On the Road

It was last in 1638 that a winter solstice coincided with a lunar eclipse. Last night, 372 years later, we are treated again to such a spectacle and with clear skies no less–also a rare event in these parts. Martina and I set up camera tripods on our dock and began taking one minute sequences of the moonrise over Devils Thumb beginning about 3:15pm. The above photo is with her camera–nothing more than the size of a deck of cards. Below is my D70 Nikon–a hurking 3 lb. monolith of glass but now thoroughly obsolete:

I bought this camera in 2005 for Antarctica and I have to say, it has performed very well. OK, back to Martina’s Canon for the rest of the show:

We’ve photoshopped these a bit by bumping up the contrast/brightness.

It was another six hours before the earth began moving between the sun and moon.

The atmosphere of the earth casts a beautiful orange tint over the moon’s surface during the one hour long totality; probably pollution. And speaking of pollution, I heat up a hot mug of eggnog laced with some Christmas Spirit and pull up a lounge chair at 10F–global warming of sorts–and spend the next hour watching this event….

So, it’s the shortest day of the year today and last night was the longest night. Our woods fill up with snow, birds are everywhere searching for food–we help out in this department. This is the view from our gazebo in the slough looking at our 35′ high water tower. Harry built this and the well under the tower entirely by hand so he could gravity feed water to the house–an elegant system. We’ve located our generator there to heat the building to keep pipes from freezing. Just behind this building is a 100′ high tree which will bear our new solar panels. They’ll sit nearly upright at 57 degrees, our latitude.

Martina has been elected to the City Council of Kupreanof, Alaska’s smallest city. Here, she and two other council members commute to our City Hall at 6 degrees F. She’s sitting in the middle with the day-glow survival suit. Fog lies over the narrows but it’s clear in Frederick Sound and the Coast Range to the NE.

Here I’m inspecting inspectors–guarding my coast as the Coast Guard fixes the alignment of the two southbound range markers. These markers (the other is out in the narrows and lower in perspective), also solar powered, align when a ship enters the center of the Narrows. This upper marker is about 100′ north of our property line.

All the birds have a tough time in winter–this eagle hangs around waiting for anything that drifts by, including our table scraps we put out on the beach every day. We find one dead eagle a year on our property–a statistic probably multiplied by the miles of coastline here in Alaska. The winter wrens flit around under our boardwalk and the juncos and sparrows feed at our window feeders (along with the deer). We’ve Niger seed out for the finches but no show yet. Robins still sift through the beach kelp–I’m surprised they’re still here. And ducks abound–millions of them–down from the Arctic Slope. We walk every day along our beach taking note of these small changes….

Four days ago, we find tracks of a wolf on our point but we heard one of our neighbors shot it–Palinesque game management…. Hopefully there are others in the area–they’re incredible to watch. See our earlier posts on wolves here, here and here. We do not allow hunting here in the City of Kupreanof however each property owner can shoot anything in season–a private hunting club of sorts. We don’t support this.

The above photo was taken December 27th after 16 inches of snow. What are these New Yorkers whining about? It’s about 10 in the morning and just getting light enough to shovel it–all 300 feet of boardwalk, dock, beach access and then there’s my neighbor’s walks while they’re out of town.

I’ve propped up the eaves–the fellow who built this house (and it’s very well built) provided 4′ eaves but they are cantilevered and red cedar–which is not very strong when the snow piles up. I’ll shovel the roof when it exceeds 2 feet and then it rains. As of today (December 27) our days are getting longer–by six minutes since the solstice. We’ve insulated the sauna with red cedar creating more steam–so you know where we’ll spend the winter…. Happy Holidays!

We continue our annual road trips by picking up our car in San Diego, then driving along the southern-most routes into Texas….except it’s about 114F in the Salton Sea/Indio California valleys so we head north into northern Arizona and camp at Prescott. I wouldn’t complain if this was Farenheit but this is Celsius!

So we drive northward to the Grand Canyon and experience a fabulous two days of lightening storms.

What an exhilarating experience to wake up to the huge canyon walls on each side of your campsight….

In Grand Canyon we correct our displays with updated posters and work eastward through the Hopi and Navajo Reservations stopping at the Hubble Trading post and also Ganado

and

This rug will fetch about $6000 when completed–this Navajo weaver has already spent about 4 months on this one and this does not count the making of the yarn.

Leaving Ganado, we stop by the Tomahawk Bar, but just for a photograph:

It’s on into New Mexico to Santa Fe where we set up a basecamp with a friend and then head back up to Bandelier National Monument. This is a very unique place for a many reasons; not the least, it’s completely designed and built by the CCC.

The Ancestral Puebloan (the current PC term replacing Anasazi) dwellings have decomposed leaving holes in the canyon walls–you can visualize the various levels of living areas complete with inlaid artwork on the back wall here:

Seven hundred years later, the CCC built a very elegant, functional and simple fireplace.

They made everything from furniture to the perforated tin lamps:

We stop for lunch here–delicious bread right out of the oven. They measure the temperature by throwning a corn husk–if it blackens, it’s probably over 400F. If it browns and holds some color, it’s 350F….just right. With butter and honey, of course!

Leaving Santa Fe, we meander through the rest of South Central New Mexico stopping for a look at the balloon festival in Albuquerque–this is the mass ascension. I heard there were over 400 balloons and about 100,000 people here and it’s 7am!

This is the Lady’s Club building in Carrizozo, NM also built by the CCC in 1939. The town is now a beautiful arts community with many restored buildings:

And….

We skip Roswell but visit White Sands National Monument, another CCC rich park:

Here Martina and I enjoy the sunset with fellow campers–note our cellophane ‘fireplace’ in the foreground….which didn’t deter this visitor who walked under our chairs moments later:

This is their mating season and they are everywhere. We close the window screens that evening and shake out the bedding before turning in.

A must stop….then….

….we cross into Texas and are greeted by this vista for miles and miles and miles…..

Albany Texas tries to recruit us to live there–here’s the gas station:

and we almost accept!

Arriving in Mineral Springs, we discover this old hotel which was built in 1899 and featured mineral baths. FDR visited here often. Today, it lies empty and in complete disrepair.

Well, it’s time to ride off into the sunset. Stay tuned….

Martina and I decide to go halibut fishing. Enroute to town we encounter the Chugach–the last of a fleet of US Forest Service boats. I tied up next to the Ranger IX for about 5 years when I lived on the Katahdin in Seattle. The Chugach still patrols the coast here and ties up about a mile from us….. but it’s time to catch some bait.

We’re after fresh herring for bait. We’re guests in our neighbor Tom’s boat and he’s the one to find these fish! Just look for gulls and other sport boats with the same idea….

Another favorite boat slips past–the St. Lazaria bound for the fishing grounds. After the Winimac sank 20 years ago, I looked at this for a replacement here in Alaska. Well, it’s still fishing under the guidance of Cap’t Thompson. This is a beautiful vessel!

We’ve now a bucket of herring so it’s off down the narrows to Round Island and the sea lion rookery….

After most of the day, we come home empty handed…..and at the cost of $200 for fuel! Not to give up when we can do it again the next day, but this time we drive north into Frederick Sound….

Here, in Frederick Sound, we’re baiting hooks–and placing the herring way down deep; so we secure the herring with ligature wire. Where Frederick Sound meets Stevens Passage near Cape Fanshaw is spectacular. I’ve always seen whales here where these waters converge and this is also where the halibut hang out on sea-mounts three hundred feet below….

and some tail action….

But, enough of whales. We’re after halibut….. and we don’t catch one here either. The sport fishing limit was lowered this year to one fish (guided–out of state fishery but not locals). So we motor to Thomas Bay (where our good government wants to build a dam) and put down some more bait. No sooner than we bounce off the bottom, a halibut strikes!

Tom rams a harpoon through the gill area and bleeds it while still in the water. A small, yet, tasty one!

Martina makes the best Thai curry halibut soup…..and thanks Thomas….this was really your fish. Some day I’ll get with the program and learn where these critters hang out.