Biggest Caribou We Ever Did See (Aug. 28, 2011)

As we were crossing the flats this evening on our way home from town we saw 4 caribou close to the road, about 40 yards away. Two of them were the biggest caribou we have seen since moving up here. The other 2 were young ones; one probably born this year and the other probably the year before. One of the big ones had a double shovel, which is not very common. Caribou have three tiers of antlers: top, middle, and bottom. The bottom tier is the shovel, most full grown caribou only have one. Both of the larger caribou had 4 points on each side of their top tier. The one with the double shovel had 3 points on each side of it middle tier. It also had a nice thick white chest. An interesting fact about caribou: they are the only member of the deer family in which both males and females have antlers. This makes it much more difficult to tell them apart.

Alaska State Fair (Aug. 27, 2011)

We drove up to Palmer yesterday, which is about 40 minutes north of Anchorage to attend the 75th annual Alaska State Fair. It's a bit of a drive, so we camped out in our vehicle Friday night to be there when the fair opened at 10AM on Saturday. The Alaska State Fair is a little bigger than what you would picture a Minnesota county fair to be. There were 4 different streets full of food vendors, shops, rides, and games. There is only one building to house all of their farm exhibits. Although small, we did enjoy our first Alaska State Fair experience. The food was very much fair food like any other fair with the addition of some Alaskan food vendors serving seafood, reindeer, and bison. We saw the famous large vegetables of the Mat-Su Valley. Quick growing vegetables, like cabbage, do very well up here due to their short growing season and the amount of sunlight Alaska has in the summer. The 1st place pumpkin weighed 859 pounds and the 1st place kohlrabi was bigger than my head.

After the fair we seeked out an ice cream shop that I learned about in a magazine called Rochelle's Ice Cream Stop. It's not too often that I see places with my name on it, so we had to stop. They had a unique Alaskan flavored ice cream called Fireweed and Honey so I had to give it a try. It was very good. Apparently you can do a lot with fireweed, like making jellies and jams.

Landscapes of Denali (Aug. 9-12, 2011)

Denali: Wildlife Pictures (Aug. 9-12, 2011)

wolf
grizzly bear track
ground squirrel
grizzly bear
lynx

Denali Paleontology Class (Aug. 9-12, 2011)

seed pod fossil
wading bird footprint fossil
theropod footprint fossil
hadrosaur footprint fossil
dinosaur skin fossil
On Tuesday, Aug. 9, I headed up to Denali National Park for a class that was almost completely funded through a grant that I applied for last November. It was a paleontology class. I was very excited about it because it has been quite recent that dinosaur fossils have been popping up in Denali, the first being found in the summer of 2005. We found three different types of dino footprints: a theropod, a hadrosaur, and a ceratopsian. We also found the footprints of some large wading bird. The bird print was identified as a newly discovered species and given the name denaliensis in honor of the national park it was found in. We also found many different types of plant fossils: equisetum (horsetail), wood, leaves, flowers, pine cones, pine needles, and seed pods.

Although I was taking a class on paleontology, I was able to take in the beautiful landscapes of Denali National Park as well as its wildlife. Wildlife I saw: cow moose, 11 grizzly bears (most at different times and locations), ground squirrels, pikka, dall sheep, lynx, caribou, and wolf.

Another Visit: Seldovia (Aug. 1-9, 2011)

Some things we did while Mom, Dad and Stephanie were here:
Visited Homer and ate great food
Went wine tasting at Bear Creek Winery
Took the Ferry to Seldovia for a visit
Viewed lots of wild animals
Took a day and visited Seward and Exit Glacier
Relaxed
Ate Scallops
Went Fishing in the river
Ate Dungeness Crag
Clamming in Ninilchik

Another Visit: Moose and Caribou (Aug. 1-9, 2011)

Another Visit: Clamming and Fishing (Aug. 1-9, 2011)

Another Visit: Homer and Exit Glacier (Aug. 1-9, 2011)

Commercial Fishing- Jon's Set Net Site (Aug. 1, 2011)

The commercial Set Net season started July 11th and ended the 7th of August for the area I was working in. During the season there are only certain days that are allocated to be open for fishermen to commercial fish. The larger the red salmon run is the more days we get to fish. There are a lot of politics that go into the fishing season and can effect the when you are able to fish. The crew I worked on had a good season and worked hard. Every morning that fishing was open I was in a boat with Cullen, who drove the boat, and the minute the fishing period opened we tried to set out our nets as fast as possible to start catching fish. Then on each low and high tide until the fishing period ended we would go out and pull down each net and pick the salmon that were ini the nets. Before the fishing period ended we then had to pull our nets back into the boat and either get ready for the next day get the nets ready to be pulled out of the boats so they could be mended. Enjoy the pictures.