In February it’s time to head back down to Palm Springs, pick up our trailer and drive south to San Diego for our annual APPL (Association of Partners for Public Lands) trade show where we preach the good deeds of the WPA-CCC artwork of our National Parks. We use our trailer as a prop. The centennial for the NPS is 2016 so we’re hustling to complete an image of each park by that time. We’re at #32 and here we are presenting our latest eight images. I built a cellophane fire that I could control (a la’ The Amazing Randi) with a rheostat when I fanned it with my fake ranger hat. Now that’s schtick! Shown are Brian, my artist computer guru, Martina and Sharlene in our outback monogrammed shirts. After all this hucksterism, I find a piano…..

I’m a sucker for a grand piano–I can play a little bit of everything but all of nothing. The only positive thing I can say for my playing is you get to hear a different piece every time I play the same work.

It’s then on to Hawaii for 11 days of relaxation despite three rip-offs: United Airlines, Thai Thai restaurant and Dollar Rent a Car:

1. United has totally lost it. They pulled our frequent flier miles when we flew to Antarctica 5 years ago and it took me three years of letter writing to get $1000 worth of replacement vouchers which paid for this trip. We flew a 767 with only two flight attendants and they couldn’t keep up with crowd so it was a long 5 1/2 hour trip. On the return, we flew a wide body 767 completely full with four attendants (two isles on this baby). We sat in seat 40 so were next to last seat and were offered the last stale turkey sandwich. Sensing the dry turkey, I took my dinner in liquid refreshments only to be told they were also out of wine. No such thing, I retort–go rob first class….which they did at a premium price. I rarely fly sober due to a perilous flight back from Vietnam which involved a missing engine, flaming wing, 12,000′ dive, a missing window and a seat partner with a missing leg. On my last trip to Hawaii, I sat next to a Sumo wrestler (honest) who took up two seats. On this flight, across the isle, was a 400 pounder who sucked his thumb the entire trip…you get the idea. If you pay extra for bags, why not for body fat…? And I’m not the only one with a gripe–check out United breaks guitars on You Tube.

Alaska now flies direct to Hawaii and I highly recommend them. The best pilots in of the lot.

2. We rented a car from Dollar Rent a Car. Have you ever gotten a straight answer about car rental prices? Me neither. We were initially told they had no cars, inquired on the internet purchasing a voucher for $236.55 for a 7 day compact car rental. Taking the voucher to Dollar, they gave us a car but the contract stated a lower price of $193.00 which included all taxes, etc. OK, lower is better. It also stated a $32/day extension if we wanted to keep the car another day or two but they told me to extend only if I was sure I needed it because there’s a $50 early return fee. OK, we call them on day 6 and want to extend one day–then realizing we rented at 10am and needed to check in at noon, what would an additional two hours cost. They told me $142.26 for the total cost of eight days, two hours….. Something’s fishy so I asked the attendant again, what the total price for the rental from Dollar and their agents would appear on my credit card bill; $142.26 again. This was neither the $64 I was expecting nor the $193 plus $64 nor the original voucher cost. Turns out my total cost was $378.81 which was the voucher plus the higher amount for the one day, two hours. So I called Dollar and had them explain the extension costs–here they are: Two day extension $64 (no hourly with them), $28.11 airport tax, $2.34 vehicle license, $11.81 excise tax, $6 road tax. Well this adds up to only $112.26–$30 less than their bill–but still no explanations. Plus these taxes are already covered by the initial $193.00 contract. Dollar states if you extend, it’s a separate contract and you have to pay all the taxes a second time…. Dollar Rent a Car are thieves so I’m lodging complaints with the BBB and Attorney General’s office. Boycott Dollar and United…..

3. Thai Thai Restaurant, Volcano Village, HI: Martina and I decide it’s time for Thai food and are told the food is worth the one hour wait. Again, understaffed we cannot get even a beer during that time. Finally we order dinner and when we ask for the medium hotness–the waiter, David, a self described ‘bad boy of Honolulu’ asks us if we’re sure–no we’re not so we lower it down a notch to Mild-Medium. After much semantic positioning, we finally get our point across we want to enjoy the meal and not raise blisters on our lips. Well, guess what. Blisters so bad I can’t even eat the rice and no water anywhere as the service is poor. Finally to ward off further injury to my mouth, I bring the bowl of soup to the front counter and ask for some water. David turns on me and starts yelling that I will have to pay for everything. I immediately decide dinner is over and offer to pay for the beers (even though we didn’t start on the second round) but they refuse. When Martina doesn’t follow me out, I go back in to find David pestering her and calling her a dumb-ass and that she didn’t listen–well, David, you didn’t listen. Naturally the restaurant by then was absolutely silent except for an occasional fart. We drop $20 off at the Chamber of Commerce the next morning and register our story with the local gendarmes. We highly recommend the Kiawa Kitchen there. We loved the pizza and had live Hawaiian music all night and the friendliest staff. Boycott Thai Thai, Dollar and United….enough of this rant.

On the road again, we drive down to where lava has obliterated the road and discover just how rapid the advance of lava is.

The entire south side of Hawaii is getting daily additions of lava with a new island building to the south. As the continental plate is dragged to the NW, new islands are punched upward and the older line of islands slowly sinks creating multiple island summits (Maui, Molokai, Oahu, and Kauai). Two places to visit in Hilo are the Pacific Tsunami Museum and the Lyman Museum. We learned a lot!

This is the south shore of Hawaii–the southernmost point in the US lies 40 miles distant. A good jeopardy question.

One more rant: Don’t you just hate these needless Handicapped parking spaces?…which are used by tubbies who can’t or won’t walk. OK, I’m a bigot but first you fly, then drive to this remote place and you’ve got to park near what?? There is no advantage to getting out of your car at one end of this parking lot over the other. A waste of taxpayer’s money in my opinion. Even REI has preferred parking–so tubbies can buy their climbing equipment with less effort?! I try to take up two, even three of these when I find them.

This is Akaka Falls–a state park and very beautiful–located just north of Hilo.

OK–vacation is over. Time to turn in the rental car, paying double, and board a United jet and be starved and insulted in the process….. We need more natural selection on this planet, handicapped parking should be relocated the farthest from the store and fliers should pay by the pound (we had to chip in another $14 for our single bag). Next time we’re taking a Tramp Steamer. Check out Martina’s version here.

We start with a drive across the North Cascades. I cut my teeth climbing these towers in the 1960s with Fred Beckey. We pushed a very nice route up the center of the South Early Winter Spire (left tower) over the summer of 1968.

The North Cascades highway was under construction that summer and Fred and I decided to climb a few of these classic faces before the hordes descended. Just before the road opened to the public in 1973, I skied this route from Western to Eastern Washington in a three day push across the last of this virgin wilderness. I forgot to pack my foodbag and subsisted the entire trip on about a dozen frozen hamburgers that I picked up at the last burger stand in Marblemount….but I digress….

Speaking of cold hamburgers, next stop is Chico Hotsprings enroute to the Yellowstone Plateau and Jackson Hole Wyoming.

In addition to it’s Olympic-sized naturally heated hot pool, this place has a Hamburg Steinway in the front lobby. After about twenty years of staying here, when I ask for the key, they hand me the one for the piano, not the room key. Boasting a 5 star wild game restaurant (try the Hutterite Duck or Elk Medallions) and a wine cellar that would make most Frenchmen weep, it’s a must-stay if you happen to drive between Livingston and Gardiner Montana.

On to Jackson Hole where we find a moose with her twin calves in our front yard. We’re there only three days hosting a Jenny Lake Ranger reunion commemorating one of the finest people I’ve known and worked with, Pete Hart who died of cancer last Christmas.

In the early 70’s only 7 of us worked on the mountain rescue team at the Jenny Lake Ranger Station; today the team numbers 25 with jet powered helicopters. We flew a Bell Turbocharged 280 (the glass bubble with an erector set tailpiece) with a ceiling of 11,000 feet on a good day; still 3000′ short of the tallest Teton summits. Here’s the team:

On to Southern Utah….the best kept secret when it comes to red rock. We are now hauling our Bambi behind our Toyota as we near Capitol Reef National Park in Torrey Utah. Decked out with Navaho Sandstone overlaying Kayenta Sandstone, white domes greet us with every turn of the road.

Downtown Torrey Utah….

A flute shop stop…. (say this three times fast)

In the center of Capitol Reef National Park winds the Fremont River which attracted ten Mormon families in the late 1800s and who occupied the town of Fruita until about 1960. You can still buy fresh baked pies (perfect for a campers breakfast!) just a short walk from the campground in the old cottonwood groves.

On to Bryce Canyon–we’re working our way south and ‘digging’ our way down through geology to the Grand Canyon below.

Bryce Canyon is the typical eroded uplift that practically dissolves in front of your eyes but it was 20F degrees with 40 mph winds so we move south to Zion in search of warmer hikes.

Zion is equally beautiful, especially to the geologist and rock climber. Great chasms of red rock and green slot canyons lure visitors. Here I’m walking out on a chained trail to Hidden Canyon–one of the park’s best hikes (time 2 hours)

We finally drive south past Lake Mead (dry, dusty and desolate) onto the salt flats of the Mojave Desert to Palm Springs. Enroute we encounter Amboy, now nearly abandoned on the old Route 66.

I wonder if our Bambi Airstream has ever been here before…. Even Palm Springs has some good hikes although after hearing of 120F temperatures, I began to doubt it. East about one hour’s drive through wonderfully kept irrigation farming, we wind our way up into the Mecca Hills to Ladder Canyon.

After a week in Palm Springs (where I attended a three day conference of the American Institute of Oral Biology), we fly north to Seattle, then Bellingham where we catch the Malaspina Ferry to Alaska.

It’s a stormy passage north as the November storms sweep into Queen Charlotte Sound and Dixon Entrance. Here an AML barge/Western Towboat combination works it’s way south with half of the containers obscured by a wave trough–note the 50′+ waves ahead of the barge–about 5 miles distant…. It’s a heck of a ride–all our household items were shipped on AML when we moved north, including the grand piano.

We’re back in Kupreanof now and have already shoveled a foot of snow. We will remember our last campground in Zion:

We had a great summer–nearly three months of sunny days with up to 80F temps. We’re long overdue for some R&R–here is Martina and her niece Alex (visiting from Munich) canoeing in our slough at high tide. Doug’s got that work ethic so he’s off building projects:

First, after delivering and schlepping 5000 board feet of lumber up the beach, I cut it up and finish the boardwalk–now totaling over 300′ in length and crowned by our gazebo in the saltchuck, where the canoe photo (above) was taken.

The diesel shed, begun two years ago is finally cleaned out, sealed and painted, then the upper structure framed in and skip-sheeted to match the woodshed. And a roof–what a concept. Now I can contain any oil spilled and recycle it.

Our greenhouse worked fantastic. Here we’re about mid-way through the summer. We must have harvested 500 tomatoes and they are still ripening. We also grew dozens of cucumbers and more lettuce than we could eat. Outside, we did fairly well except for beans. We’ll keep you posted on the harvest in the next blog

The guest house was the biggie. We began with new floor beams which allowed me to lengthen the porch to a full six feet. Next was a new roof, then we gutted, insulated and paneled the interior in yellow cedar with red cedar bunk beds. Add a nice bamboo floor and a spiffy (and expensive) Norwegian Jotul stove. Finally, we clad the exterior with waterproofing and shingles. We’re open for visitors….

Here’s the woodshed–finally full of dry wood and skip-sheeted to keep out the snow drifts. We extended the floor, raised the log splitter (it’s on the left), wired for electricity and tied it all together with the boardwalk. Whew! I’m getting tired just writing about it.

It’s time to climb Petersburg Mountain–shown here clouded with smoke from BC fires. It tops out about 3000′ above our house. We’ve been looking at this mountain for four years and it’s time to ‘knock the bastard off’ in the words of Sir Ed.

Our USFS crews have built a marvelous staircase up this thing–it’s about half done and you rarely touch ground.

The only problem I have with this trail is it destroyed the forest you walk through–here’s the clearcut. These trees are over 250 years old! That’s the Alaska mentality. If they’d cut the rest down, the view would be terrific…..

But we prefer to hike for our view–here’s Martina on the summit ridge–nice relief with the Baird and Patterson Glaciers across Frederick Sound looking north.

And here’s a 180 degree view (south) to Petersburg, airport and all. The Wrangell Narrows runs south to Sumner Strait about 30 miles distant separating Mitkof Island on the left and Kupreanof Island on the right. Here’s a close up showing our property:

You can faintly see three buoys #58, #56 and #54 (with a little boat southbound) just to the left of the tree-top. Our little point is to the right on Kupreanof Island–our dock is almost white in this telephoto.

Descending, we find lots of Chicken of the Woods (Sulfur Shelf) mushrooms–we carefully cut off about 1″ off the border allowing it to continue producing mushroom. We fry it up like you would chicken tenders and add it to pasta and season with garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese! Stay tuned….

Had to post this. This morning at 7:30am my neighbor rings and tells me a wolf is heading my way. I grab the camera, binoculars and rubber boots and run out to the point. This is the first wolf we’ve had since mid-winter.

And here’s the Lone Toad. It hopped through our garden yesterday northbound like the wolf. It’s a western toad and no one has seen one of these for years. Our nearest neighbor, Russ, saw one also–maybe the same one…..?

Ever want to take a time machine back 100 years? We got that privilege when our neighbors gave us three large photo albums full of the history of our homestead. Above is a photo that came with the house taken sometime during the 1920s showing only the net shed, boathouse and small cabin where our guest house is today. Fish and pelts are drying on racks to the left. All that remains today is the engine of the boat beached below the cabin.

Here is a photo of Frank Wyatt and the date 1960 written on the back. I’ve no clue who this person is–perhaps the former owner? This photo is taken standing where the current log house is. Early newspaper accounts state this is the ‘old Garner property’ and later the Franz Gaff Hook Factory. It was first cleared in 1927.

This is what the old house, woodshed and net shed looked like from a float 100 yards off our beach. This float is officially on the nautical charts and we use this feature to find our house in the winter in the fog using our GPS.

Remember our aerial fly-by (see prior post)? Here’s one taken perhaps in the 1960s. Note the extensive gardens and the dead yellow cedar trees interspersed in the forest. There are none 50 years later; perhaps logged off for fuel. We do have some cedar groves up near the borders of the muskeg but they are dying back fast–thought to be the result of less snow which normally preserves the root system in winter. Global warming??

Here’s Harry, the former owner, laying the first course of the cabin we currently live in. He built the sauna first–July 1967 is inscribed in the cement floor. Harry had the foresight to lay the first course of logs in yellow cedar to prevent rot. The logs today are still in perfect condition.

This photo is taken May 1969 showing both houses.

Here is the original woodshed. Harry put in new pilings on the dock/net shed from where this photo is taken. Our boardwalk follows this original path, instead of under the eave of the netshed which is a huge avalanche problem in the winter.

Getting close to finishing the logwork

The upper structure is nearly finished. This project took Harry and Emily 5 to 6 years to complete. Harry also built a 30′ water tower which stored water on the third level so it would gravity feed to the house. It still works although we’ve replumbed and pressurized the system for better flow

The house today.

We have friends over to see our garden–they read about it on our blog of course–and they suffer some serious garden envy but we have serious fish envy because they supply us with their fresh King Salmon catch.

It’s a very clear day–one of these spring days you spend all winter thinking about. They’re flying to Sitka this morning but no room for another passenger–only my camera. Here’s a photo of our house as they fly by. Note our skiff which hangs on a ‘clothesline’ like back-haul that we reel in when we need it.

Here you can see the saltchuck behind our house and also our garden and greenhouse just north of the house. The snow has just left our beach which is still brown but will green up very fast with the long days ahead.

Here’s an eastward view showing the creek behind our house. Animals parallel the shoreline and stumble into this cut–great for the wildlife and our wildlife viewing–we expect bears any day now. Their first order of business is to gorge themselves on sedge grass to clean out their system after hibernation.

Whoa! No sooner than I published this post, a black bear shows up–May 22 and stays all day–the first seen this season and a real piggy weighing in at over 300lbs. If I saw him in the lower 48, this would be a grizzly; his facial features, claws (at least 3-4″ here), shoulder hump resemble his larger cousins. Brown Bears (Grizzlies) are primarily on the ‘ABC’ islands (Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof) but they are seen here occasionally.

As my camera heads off to Sitka, it snaps one more photo towards the NE–our house is just beneath the lump of trees on the near shore. The muskeg in the foreground is our winter playground and ski touring center. Devils Thumb is a ‘blip’ seen straight ahead across Frederick Sound with Petersburg Mountain on the left. My camera will follow Petersburg or Coho Creeks west (left) over Duncan Canal and eventually across Chatham Strait.

Here’s my camera nearing Sitka. After crossing Chatham Strait, my camera flies across Baranof Island. Sitka is located on the west coast of Baranof with Mt. Edgecumbe in the distance embracing Sitka Sound. This is one beautiful place–we lived here for a year.

When my camera returns to Petersburg it snaps one more photo of our point; this time looking south down the Wrangell Narrows. All Alaska-bound inside passage traffic must pass through the Narrows which are about 25 miles long and span about 60 buoys or turns. Currents can run fast here on the big tides so you have to be careful crossing to town. Stay tuned….

It’s finally spring (anything seems like spring after Barrow) and we plant our garden. I build racks that fit into the window frame so I can play Chopin and watch the Celery grow (Broccoli and Beethoven?). It’s still below freezing at night so we start early. Martina went nuts in the Fairbanks garden center and bought about a million seeds–so we’ve our work cut out for us.

Here is where we started two years ago with an overgrown field; we bring in Reid Bros. Construction and their humongous excavator and begin to bury the old foundation reserving the soil to the surface:

Once it’s level, we’re ready to build a greenhouse–look at this beautiful black soil:

Our soil is very acidic and many areas of SE Alaska don’t have any soil at all. We live on a point formed by a huge drainage area which is fortunate for us. But wear gloves–it will take off your fingerprints and make it hard to play the Chopin….

Here I lay out the foundation for our greenhouse: 12′ X 24′ and about 9′ high. I use untreated yellow cedar 4″ X 6″ X 12′ beams double-stacked and spiked together in a rectangle. Inside this frame, I construct four equally sized raised beds using 2″ X 6″ X 12′ planks fastened with 4″ teflon coated fasteners. This whole process takes me less than a day.

So what’s the first thing that shows up? Deer of course–and we haven’t planted a thing! The deer fence is not complete and they know it so I hurriedly enclose the garden with herring seine from our local dump.

The frames are constructed flat on the ground, on top of each other for consistancy, with the same yellow cedar 2″ X 4″. I install them on 4′ centers which is the width of most panels (actually 48 1/4″ but you’ll need the extra width for the ends). I strengthen the elbows with plywood gussets using quick-drive fasteners. This whole phase took me less than a day–and it was pouring rain. Martina helped me upright the frames on the foundation and voila! we have a greenhouse frame. Here is the whole layout with the Bavarian garden on the left and the vegetable garden on the right–we’re ready…..

And here’s our first season but only with temporary plastic covering:

Our seasons are exquisite! Colors are rich and the the summer growing season, while short, has a lot of solar energy. The clear cladding for the greenhouse is ordered from Laird Plastics in Seattle but is drop-shipped from PolyGal who manufactures it. It’s an 8mm thick extruded plastic, UV protected double wall construction (triple wall is available) and can support my weight it’s so strong. The whole installation process took me just two days–using a battery powered driver. I put a 2″ eve over the vertical walls to divert rain out of these channels and into an internal sprinkler system storing the excess in barrels for dry times.

Total time–6 days and under $3000 and what a beauty! This photo was taken mid April and already it’s capable of storing 85F temps inside. Time to move in our starts during the day:

Got my shelves up, hooks for hanging plants, radio for tunes. What more do you need? Chopin!

We’re off to the cold North for the month of March–Brrrrrr! The temps dipped to -37F and we flew 13 separate flights from our home in Petersburg to Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Barrow, Point Lay (left on this map), Barrow, Nuiqsut, Deadhorse, Barter Island (Kaktovik–right on the map), Fairbanks, Seattle, Ketchikan and finally home. Mt. Redoubt threw a wrench in our flight plans forcing us all the way to Seattle before we could return north. Remember Barrow from or 2006 blog?…

We work for three days at Samuel Simmonds Hospital learning the ropes then head west to Point Lay; possibly the windiest place on earth. It’s nearly the equinox so the sun is rising and setting at opposites horizons and at this latitude, 71 North, it rises sideways. We choose a Cessna Caravan–the the aerial equivalent of a Toyota Landcruiser.

Point Lay is just a smudge on the horizon when we approach. Fortunately, the wind has subsided and we can see the town:

Sitting next to us on the plane is the preferred Beverage of the North–and our job security…. But this is just half the picture–one needs solid food too and here is the main diet:

This is one of several candy stores–usually run by village elders or perhaps the schools themselves. On our clinic walls are horrible pictures of meth-mouths but frankly, I do not see any difference between meth-mouth and candy-mouth. Drugs, whether alcohol, meth or candy, are a huge problem here in Alaska. There was one suicide during our North Slope stay and one fatal drug overdose in our town while we were gone.

Here’s the sunrise–the sun enters the picture at the closest telephone pole–then moves to the right. On March 20, everyone on the planet gets the same amount of sunlight. And this is what town looks like….about 9 months a year!

The population of Point Lay at this time of year is about 120 and typically half the population is 15 years old or younger. Much of the culture of the Eskimo people is fading fast with the language nearly gone. Yet, North Slopers are politically correct with Inupiat Braille signage in our clinic:

Forget about the Braille; I couldn’t find anyone who could pronounce it. Martina sets up our clinic.

Here is Martina of the North in front of the Native Store. On this sled is a case of Pepsi and the hind quarter of a caribou–it is towed by a snow machine. During our “Did Not Keep Appointments” or “DNKAs” we walk around town and take pictures:

Hanging out at the corner of Okpik and Takpuk….

It’s 25 F below zero!

Don’t forget to roll up your windows….

Right after our arrival, the wind picks up and no one goes outside–it’s blowing about 60-80 mph at temps -30F which adds up to a huge wind-chill. We are staying in the firehouse and have to walk across the street to the clinic. Due to the weather, no one shows up Sunday for our clinic; when the Eskimos stay inside, you know the weather’s bad.

Back in Barrow, we team up with a dog musher, Geoff Carroll, who runs a very smart team and even took it to the North Pole in 1986 with the Steger Expedition. They were the first to make it to the pole without airdrops or resupply.

I can’t resist temptation and take a ride out on the Chuckchi sea ice. Commands to dogs are “Kiita” which is Inupiat for Go, ‘Haw’ is Left, ‘Gee’ is Right and Whoa to stop–but the steel brake helps that command as dogs will take off with an empty sled. Another weekend diversion is visiting the Inupiut Heritage Center which is a must if you find yourself in Barrow.

These are the traditional whale hunting boats although today they’re made with better materials than driftwood and sinew.

Here’s the seal skin being scrapped, cut and sewn together…..now this is traditional, especially the smell. To make the skin waterproof, it is rolled up in fat, then buried in the ground to ferment for several months. Believe me, you will not forget this smell and it won’t forget you either.

Check out this stitchwork–these seams are sewn with braided caribou sinew which is strong and water tight.

Our last village is Kaktovik where we work 10 days straight. Kaktovik is located on Barter Island on the Beaufort Sea about 250 miles east of Barrow and only 90 miles from Canada. The Brooks Range is only 60 miles south. This is ANWR and everyone here has an opinion of it’s fate. About half the people in this town want oil drilling to occur and half don’t, which is the typical Alaska split on just about every subject.

Note the sea ice that has separated from the shoreline and blown offshore creating miles of open water. The ice has also thinned making tough going for Polar Bears. During our stay, a polar bear wanders into town–these are hungry bears and are attracted to human habitation much like the Yellowstone bears were drawn to garbage dumps. Also, Brown Bears are now competing with Polar Bears in this area. These are beautiful animals but people still kill them for rugs….

….which is exactly the fate of this bear four hours after we take this picture. It was shot from the back porch of a house in Kaktovik at 10:30pm and skinned for a rug. We would encourage people to write their representatives in congress to protect these animals from all humans. And if you believe in Karma, check out this article on CNN’s website posted 10 days later.

In Kaktovik, we meet Robert and Jane Thompson who run Kaktovik Arctic Adventues. They take people on guided trips into the Brooks Range through ANWR–and do it right. They have an 11 day float trip from the Brooks range to the Beaufort Sea.

The title of this blog Two in the Far North is also the title of a book by Margaret E. Murie. Here’s a photo of Mardy and Olaus in the Brooks Range painted by ‘Rusty’ Heurlin that hangs in the University of Fairbanks Museum:

No two people deserve more credit for protecting ANWR. Mardy and her husband Olaus, skied up the Porcupine and Sheenjek Rivers in the 1920s and did the early field biology of that area. Mardy was the first woman to graduate from the University of Alaska. She and Olaus both received the Audubon Medal; she from President Jimmy Carter and he from John Kennedy. I met Mardy when rangering at Grand Teton National Park in the early 1970s and stayed in touch with her until her death in 2003 at 101.

Visit Martina’s blog by clicking here.

They’re back! And this time we observe two wolves for about an hour and a half early Monday morning. They had taken down a small deer (to the right in this photo) and dragged it to the back of the saltchuck. We sat with our coffee cups and took about 60 photographs during our breakfast; here are the best:

Ravens competed with the wolves but kept their distance.

We noticed a definite A/B relationship to the wolves. We’re not sure if they were a mated pair or two males. We have observed dual tracks, one larger/one smaller, for several years now but have never able to photograph them together.

Here’s our best shot–mind you we’re sipping hot coffee right now–not a bad kitchen window view. This is our third time we’ve managed to get photos. These guys don’t mess around either, we went out for seconds today and there was nothing but fur and bones. Even the ravens and eagles had given up.

Here is a greatly contrasted photo of the tracks and an imprint of Martina’s hand. These are huge! Note the claw marks between the prints.

Here is the Kill Site where all the action took place–this would never meet OSHA standards. Our house is about 120 yards from here. We walked all over the property today and looked at other tracks. PS: The little bear (two blogs behind this one) was sighted about one mile south of us–still looking for compost piles. Stay tuned!

It’s been 6 years since we visited Mexico and it’s time to head south again. Using our Alaska Airlines $50 ‘twin ticket” we choose Zihuatenajo–a beautiful mini-version of Puerta Vallarta or Acapulco. The Mexican government decided to build a resort nearby at Ixtapa–which we have no interest in. We prefer staying south of town in the beach bungalows. Our first week is spent right in the middle of the photograph above.

Here we are at Bungalow Sotelo, run by Silvia Sotelo and built by her father. She is a great hostess, greets us by name, and gives us a tour of town with tips on how and where to shop. We’re right on the sand at Madera Beach which is a 5 minute walk to the downtown markets.

“Zihua” still has a four-to-five block square of old town small shops that cater to the Mexicans and tourists alike. Zihua also inlcudes a great fish market on the beach, a nice anthopological museum, and dozens of unique restaurants and bakeries and even a huge Costo-like supermarket full of Spanish, Mexican and Chilean wines. We meet an anthropologist at the museum who spends all day taking us around the town–she did her thesis on tourism here–what a resource this was for us!

First thing we do is properly stock our bungalow’s refrigerator–Cerveza, limon, fruga Pina, leche de coco, hielo (ice), Tequila, Gin–all the good stuff. And Silvia brings us a blender and a larger coffee maker–we’re settling in!

In case you get the wrong ideas, we do eat very well here–times have changed in Mexico and all the food we ate was excellent and very fresh–unlike Alaska. Here is breakfast. Note: the crema de leche de vaca is not what you think–we ended up with several tubs of it as we kept trying different brands–it’s sour cream and floats in big lumps in your coffee. So we stuck with milk–next time, if it’s OK with Homeland Securty and NAFTA, I’m going to bring some half-and-half down with me.

It’s a short walk, at 7am with purple skies, to the fish market to buy our daily fish. There are lots of Pelicans here–Mexican seagulls of sorts; it’s a hoot to watch them dive in the surf. Marlin is 80 pesos/kilo which calculates to under $3.50/lb. Sailfish is half that! Every night we eat the local catch with a good bottle of Chilean, Mexican or Spanish wine….and a Cohiba cigar. This is the good life!

Here is the fish market. Note what kind of outboard the Mexican fishermen use–they fish up to 25 miles offshore. Did I tell you my story about my Mercury outboard engine? Mercury, lemon, mercury, lemon, mercury, lemon….

This is a look at Madiera Beach–there are four major beaches at Zihua–Ixtapa is the northern large resort beach. Next is Playa Principal in front of the town. South along the 5 minute cement ‘paseo’ is Madera Beach–our beach and last, up over a rock point you will find the best beach–Playa de la Ropa. I’ve stayed there in the early eighties but this trip found it pretty crowded and built-out. We prefer the Madera beach now as it’s close to town is less crowded.

Did your mama ever tell you to watch out for open manholes? Mine didn’t and damned if I didn’t fall right into this one after dark. This thing is two feet deep with evil smelly stuff in it. I took a complete nose-dive and got all scratched up! Of course, I reported this to two local ‘policia’ who carry uzi’s or AK-47s but all week it remains uncovered…. The policia are keeping the drug cartels from taking over, our anthropologist explains to us. I’m not sure which is worse, drug cartels or this evil open manhole.

After my fall we stumble into a little church to pray for my health and we find this plastic Jesus–that wears a pie pan on his chest and has a horn sticking out of his head–no kidding! And it flashes with lights inside so you’ll donate money to save yourself that special place in heaven. After seeing this flashing Jesus, my spirits begin to pick up but I don’t give it any money.

Another great discovery about the beaches in Mexico is that they’re polluted and littered. This is not something unique to Mexico as Alaska has about 10 tons of garbage per mile–mostly plastic stuff like this. We spend about an hour cleaning up Manzanillo Beach where we went snorkelling one day–about four boxes full of plastic but I fear it will end up back in the ocean.

Another beach south of Zihua is Playa Blanca–which reminds me of Chu Lai Vietnam where I spent my 18th year. This beach has the same pollution but also a great little restaruant which is all by itself–”Vista Morros.” Here a Mexican gentleman is mixing us margueritas–this was a favorite of the anthropologist.

By the way, when I left Chu Lai a year later–the beach was littered with cigarette butts left by us. And that’s not all what we left behind. in 1990, I spent a month on Namorik Atoll in Micronesia and that beach (near the geographical center of the Pacific) also had about one piece of plastic per square yard. It’s time to clean up this planet….

After a week at Madera Beach, we move south about 30 miles to Barre de Potosi and stay with a wonderful couple, Annabella and Francois at Casa Frida. Annabella is an actress and Francois, her French husband, is off guiding a Mayan tour bus so we meet him only briefly. Their B&B is saturated with the art of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera; even the meals are her favorites. Everyone we meet here becomes instant friends. If you like Mexico–treat yourself to a stay here.

Annabella rescued a dog that was trapped for 5 days between two cement walls–it now lives at the Casa and is named Frida and is very perculiar. She jumps up and yips and runs all around the courtyard at odd times and her hind legs have a tremor. But she is very friendly and we like her. Our room is a second floor thatched roof affair and is clean as a whistle.

One of the best features of Casa Frida is the food–here Jorge and Maria cook fish on a traditional country kitchen during a luncheon. Every morning we start the day with fresh fruit, fresh squeezed juice, local coffee and coissants. If you order ahead, Annabella will cook you anything you like for dinner. Our second night, we have a wonderful Pesca Veracruzana (traditional Mexican/Spanish fish). It comes complete with historical context, relationship to Frida Kahlo, and good Chilean wine. Our last night dinner is a wonderful beef flanksteak-like dinner with roasted peppers/onion dressing. Wow!

One of the highlights of our trip was a kayak trip into the lagoon guided by Orlando whom I kept calling Ricardo for some reason. Orlando finds an emaciated turtle which was languishing in the lagoon. Because of the salinity and temperature, this turtle was in trouble. Orlando plops it on his kayak and we take it back to the ocean where after a good shell scrubbing (like the hull of our skiff here in Alaska), we release it.

This week goes fast and we hate to leave. We’ll miss all the people we met, the beaches, food, music and especially Casa Frida, Bungalo Sotelo and Frida the dog. I won’t miss the open manholes, though.