Sun and Ice

I went out again this weekend, and wandered down the south beach. The picture of the ice shows the thickness of the ice at the mouth of the river and the cracks that are caused by the tension of the constantly moving water beneth. A little scary the first couple of times you walk on it, but you get used to it. . . especially after you see full size trucks driving on it! (just a nerdy FYI - about 9" of ice can hold 2 tons. . . so you figure the ice here is maybe a foot thick. . . I'm sure the dogs and I are just fine! :)

























The goal was to get to the base of the Nulato Hills. . . but mother nature beat me again. She moved them farther way than they were last weekend :) I walked close to 2 hours (expecting that it was going to take me twice as long as last weekend). . . but they were STILL far, far away :) Next weekend, I'll take along some water, snacks and start a little earlier. . . I will make it down there yet :) Bill suggested that I camp out and make it a two day venture. . . I'm thinking about it. But the wind is mighty fierce out there in the open flats, and the temps at night are still getting pretty cold. I'll chew on it some more and see if I'm up for the adventure.

Here are some photos - as I started. . . and where I ended. . . I got close :) but not close enough. . . (the hills I'm headed toward are the distance dark images in the first picture)




























Here is a view looking back toward Unalakleet. It is on the coast in the far, far distance on the right. (ok- you probably can't even see it. . . but it's there!)















And here are my dogs, in rare form- :) A one-eyed dork named Bracken (vet thinks his eyeball shrunk, and now it looks like he only has one eye), and a wild tongue freak named Bella.

A new view point. . .

Quite literally. I walked across the mouth of the river at the south point of town this weekend, and walked south along the beach toward the Nulato Hills with the dogs. It was great to be somewhere new (sometimes that is hard to find out here), and seeing something different. As you can tell from the photos a lot of the snow is gone, and bare tundra is poking its head out in more places than I’d like to see at this time of year. The temperatures have cooled down again (around the teens most days- but near –10F with the wind chill) and the snow and ice that remains seems to be holding fast. I was reminded that something similar happened last year, but new snow fell and the rest of the ski season wasn’t lost. . . I’ve got my fingers crossed that the new snow will come soon. The walking was nice despite the lack of ski conditions- the walk took us past many fish drying racks along the beach. Many more than I realized were on that side of the river. I hope to get out there again this week. . . It looks like I could walk for miles – I’m not sure how far the base of the hills are, but I’d like to get over there to see if it’s possible in an afternoon.

As for my trip to Savoonga that you never heard about- well, that is because I never went. The weather conditions on the island were not conducive to flying, so here I stayed. The hope is that the in-service will be rescheduled, so I might have a chance at a later date to get out there. . . we’ll see.