Alaska

Alaska, August 2007

Aug 1-8 Berkeley, CA; Seattle, WA; Bainbridge Island, WA; Ketchikan, AK
Aug 9-11 Ketchikan, Misty Fjords, Metalatka, Petersburg, Le Conte Bay, Tracy Arms
Aug 12-13 Tracy Arms, Sawyer Glacier, Sitka, Neva and Olga Straits, Sturgis Narrows, Peril Straits
Aug 14-15 Glacier Bay, Skagway, Whitehorse Pass (Canada), Chilkat, Haines
Aug 16-17 Juneau, Mendenhall Glacier

Aug 18-19 Yakutat, Cordova, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Coldfoot, Barrow
Aug 20-21 Fairbanks, Anchorage
Aug 22-23 Anchorage, Denali, Backcountry Lodge
Aug 24-25 Denali, Anchorage
Aug 26-27 Anchorage, Turnagain Arm, Hope
Aug 28-29 Turnagain Arm, Seward, Kenai Peninsula boat ride
Aug 30-31 Seward, Anchorage, Seattle, WA, Berkeley, CA

Sunday, Day 12, 8/12/2007

I woke up and found my best chess set. It took me an hour. I watched a T.V. Show with Adrian. Next, I saw Twin Glacire. One kept breaking off. They were fabulous.. After that, I played a few card games with a group of kids.

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Tracy Arms, AK:

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Sawyer glacier, Tracy Arms, AK:

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"bergie bit" with birds

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"bergie bit" with birds

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AK: little dinghy in front of the glacier

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Arthur Luehrmann

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Sunday, 8/12/2007

We woke up while the Yorktown was at the entrance to Tracy Arms. As we went up the Sawyer channel we saw more and more small icebergs ("burgie bits" and "growlers") and then we came to the South Sawyer Glacier. We didn't get as close as we did with the Le Conte Glacier, but we still had some beautiful views of the calving glacier and its icebergs.

We also saw a beautiful white mountain goat! And we saw some harbor seals, lots of "bachelor" Steller sea lions, and lots and lots of icebergs.

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iceberg "bergie bit"

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Tracy Arms, AK: Natan & Arthur Luehrmann

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Tracy Arms, AK: ice bergs

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Tracy Arms, AK:

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Tracy Arms, AK: glacier & icebergs

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Sawyer Glacier at Tracy Arms, AK

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Tracy Arms, AK:

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Tracy Arms, AK:

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Tracy Arms, AK:

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Tracy Arms, AK: "bergie bit" with birds

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Tracy Arms, AK: group photo of the Spirit of Yorktown passengers -- Natan is on the left, and Arthur and Martha Luehrmann are 10th and 11th at the right on the lower deck

We also passed lots of waterfalls with thin white streams racing and falling down the steep cliffs. One of the waterfalls is called "Hole-In-The-Wall" because the falling water has gouged out a hole in the cliff face. Then the waterfall deposited a few small rocks in the small hole. The action of the waterfall caused the rocks to grind around and around the hole, smoothing and enlarging the hole until it is now an almost perfect big shallow circle.

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Tracy Arms, AK: Kai Lee and Natan Luehrmann at Hole-In-The-Wall

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Hole-In-The-Wall

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Tracy Arms, AK: Steller sea lions

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iceberg bit showing the crazing due to the release of pressure:

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Tracy Arms, AK: Steller sea lions

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Tracy Arms, AK:

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Tracy Arms, AK: Natan Luehrmann sidplays a wolfskin

Wildlife Watch:

pigeon guillemots, arctic terns, mountain goat, cliff swallows, harbor seals

Monday, Day 13, 8/13/2007

I woke up, and went kayaking by myself. It was so fun. I went in a double canoe with Nathan. We padled everywhere. We weren’t aloud to beach, but we circled lots and lots of islands. The ocean was rough. We had to tackle the waves. One boat wave crashed into us. A float plane buzzed over us. We tried to spash it, but missed, though it made Mike, the tour guide, start a water fight. Everyone got wet. It was so sunny and hot, that it actually felt nice. I found 3 crabs, 2 of which we picked u. The third one was a ft. long, so I couldn’t pick it up. Some King crabs are 5 ft. Imagine picking one of those up, or not relizing it on you and pinching you. I picked up some kelp and when I lifted it, there were a lot of Ice worms. I was really, really scared at first, but once Mike showed that there just fun to flick off, it was a blast. Flicking one off, so I flick another off, and some more. Soon I plucked every single one off. I was way too tired for everything exept cards, and a very long sleep righ after a resting long dinner.

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Sitka, AK:

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Sitka, AK: ocean kayaking: Natan Luehrmann and _ Devitt are in the kayak at left

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Natan Luehrmann is in red kayak

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Sitka, AK:

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Sitka, AK: ocean kayaking

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fish leaping from the water

Monday, Day 13, 8/12/2007

This morning we steamed through a narrow passage to Sitka. Natan went on a sea-kayak tour while Arthur and I went on a walking tour of historic Sitka, which was led by Jane.

Sitka was a town of Tlingit people with several Tlingit clans that battled each other for power. Then in came the Russians, the fur traders, who treated all the Tlingits and Haidas horribly. There were two major battles between the Tlingits and the Russians. In the second, the Russians bombarded the Tlingit fort for days without breaking into the fort. But then the Tlingits removed their ammunition and supplies at night and left the fort. The Russians burned it to the ground, and burned all the Tlingit village homes, and began their long rule of Alaska, using Sitka as their capitol.

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Sitka, AK:

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In 1857 the US bought Alaska from the Russians for $7.2 million ($200,000 was for the amount owed on the small Sitka lake.) The deal was termed Seward's Folly or Seward's Icebox, until gold was discovered in Alaska. after Alaska was sold to the US, most of the Russians pulled up stakes and left. Now the population is about 70% European background, about 30% Tlingit, and only about 1% Russian descent.

We went into the Russian Orthodox cathedral, walked through town and went to the Russian cemetery

We met Natan back at the boat. He LOVED his kayak trip! But he decided to stay on board while we took the tour of the Heritage Center in the afternoon. At the Heritage Center there was a wonderful totem park, and there were craftspeople at the center that we could watch. We also saw an eagle's nest with a nestling in it outside the center!

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Sitka, AK:

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Sitka, AK:

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Sitka, AK:

Back to the boat, and off through the Neva and Olga Straits, then the Sturgis narrows, and then the Peril Straits (where over 100 Tlingits died of shellfish poisoning at a feast.)

David gave us a talk about the plants of the region.

Early pioneers (plants that come earliest after the glaciers recede):

Methuselah's Beard

Sphagnum Moss: which were used by the Tlingits for disposable diapers

Conch-Bear Bread (like tree ears)

Early deciduous (plants that came a bit later)

Alder is a pioneer species because it can fix its own nitrogen. The cambium layer of the bark was used by the Tlingits to make a medicinal tea.

Willow leaves are great for vitamin C. The inner bark has a natural salycin (aspirin).

Cottonwood is used in pulp paper production

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Sitka, AK:

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Sitka, AK:

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Sitka, AK:

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Climax species

Cedar

Sitka Spruce has long, hard pointed sharp needles. The Tlingits used its roots to make baskets, and its wood, because it is very strong for its weight

Western Hemlock has short blunt needles, and is shade-tolerant

Berries:

huckleberry, blueberries, cloud berries, salad berries, elderberries, thimbleberries, watermelon berries, twisted stick berries, dwarf dogwood berries (bunchberries), deer berries, and the delicious salmon berry

Devil's Club has thorny leaves and stems. You really never want to touch it, as the thorns are slender and impossible to get out Its leaves were burned to get rid of bacteria. The inner bark is a good laxative. The roots were used for diabetes, and the stems and leaves made a tea that served as an aspirin

Yarrow: a poultice of yarrow was used to prevent wound infection. It was also rubbed on the body to cure baldness and to fend off mosquitoes. A yarrow tea was used as a hangover cure.

Cows Parsnip (wild celery) has big flat rafts of flowers. The stems were burned and rubbed on teeth to cure toothache.

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Sitka, AK:
The battle for Sitka between the Russians and the native tribes

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Sitka, AK:

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Water Hemlock is used for poison

Goat's Beard: The roots were boiled along with goat fat to cure smallpox

Horse-tail Rush has sectioned stems

Swordfern, Deer fern, licorice fern, maidenhair fern, lady fern: the fiddle-heads were eaten in the early spring, and juice from a rubbed fern was good on a nettle rash

Dandelion (Dent-de-Leon) was used as a diuretic

clovers were edible, and good blood thinners

Cinque-foil

Labrador tea

Indian paintbrush which is loved by Rufus Hummingbirds

Ranunculas and Monk's Hood were used to make harpoon needles poisonous

Arctic Cotton

Rose Root (which is not a rose, but the roots smell a little like roses)

Sitka Rose

Ox-Eye Daisy

Bleeding Heart

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Sitka, AK:

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Sitka, AK:

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Sitka, AK:

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Kodiak, AK: Russian Orthodox Church

Foxglove from which you can get digitalis for heart conditions

Forget-Me-Not (the state flower)

Fireweed: he Tlingits would mix fireweed with eulachon oil (the eulachon is like a small, very very oily herring) and let the combination get rancid. Then they would use the sauce as a salad dressing

Skunk Cabbage has huge leaves. The Tlingit shaman would roast the seedpods for hallucinating before a big hunt.

Grasses (which have hollow stems)

Sedges (which have triangular stems)

Rushes (which are round, but have solid, not hollow, centers)

Dana gave a talk on glacier Bay animals

Harbor seals, Steller Sea Lions, Sea Otters (which can be 5 feet long and weigh 100 pounds), black bears, brown bears (what we call a Grizzly Bear), Polar Bears, Grey Wolves, Moose, Mountain Goats, Eagles, Pelagic Cormorants, Common Murre, Pigeon Guillemot, Tufted Puffin Marbled Murrelet, Red-Necked Phalarops, Surf Scooter, Black Oyster Catcher, Arctic Tern, Gulls, Ravens, Crows, Rufous Hummingbird, Dall’s Porpoise, Harbor Porpoise, Orca

Wildlife Watch:

Bald Eagles, Ravens, Northwestern Crow, spawning Pink Salmon, Steller Sea Lions