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| 7 ft tall Fireweed!! |
...apparently this is a sad sight for Alaskans, as it means that as soon as that fireweed goes to seed, it's all a downhill race to the end of the summer, end of daylight hours, end of warm temperatures, etc...but for me?? Whoo-hoo! Peak wildflower season is finally here! Soon to be followed by berry season, and then beautiful fall colors on the Kenai Peninsula as the birch, aspen, willow, cottonwood, alder all turn to yellow gold and orange, and then finally that first fresh dusting of snow on the mountains! I can't wait! Although I am trying to enjoy the moment, day by day, flower by flower!
Well so much for weekly entries...it was wishful thinking :) How about monthly??
To catch up with July...the weather is still holding! And still no mosquitoes!? Too good to be true!
Been staying busy with work, making my weekly trips up to Denali, down to Seward, a night or 2 in Anchorage, and all around! Seems that my weeks alternate between 30 hours or 50 hours, so a nice average with great time off!
I was able to get out to our Kenai Fjord Glacier Lodge which requires a 4 hour boat ride out to Resurrection Bay. On the way out, we found a group of humpback whales, and this time they were bubblenet feeding! Which is rare for these resident whales, this behaviour had just recently been observed in Ailak Bay. Bubblenet feeding involves the whales circling around and around deep in the water while blowing bubbles creating a 'bubblenet'. Meanwhile another whale may be making noise to further confuse their school of herring. After the herring( for example) are all grouped together, the whales will come from underneath, mouths wide open (and I do mean wide!! Check out the pics! I had a hard time determining what I was looking at when I first looked at these!) and engulf the fish. Hard to photograph, but the seagulls are the photographers friends at this point...because they will be gathering at the water just before the whales come up! A few times thought I had my telephoto zoomed into the wrong spot and missed the whole thing with the camera! Learning to shoot marine life (that you can't see until it surfaces) from a rocking boat has been a whole new experience!
The lodge sits on Pederson Lagoon which is crawling with black bears, sea otters paddling by, eagles nesting, fur seals, and oh yeah, a view of a glacier from the lodge rocking chairs. Quite delightful. We did a quick kayak tour and jumped on the Intro Canoe tour with 12 other guests (in one canoe!)
A short ridge walk takes us up to a nice overlook of the lagoon, glacier, and ocean.
Also this month, I was able to squeeze in a ‘short little’ backpack! The 40 mile Resurrection Pass Trail from Hope to Cooper Landing, one of the more popular trails that offers very scenic glaciated valleys, waterfalls, rivers, wildflowers, etc. Our window of opportunity was limited, so we squeezed in the 40 miles into 2 ¼ days…but still had an evening to enjoy an amazing nature moment at Swan Lake where we watched a moose swim across the lake, mountain goats on the mountain behind us, an actual sunset, as the light played on the mountains and lake (first sunset in a long time) (11pmish), the same moose that swam across the lake came right thru our camp later that night…a loon calling in the distance, arctic terns flitting above…a pretty phenomenal evening! Well deserved after 19 miles with a full pack on!
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| Swan Lake |
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| Ressurrection Pass |
I am beginning to appreciate the ‘big town’ of
Ok, I promise to do better with entries!
Until then…
Lovin Alaska!
Your pics and writings are wonderful. Keep up the great work.
ReplyDeleteBettyM