I thought.

But I forgot that boy will be boys and after I had them in my studio only a couple of minutes I realized that my vision of the perfect portrait was not to be.

Dalton understood my posing instructions fairly well, although he insisted on ad libbing the first few times I tried to adjust his position or posture, and his smile was purposely forced and exaggerated, but I could live with that because I felt I could control it long enough to get  just one good picture.

Brylan, on the other hand, seemed not to understand my instructions at all, and in fact would do just the opposite of what I said to him. If I asked him to turn his head and not his shoulders he moved his shoulders and not his head. When I said be happy and smile he scowled. If I told him to look at the camera he would look at Dalton.

It wasn’t long before I broke into a sweat. Finally, I gave up on my originally planned pose, deciding to just take the picture “Au Natural”, letting them just be boys, taking whatever I could get.

I still tried giving them advice and suggestions, of course, and sometimes they actually seemed to be trying to help me out, but mostly they did there own thing, causing me to be quick on the shutter release button. Luckily I’d decided to hand hold my camera and do away with my tripod for this session. It’s a good thing, too, because the action was fast. It was hard to keep them in my viewfinder even without a having the camera tethered to a tripod.

Brylan quickly became tired of the whole deal after only a few shots, I found myself promising him impossible things if only he’d let me take a few more pictures. That worked a couple of times but I finally realized our photo shoot was over and told him he could go back into the house and let grandma take off his new shirt before he got it dirty.

Well, he didn’t want to go back into the house & actually seemed hurt that grandpa was trying to get rid of him. so, I told him he could stay and asked if he wanted me to take another picture of him.

A big smile and a nodding head got him back under the lights and in front of the camera. That’s when I got the best picture, the one below.

It seemed to me that the simple photo shoot I’d planned took much longer than I’d expected and to tell the truth I was sweating profusely when we finally called it a wrap.

Actual real time?  Probably15 or twenty minutes, and I’d only taken 17 photographs, many of which were severely underexposed because the action was happening so rapidly that my flash didn’t have enough time to re-cycle between shots.

I finally sent the boys back into the house to change their clothes then wiped the sweat from my face with a towel.

Whew! That was actually a lot of work! 

I never did even come close to getting the shot I’d been planning all day long, either. Maybe another time.

And maybe not.

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This photo of Brylan (left) and Dalton, taken in my studio yesterday afternoon, made my efforts worthwhile. The boys were a lot of fun to work with even though their rambunctiousness made grandpa sweat a great deal during the photo session. But their smiles are contagious aren’t they? We’ll do it again someday.

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By Ron Day, July 30, 2010 2:38 pm

Becky tries some different gardening techniques

Becky is trying some unusual, or maybe just different, gardening techniques this year. Our garden last year was typical, we tilled up a block of ground, then poked some seeds and plants in it, hoping that something would grow. 

Well, something did. Weeds.

This year Becky had a other  ideas. Instead of planting vegetables directly into mother earth, as we did last year, she decided to use containers filled with potting soil…and bags of potting soil themselves.

To heck with real dirt and all the weeds that grow in it. We were going to bypass that step.

At first Becky was a little unsure of her idea.

I was downright skeptical.

But we went forward with it anyway. We planted seeds…we planted seedlings…and we planted plants. None it them in real Alaska dirt, but in potting soil we’d bought at Home Depot.

Every seed and every plant was planted in this manner.

(Well except for our potatoes, and that’s another little story that I’ll get to later.)

Potting soil. Hmmmm. That just didn’t sound right. It seemed too easy, too simple…too obvious. 

Nevertheless, it works, and it works good from what we’re seeing.

A couple of months into our experiment and we have loads of green, lush, healthy looking plants in our garden. There’s broccoli & cauliflower, turnips,cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and squash. Among other things.

Really, I’m just not sure what all we have growing out there. Becky has sort of been in charge of the whole project and I don’t know what all she’s planted. I just add water occasionally.

Except for the potatoes, I planted them in a little patch of ground out by my studio and they are my charge. They’re the only things in our entire line of vegetables that need weeding, and I’m delegated to be the responsible weeding  person. To actually get down on my knees and work in the dirt when nobody else has too.   

Hmmm. Does that sound fair?  I mean, does it?

Well anyway, we’re pretty happy with our little garden so far. We’ve even had couple of meals with fresh steamed vegetables, already.

Good stuff. And healthy to boot.

We’re hoping now that a moose doesn’t find our garden. It could happen pretty easily, we know. They pass through here quite regularly. Moose are something you have to live with if you live in Alaska. You can’t fight it… just live with it. 

And we’re ready to live with it should it happen.

But we’re kind of praying it won’t.

So if you’re thinking of planting a small garden but don’t have an extra half acre to plant it in, or if you think weeding a garden is too much work and takes too much time, try using bags of potting soil like Becky did. All you have to do is lay them flat on the ground in a sunny location, cut some slits in the bag with a sharp knife, insert the seeds or plants, then keep them watered.

Pretty simple when you think about it. But it sure seems to work for us.

Here’s a few pictures of our garden. 

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 This is our main garden area, located in a sunny little spot of our front yard. When we started the garden last spring all you could really see here was a few pots and several white bags of potting soil with slits in them. Now it looks beautiful.

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This head of cauliflower will be part of an evening meal sometime this week. Becky steams our fresh vegetables, melts some butter on them and serves them hot. Good, good eating.

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I don’t know, or can’t remember, everything that Becky planted in the garden, but whatever it is looks really healthy at this point.

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The best thing about container gardening is that the containers don’t need to be fancy. Becky bought a dozen of the little blue paper containers at Fred Meyer and they seem to be working  just fine so far.

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A very pretty broccoli plant with a nice bunch of broccoli just right for eating. I sure do like the healthy coloring of these plants.

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The cauliflower plants, too, are beautiful. In this picture you can see an example of the slits Becky cut into the bags of potting soil.

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This colorful cabbage plant is just beginning to mature. We’re hoping there is yet enough time to get a head of cabbage before the first freeze. We’re also hoping a moose doesn’t come along to partake of the goods. We’ve found that moose really enjoy eating young cabbage heads right from the plant. They do it in one dainty bite. 

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These are peas growing from seeds planted directly into a bag of potting soil. Look how healthy they are, and no weeds, either. Soon I’ll add some strings to give them something more to climb.

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This little garden is in another spot in our yard. Notice the old bathtub we used to plant our tomato plants in. They started out really slow and we were a little worried about them, but they’re looking pretty good now. Because Alaska’s growing season is so short we are forced to buy started tomato plants. They’re pretty expensive too, which causes Becky to yearn for her own little greenhouse so she can start her own plants. I probably need to be thinking about that little project.

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Finally, here’s my potatoes, planted in a little spot near my studio, and young raspberry plants, too. Initially I had a borrowed tiller to cultivate them, but I had to give it back. Now it looks like I’ll have to crawl around in the dirt for awhile to get rid of all that chickweed. There are forty potato plants here. I’m hoping for a dozen potatoes from each plant so we can share them with our children and grandchildren. 

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Comments (1)

By Ron Day, July 28, 2010 7:21 am

No rain for the moment – Hooray!

There was a break in the clouds for a while yesterday afternoon…I actually could see the sun…so I quickly decided to take advantage of it, making a quick drive into Hatcher Pass to look for interesting pictures.

I couldn’t get to the pretty little basin in Archangel Valley that I’d planned on hiking too because the two small streams I needed to cross were greatly swollen from all of the rain we’ve been having. Normally I could have easily hopped across boulders to cross the streams, but that was nearly impossible yesterday.

I managed, barely, to cross the first one but the second one looked a bit to “iffy” to me, as the boulders I needed to step on had two or three inches of swiftly flowing water running over them and were covered with slimy green moss to boot. I stood there looking for a while, contemplating my chances, but then common sense took over and I decided against taking a chance.

 In my younger days I suppose I would have hopped across that little stream without a second thought, but now that I’m  little older I find myself being more careful when I’m in the mountains by myself.

I suppose that’s a good thing…not quite as much fun…but a good thing nonetheless.

Anyway, seeing that my original plan wasn’t going to happen, I did the next best thing and simply walked the banks of the swollen streams looking for interesting pictures.

Lately I’ve been using a different lens for my nature and landscape photos. It’s an old 50mm manual focus lens manufactured by Nikon over 40-years ago. It’s certainly not as handy as a modern zoom lens, it takes quite a bit longer for me to set up for a photograph, and it causes me to be more deliberate and careful with each shot that I take. But I sure do like the pictures I get with it once I get it in focused and the exposure set properly.

If I do it right my pictures are amazingly sharp from corner to corner, with none of the frustrating distortion that I get with my more modern lenses. I’m really beginning to like that little lens and might even purchase another used one, maybe a beat up 24mm or 28mm. I like using old beat up pieces of equipment when I’m hiking in the mountains. They give me a sense of unbounded freedom. While using ugly equipment I’m much more likely to take photographs I’d otherwise pass up if I was using newer, and much more expensive, equipment.

I like that feeling very much.   

I enjoyed walking slowly along the stream banks, listening to the water cascading over boulders and small waterfalls while I took in the rugged mountains looming high above me. It sure felt good to be outside again, walking in the mountains by myself after so many days of staying at home, not doing much except working at the computer. The air smelled good,  and felt good against my skin, too.

Even the occasional mosquito was a welcomed diversion.

It just felt good to be somewhere that actually felt like Alaska again, to breathe fresh air and walk in wilderness.

There wasn’t a whole lot of obvious photographic opportunities. With everything being as green as it is it’s hard to find contrasting, or even interesting colors. But the rushing water helped me a little and I was able to bring back a few pictures that showed where I’d been and some of the things I’d seen in the few hours I spent up there in the mountains.

I was a little disappointed that I hadn’t been able to reach that little basin, because there is some pretty spectacular scenery up there if a person looks carefully enough. But it will be better in the autumn, when everything has turned gold and orange and yellow, so I’ll probably try again in a few weeks.

Maybe by then the rain will haved eased up a little bit this old guy will be able to cross those streams a bit more safely.

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Green willow’s against rushing water, and boulders accented with patches of colorful lichen. A simple, yet interesting, nature study. 

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This is where I chickened out and decided that I really didn’t need to go to the little basin where I’d planned to go. I could have probably made it across but I’m pretty sure I would have been wet afterwards…maybe very wet.

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I like this shot of a small waterfall with grasses and other vegetation growing on a stream side boulder.

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Another interesting view of water and green vegetation. Because the lens I’m using isn’t exactly a wide angle, and is even a bit of a telephoto, I’m learning to see things from further away. Otherwise I’m much too close and the viewfinder  has a tendency to fill up much too quickly.

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Although it looks like I’m standing in the middle of the stream to take this photo I’m really not. I took a chance and, while carrying my tripod, hopped a short distance from the bank onto a flat boulder a couple of feet away. Of course it was coated with wet green moss and I scared myself by slipping and nearly going bottoms up into the rushing water. I recovered nicely though and after taking this photograph was much more careful as I jumped back onto the bank.

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As I walked further downstream I came to the headwaters of the wide, much calmer pool of water, pictured above. I’d sat there for quite some time, enjoying the view, when this beaver appeared and began browsing for it’s evening meal along the shoreline. I quickly ducked down behind a boulder and switched to a telephoto lens to get this shot, along with several others.

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As I watched the beaver this young marmot appeared, also. It too was browsing on the lush green vegetation, occasionally quenching it’s thirst from the still waters of the large pool. I spent well over an hour hidden behind a boulder, watching these interesting mammals as they performed their daily rituals.

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Comments (1)

By Ron Day, July 20, 2010 8:51 am

To Much Rain For Me

OK…I’m pretty much done with rain. It’s been raining for a long time, now.

At first it was kind of nice. I enjoyed it because it made things smell nice and look fresh.

But now….I find myself wandering aimlessly around the house, looking out of the windows.

Feeling trapped and discouraged, slump shouldered, slack faced, slouched over, heavy legged, glaze eyed, foot draggy, dull minded, deep sighing, hopeless, grumpy, grouchy and crabby.

And I’ve developed a hundred-foot stare in a twenty-foot room.

That’s me. That’s how I’m beginning to describe myself nowadays.

I’m tellin’ you……I’ve had it with the rain.

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Rainy Day Pictures

Well, at least I’m still occasionally forcing myself to get out and take some pictures, even in the rain.

I wear rain gear and still get plenty wet…but I’m getting used to it. I don’t use my best camera equipment either, just my kick around things, old lenses and camera bodies that have still better days but still take good pictures. Stuff that has seen plenty of falls, trips, drops…and of course, rain.

The pictures below were all taken in the rain up in Hatcher Pass. I’ve posted all of them to my web page at Fine Art America in the hopes of selling one or two.

That would be nice.

Maybe a picture sale or two would help me have a better attitude about this dang rain. 

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A Summer Place

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Emerald Treasures

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Green And Wet

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Lichen And Boulders

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Peaceful Road

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Solid Rock Brook

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Wildflower Sampler

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Woodland Morning

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Alright, I feel better after posting those pictures.

I guess this IS Alaska after all. I should be used to the rainy summers by now, I’ve lived here for 24 or 25 years…or something like that.

Maybe I’ll just check outside to see what the weather’s like ’cause I’m getting the urge to go look for more pictures to take.

Hmmmm.

What a surprise.

It’s still raining.  

Comments (3)

By Ron Day, July 14, 2010 6:50 pm

A nice little hike in Hatcher Pass

Originally I’d planned a trip to Eureka to look for caribou on Wednesday morning, but the weather looked a little bleak when rolled out of bed so I decided to save that trip for another time. Instead I drove into Hatcher Pass to have a look around. I’m glad I did.

At the top of the pass, very near Summit Lake, is a trail leading up a steep hill to a little hideaway named April Bowl. Luckily the trail has muntiple switchbacks in it, easing the climb considerably. The hike into April Bowl is short, less than a half mile I’d say, but the trail is narrow and you will need to yield other hikers if they won’t yield to you.

April Bowl is a pretty place, with a small cirque lake in it along with two other smaller ponds. When I was there the early morning fog was dancing around on the distant mountain sides making for interesting photographs, but I think you could find some good photographic opportunities no matter the weather. There are also a few marmots hanging about and you’ll see them if you keep a sharp eye opened.

Since it was fairly early in the morning I had the place all to myself during  the hour or so that I explored it. I took a few dozen pictures but I wasn’t too happy with any of them, not happy enough to put them up for sale, anyway. I used a wide angle lens on most of them and just couldn’t get it to take sharp enough pictures for me. I was pretty frustrated with it and was wishing I’d stuck another lens on the camera instead of that one.

On the way back to my truck I met a group of hikers coming in and since they didn’t look like the wanted to step off of the trail I climbed up the hillside a little bit and let them pass.

I’m telling you…that trail is narrow.

Here are a few of the pictures I took in April Bowl. I guess they look good enough to post here.

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Two of the little lakes in April Bowl. There is another smaller lake behind these two, just over the small ridge with the strip of green leading to the right of it.

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There are many wildflowers in bloom at this time of the year at the top of Hatcher Pass. You’ll even find them growing out of boulders. I found these near a small stream in April Bowl.

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This is Summit Lake, a popular tourist destination, at the top of Hatcher Pass, taken from the April Bowl trail. In the distance is scenery on the Willow, Alaska side of Hatcher Pass.

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Another view of the larger lake in April Bowl. There is still some snow up there, but not much. 

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This is another view of the Willow side of Hatcher pass, taken from the April Bowl trail. I used a telephoto lens to take this shot.

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More pretty wildflowers line a dry stream bed leading from the smallest lake, nestled at the base of a rocky hillside.

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My favorite photo of the hike, Summit Lake with fog shrouded mountains and the road leading to Willow in the distance.

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A wide spot in the April Bowl trail. It was just beyond this point where I met a group of hikers and had to walk up the hillside to let them pass by.

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My old white pick-up waits for me at the parking area. This shot was taken a little more than halfway up the mountain. That’s the trail head leading through the tundra across the road from my pickup.

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Comments (0)

By Ron Day, July 13, 2010 6:06 am

Caribou

A patient told Becky yesterday that they saw 10.000 caribou in the hills near Eureka over the previous weekend. Eureka is located on the Glenn Highway about 90 miles north of Palmer, Alaska. Every year great bands of the Nelchina Caribou herd pass through the Eureka Hills on their way to summer feeding grounds. It is really quite an awesome spectacle if you happen along in the midst of it.

Yesterday my son Jay and his friend Chad rode an ATV on a trail near Eureka and last night he posted some of the pictures that he’d taken onto his Face Book page.

Now I’m really tempted to load up my four-wheeler and head up there for a day or two. I’d like to watch the caribou and take some pictures myself.

I’d also like to thank my son for letting me use some of his pictures here today.

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A healthy young bull Caribou, antlers still in velvet, trots through the brush.

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Jay’s friend Chad watches as a Caribou passes near him.

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Gathered at a small river, this band of Caribou pause for only a moment or two  to take a drink of the cool water.

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Two Caribou head over a rise…and into some beautiful country.

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This picture really makes me want to go to Eureka…now!    What a beautiful mountaintop vista.

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My trailer is finally ready to use again

After several days work…and more than a little sweat under this hot Alaska sun…plus some shed blood…I finally have my trailer ready to go. A bright new deck replacing the old, ugly rotten one that was on it, grease where there should be grease, and lights that do what they’re supposed to do…when they’re supposed to do it. Why shoot, it’s even got one of them yellow Alaska License plates now, a legal one and every thing.

Now I can haul my 4-wheeler if I want. Yay!

It’s still ugly though.

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Comments (0)

By Ron Day, July 12, 2010 7:01 am

It was pretty quiet here on the Alaska At Sunrise blog last week. Much of my time was spent taking care of Randy & Jenny’s American Bulldog, Mark, while they were on an 8-day camping trip several miles off the Glenn Highway near Eureka.

About the only thing I did, other than watch Mark was try to get my old and rusty ATV trailer back into usable condition once again. The wooden deck was completely rotted out so I removed the rotted stuff and replace it. I also spent considerable time stewing over the wiring and lights, which have never worked correctly since I bought the old trailer several years ago. I finally figured out the problem, which had to do with the ground wire of course. Now the lights are nice and bright and do what they are supposed to do when I ask them to do it.

Wonderful. Now I feel a little safer taking it out on the highway.

Jenny posted some pictures from their camping trip on her Face Book page so I took the liberty of lifting a few of them for my blog. I don’t think she’ll mind. Besides her and Randy and their five children, their friends Don and Pepper and their children were also present. From the pictures it looks as if they all had a very good time. I’m glad they make it a point to go on the trip each year. It’s become a family tradition that will always bring back fond memories to their children as they grow older.

*It was raining on the day they drove back into their camp, nine miles off the Glenn Highway on a muddy trail. Here Randy gives Don a pull out of a mud hole. 

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I don’t know for sure what’s going on here but it looks as if Brittany needed some encouragement. That’s Don & Pepper in the background.

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 Great pals they are, Dalton & Aunders at the river where they spent much of their time. (I hope I spelled your name correctly, Aunders)

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Ian, Dakota and Rusty at the river. This was Rusty’s first time in the big outdoors and he did just fine according to Jenny.

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A camp scene and it looks like we’re having S’mores. I love the facial expressions here. Randy looks like he’s anticipating the time he will need to spend at the river trying to get Brylan cleaned up after he’s done eating S’mores.

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Here’s Brylan biting into a huge marshmallow. This boy loves to eat.

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A nice picture of Jenny holding Destiny beside a campfire. Destiny is not quite one year old yet.

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Sitting inside of the “Swamp Buggy” ready to go exploring.

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Brittany being silly with a marshmallow in her mouth. In the background is the Alaska wilderness, not a building for miles and miles besides the small, abandoned cabin near their camp.

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Dakota and Ian enjoying icy cold water in a nearby river. Brrrr! It looks much too cold for me.

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Brylan sitting behind the wheel of Daddy’s Swamp Buggy. Someday he’ll be driving it, I bet…or maybe he’ll have one of his own to drive.

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Comments (4)

By Ron Day, July 4, 2010 3:13 pm

Happy  Fourth Of July 2010!

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A Big Parade In Wasilla

Wasilla celebrated the Fourth Of July with a big parade on Sunday morning, lasting nearly an hour and a half. Hundreds of people lined the mile long parade route along Herning and Swanson Avenues, cheering and applauding as floats, fire trucks and other entrants filed by.

The skies were cloudy but luckily there was no rain for this yearly event in Wasilla. I enjoyed watching the parade, as well as all of the spectator. Although I took over 200 pictures I’ve only posted a few of them here, just enough to show my readers how we celebrate the Fourth Of July in Wasilla, Alaska.

I love a parade. Don’t you?

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I hope all of you had a wonderful Fourth Of July.